The Foreign Service Journal, September 2022

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2022 25 tries gained independence around 1960. Little did the Togolese suspect then that the military coup perpetrated in 1963 would be the first of many in Africa, that they would have the same president for 38 years, and that upon his death in 2005, he would be replaced by his son, who still rules. My Togo experience has taught me many lessons about how difficult it is to achieve prog- ress in an unpredictable Africa. Yet Togo is a mild case of the kind of anti-development malaise that permeates most of the continent. Conditions are far worse in many other countries in Africa, which seem hell-bent on reversing the progress achieved over the last half-century. It is difficult to find an African country where competent and honest governance prevails and where justice is rendered to the people. Violent conflict exists in 20 African countries, and potential upsets in others cannot be ruled out. The violent activities of extremist groups are spreading. Living in Africa today obliges one to take many security measures. Population Numbers. All African countries are coping with the tsunami of a fast-growing population. The youthful structure of that population (the average age in Africa is 19.7 years, com- pared to 38.5 years in the U.S.) presents formidable challenges. Rapid population growth is outstripping development gains. In 2050 Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, will have as many people as the United States in a land area that is one-eleventh the size of the U.S. There are almost four times the number of people in Africa today than when I first arrived on the continent in 1970. Projections indicate that its total population will continue to