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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Krishnadev Calamur, Sadie Babits, Andrew Sussman, HJ Mai, Janaya Williams and Olivia Hampton. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Lindsay Totty. We get engineering support from Hannah Gluvna. And our technical director is Zac Coleman.
African countries hardly elect women to become presidents during elections, but in recent years some women are changing the trend.
So far the continent has had nine women assuming the role of presidents in their countries, some for brief period while others served for couple of years.
On Friday March 19, Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in as the sixth president of Tanzania, joining the league of eight others who did same in the past.
But before her ascendency to power early there have been other women who have rose to the highest office in their countries.
Here are the African women who have become presidents in their countries:
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Sylvie Kinigi
Sylvie Kinigi
Kinigi was a Burundian politician who served as Prime Minister of Burundi from 10 July 1993 to 7 February 1994.
She also served as acting President from 27 October 1993 to 5 February 1994, the first and to date only woman to hold these positions in Burundi.
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Sylvie Kinigi became acting president following the killing of Melchior Ndadaye who was the first democratically elected president of Burundi.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Johnson Sirleaf
Sirleaf was a Liberian politician who served as the 24th President of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006. She was re-elected in 2011.
Sirleaf was the first woman in Africa elected as president of her country and also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, in recognition of her efforts to bring women into the peacekeeping process. She has received numerous other awards for her leadership.
In June 2016, Sirleaf was elected as the Chair of the Economic Community of West African States, making her the first woman to hold the position since it was created.
Rose Francine Rogombé
Rose-Francine-Rogombé
Rogombé was a Gabonese politician who was Acting President of Gabon from June 2009 to October 2009, following the death of long-time President Omar Bongo.
She constitutionally succeeded Bongo due to her role as President of the Senate, a post to which she was elected in February 2009.
She was a lawyer by profession and a member of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).
Rogombé was the first female head of state of Gabon. After her interim presidency, she returned to her post as President of the Senate.
Monique Ohsan-Bellepeau
Agnes-Monique-Ohsan-Bellepeau
Agnès Monique Ohsan Bellepeau is a Mauritian politician and was Vice President of Mauritius from November 2010 to April 2016.
She was acting President of Mauritius from 31 March 2012 to 21 July 2012 when Sir Anerood Jugnauth resigned up to the inauguration of Kailash Purryag to the office.
Ohsan-Bellepeau was again acting President from 29 May 2015 to 5 June 2015 when Kailash Purryag resigned up to the inauguration of Ameenah Gurib to the office.
Joyce Banda
Joyce Banda
Joyce Hilda Banda is a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014.
Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
She was Malawi’s fourth president and its first female president and second female head of state after Elizabeth II.
Banda was the second woman to become president on the African continent. Before becoming president, she served as the country’s first female vice-president.
She is the founder and leader of the People’s Party, created in 2011.
Catherine Samba-Panza
Catherine Samba-Panza is a Central African lawyer and politician who served as interim President of the Central African Republic from 2014 to 2016.
She was the first woman to hold the post of head of state in that country, as well as the eighth woman in Africa to do so.
Prior to becoming head of state, she was Mayor of Bangui from 2013 to 2014. She is a non-partisan politician.
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
Dr. Bibi Ameenah Firdaus Gurib-Fakim is a Mauritian politician and biodiversity scientist who served as the 6th President of Mauritius from 2015 to 2018.
In December 2014, she was selected to be the presidential candidate of the Alliance Lepep.
Gurib-Fakim is the first woman elected as president of the country and is the third woman to have served as Head of State following Queen Elizabeth II and Monique Ohsan Bellepeau, who acted as President in 2012 following the resignation of President Anerood Jugnauth, and again in 2015 following the resignation of President Kailash Purryag.
Sahle-Work Zewde
Sahle-Work Zewde. Photo: Reuters
Sahle-Work Zewde is an Ethiopian politician and the current President of Ethiopia, being the first woman to hold the office.
A career diplomat, she was elected president unanimously by members of the Federal Parliamentary Assembly on 25 October 2018.
Samia Suluhu Hassan
Samia Hassan Suluhu
Samia Suluhu Hassan is a Tanzanian politician who has become the sixth president of Tanzania since 19 March 2021, having taken office after the death of the previous president, John Magufuli.
She becomes the country’s first female president and also the first female president in East Africa.
She was previously serving as vice president to John Magufili between 2015 and 2021.
Africa over the years has been known for its leaders who refuse to leave power even when it is glaring that they were no longer needed.
Some of them hold on to power attributing it to the desire of citizens who still want them to continue to serve.
Many of these leaders oversee elections considered by analysts as not free and fair, lacking transparency.
Opponents of many of these long serving leaders are either brutalized and subjected to inhumane treatments to get them to give up contesting.
Some of these long serving leaders ultimately get humiliated in the long-run by being forced out of power.
But four of these long serving leaders still remain in power and even want to extend their stay.
Here are the four longest serving presidents in Africa:
1. Teodoro Obiang Nguema
Teodoro Obiang Nguema is Africa’s longest serving president alive, coming into power in 1979.
He has been the second president of Equatorial Guinea since August 1979 when he ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a military coup.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is Africa’s longest serving leader. Photo: Getty Images
Nguema has since then overseen Equatorial Guinea’s emergence as an important oil producer, beginning in the 1990s.
The 78 year old is the second longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leader in the world.
2. Paul Biya
Paul Biya has been serving as president of Cameroon since 1982. He first served as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982.
He succeeded former President Ahmadou Ahidjo as president when he surprisingly resigned in 1982.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya. FILE PHOTO | ISSOUF SANOGO | AFP
Biya who is 87 years has since then consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup in which he eliminated all his rivals.
President Biya has superintendent over a deteriorating crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking region, a conflict that has led to the death of thousands and millions fleeing.
3. Denis Sassou Nguesso
Denis Sassou Nguesso is the President of the Republic of the Congo, a position he has held since 1997.
He previously served as president from 1979 to 1992. He was defeated in a presidential election in 1992.
Congo’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso REUTERS/Anis Mili
Nguesso who is 77 years was an opposition leader for five years and then came back to power during the Second Civil War (1997–1999) when his rebel forces ousted President Pascal Lissouba.
He has since been in power, winning all presidential elections held since 2002.
4. Yoweri Museveni
Museveni has been President of Uganda since 1986 when he got involved in rebellions that toppled Ugandan leaders Idi Amin and Milton Obote.
He captured power since then and has solidified his hold of it, not letting go and is set to serve in power beyond four decades after winning the 2021 presidential election.
In the 2021 presidential election Museveni who is 76 years beat a younger candidate, the musician-turned politician, Bobi Wine.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni
Museveni got the constitution changed to remove the age limit so he can contest once more.
It is not certain if the 2021 presidential election will be his last or just another tenure in his presidency.
