First, what is ‘democracy’; and what do you want it for? Democracy is not working for Africa, primarily because there is a captive pseudo-middle class which once satisfied by material assets acquired corruptly or otherwise, absconds its role of fighting for true democracy

The continent has diverse claims to 'democracy', operationalized by very divergent constitutions, policies, laws and practices. The focus should be on democracy's quality, rather than its quantity... on good governance [See https://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag]

Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to ‘something’ – human development? The globally ‘accepted’ human development yardstick is the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI) which measures health (longevity/life expectancy), literacy and incomes. Invariably, the Scandinavians do well, despite not being the richest countries globally. But Gadaffi’s Libya had among the highest HDIs on the African continent despite being unapologetically undemocratic; and Rwanda has among the higher HDIs, but it has no freedom of speech, association, etc. [See http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/latest-human-development-index-ranking]

Conversely, Kenya has had a general election every 5 years since independence in 1963, but the national poverty rate is about 26% - 7.6mn in extreme poverty compared to 9mn in 2016. So Kenya’s extreme poverty is reducing, but the political system is not becoming more democratic, as will be evident between now and August 2022 general elections.

Thus human welfare can 'improve' without ‘democracy’; but that democracy can undermine human welfare.

So, Africa may have more countries holding elections, and less military governments; but that does not translate into free choice, democracy, good governance. It might be better to fight for an improved HDI, and hope that its liberating force instils democracy... hope that Kagame's successor is less autocratic,but development minded!