Drawing on Afrobarometer survey data and on newly released findings from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s 2026 NGN Democracy Survey of young African leaders. While young Africans want democracy to reflect local context of African countries, many are more interested in what delivers. What Africans actually think about democracyThe claim that democracy is fundamentally unsuited to African societies rests on an assumption that is rarely tested: that Africans themselves reject democratic governance. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s 2026 NGN Democracy Survey corrects this by asking young African leaders directly what democracy means to them and where it falls short. The NGN Democracy Survey adds a generational dimension to this picture: young African leaders are not calling for democracy to be replaced.