Africa’s oldest leader isn’t ready to retire – and he’s not the only one defying age

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — After a newspaper reported in 1897 that the great American writer Mark Twain had died, a bemused — but very much alive — Twain famously quipped: “the report of my death was an exaggeration.”

This century, several aging African leaders have also had to reject premature reports of their deaths, like Cameroon’s Paul Biya last year when rumours of his demise spread on social media after he wasn’t seen in public for a month.

It turned out the 92-year-old, who has the distinction of being the world’s oldest, non-royal, leader, was simply in residence at his second home in Switzerland.

This Sunday he’s seeking an eighth term in office –- having ruled Cameroon for 43 years — that experts say he’s all but guaranteed to win given that his strongest rival was barred from running. His country is beset with issues including jihadist violence, a separatist movement, and systemic corruption.

Biya is far from an isolated example in Africa, which despite being the continent with the world’s youngest population, boasts numerous gerontocracies.

“It is an irony for a continent whose median age is just 19,” says Africa analyst Paul Nantulya. He says “third-termism” as he dubs some African leaders’ attempts to cling to power, “is a disease.”

NPR looks at some more of Africa’s oldest leaders.

Peter Mutharika, Malawi, 85

Out with the old and in with the…older. That’s how the small southern African democracy of Malawi voted last month when they elected their former president, 85-year-old Peter Mutharika, over incumbent Lazarus Chakwera, aged 70.

Malawians were fed up with rising costs and severe fuel shortages.

Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast, 83

Ouattara, a former economist for the International Monetary Fund, is running on October 25 for a fourth term. In 2020 he said he wouldn’t run again, as the constitution prevented leaders from running for more than two terms. Despite that promise, Ouattara later changed the constitution to allow himself to run again, sparking violent protests.

Ivory Coast, a former French colony and the world’s top cocoa producer, is still recovering from a brutal civil war in the early 2000s.

There have been protests again this month in the run-up to the polls, after two opposition leaders were barred from contesting the vote.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea, 83

After Cameroon’s Biya, who beats him by only a few months, the longest-ruling leader in Africa is Obiang. At 83 he has also ruled his country for 43 years.

The petrostate on Africa’s West coast has only had two presidents since independence from Spain in the 1960s. The first was Obiang’s own uncle, who he overthrew in a coup in 1979.

The country is effectively a one-party state and international observers have long said elections are flawed with Obiang usually taking 90-plus percent of the vote. In one voting district in 2002, he even won 103 percent of the ballot.

Equatorial Guinea also has a shocking human rights record and dire state of press freedom. Despite the country’s vast oil wealth, little has trickled down to ordinary citizens while Obiang is a fan of mansions, superyachts and luxury cars.

The Trump administration recently approved a waiver of sanctions against Obiang to allow him to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly. He met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and the two agreed to expand ties.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe, 83

Born just a few months after Obiang, Mnangagwa became president of the Southern African nation after deposing his geriatric predecessor, Robert Mugabe, in a 2017 coup. At the time Mugabe was 93 and had the title of the world’s oldest leader.

Zimbabweans hoped Mnangagwa, 18 years Mugabe’s junior, would allow free and fair elections, fix the country’s broken economy and end corruption. Eight years later, many Zimbabweans say things are worse under the man they dub “the crocodile.”

The rise of Gen Z

But there are increasing signs time might be up for Africa’s aging leaders. Young Africans are fed up with the status quo, with so-called “Gen Z” protests erupting this year in countries like Kenya, Togo, Madagascar and Morocco.

And some young leaders are on the rise. Burkina Faso’s 37-year-old interim president Ibrahim Traoré is one of the youngest in the world. Although he rose to power in a 2022 coup, he’s incredibly popular with the nation’s youth. Then in Uganda, elections next year will see popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43, take on longtime President Yoweri Museveni, 81 – who is seeking a seventh term in office.

Of course, it’s not only Africa that has officially aging leaders. Iran’s supreme leader Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei is 86, King Salman of Saudi Arabia is 89, and the last two US presidents, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are 82 and 79 respectively.