Burkina Faso (twice). Chad. Gabon. Guinea. Mali (twice). Niger. Sudan. The recent spate in coups has forced many to pause and ask difficult questions. Has democracy failed? Why do a minority of citizens support or tolerate military rule, and what does this backing say about the ineffectiveness of their previous governments? Kamissa Camara, Senior Advisor for Africa at the U.S. Institute of Peace and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali, and Ken Opalo, Associate Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University join Mvemba. They unpack the structural challenges enabling coups, the failure of the social contract, the very nature of militaries, and regional and international responses to the coups.

Mvemba is joined by Fyneface Dumnamene, the Executive Director of the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Center based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. They assess President Bola Tinubu's 150 days in office, the economic challenges faced by the Tinubu administration, and Nigeria’s oil economy. They also discuss Nigeria's leadership in ECOWAS and how it has impacted the regional bloc's response to the Niger coup.

Mvemba is joined by Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, commonly known as Bobi Wine, to discuss youth movements' challenges in Africa, reflecting on his journey as a presidential candidate in the 2021 Uganda general elections. They highlight the challenges African youth movements face in pursuing democratic change. Mvemba and Bobi Wine dive into why democracy is crumbling in some African countries. Bobi Wine argues that African youth should participate in active politics to effect democratic change in their countries. They contend that the United States military assistance to African governments is used to subvert democracy and violate human rights. Bobi Wine illustrates social media's important role in mass mobilization amid media suppression from authoritarian African regimes.

Mvemba is joined by Eric Kuikende-Banshona, a Provenance Researcher at the National Museum of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They highlight the importance of restituting African artifacts to move past European colonial history in Africa. They also urge African political leaders to focus on Africa’s cultural richness and collaborate with Western leaders to restore the history and cultures of the African people. They highlight the obligation of Western museums and private art collectors not to hide African artifacts but instead work with African provenance experts to write the authentic narratives of the artwork to preserve the meanings and knowledge they carry.

Mvemba is joined by CSIS’s Catrina Doxsee, Associate Director and Associate Fellow with the Transnational Threats Project, and ICG’s Delaney Simon, Senior Analyst with the U.S. Program to discuss the Wagner Group’s African operations. They highlight the quasi-independent Russian paramilitary group’s atrocious activities and how they have caused social, humanitarian, and economic harm in Africa. Contrary to the widely held belief that the group is all over Africa, the discussants indicate it is active in Mali, Libya, Sudan, and Central African Republic. They illustrate how the private military company’s operations in those African countries have left a trail of instability, allowing Russia to expand its military footprint in Africa without accountability. They argue that it is a mistake for the United States to designate the Wagner Group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) because the designation would trigger far-reaching and counterproductive reactions that would adversely affect critical facets of U.S. engagement in Africa.