I wouldn't put Mali in there. It's more of a sub Saharan nation. Unsure about Sudan.

> I hope to see the termination of dictatorial countries in my lifetime but with extremism lovers in the most powerful one, I'm afraid to see the return of them...

There's always a risk, but if you want to be optimistic, keep in mind that never has humankind been so interconnected and aware of what's going on in the world, compared to any other point in history. People criticize the Internet and social networks, but the fact remains that, thanks to them, anyone in Canada, or the US, or France, or even Russia, can see the injustices happening in places like Iran; and although disinformation circulates more freely, the flipside of that is that knowledge(and truth) is also easier to research, share, and learn. We already saw these networks playing a huge role in the Arab Spring - and while that was only questionably "successful", ultimately the more we progress, and the more people are exposed to the outside world, and different cultures, the more things will improve.

This is the reason that things like gay rights, or religious freedom, have become more widely accepted worldwide; younger generations are exposed to these concepts, learn why they're valuable and what intellectual discussions they can have around them, including from their own geographical cultural perspectives compared to others, and it thus becomes easier to transmit to future generations those values and discussions.

And, on the other hand, while the reactionaries do still exist, and sometimes use increasingly violent means to conserve power (or regress society), they are increasingly viewed as an aberration, by an increasing number of people. It becomes a whole lot harde to take over, introduce fascism, and destroy people's rights, if your basic premise is: "these things that you newer generations have learned are essential freedoms, and great ways to increase your standard of living, well we're taking that away and going back to a state that you know is worse".

So yes, things are improving, very slowly, despite the two, four, or eight steps back that some would like to take (or are currently taking).

It has felt like it was the last party for the crazy fringe right across the planet. Multiple countries have elected leaders with dictatorial bents.

I have no idea either why people conflate. At the least, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa should never be conflated

North Africa is part of the Middle East culturally, politically, and religiously. The Arab Spring was largely North African in focus, before the Syrian civil war preoccupied attention. Democracy faces a major hurdle even in the stablest nations there. Authoritarian traditions stretch back +2,000 years.

Sub Saharan Africa is far less influenced by ME Islamist traditions and far more aligned to a similar postcolonial timeline as South Asia and caudillo era Latin America. Despite some truly vast cities, most folks remain rural. This is also the region that rightly or wrongly, is seen as both a wild National Geographic idyll, or conversely one threatened by overpopulation. Crucial point. Democracy is the general prevailing ideology here, even if more honored in the breach.

And even this summarization grossly oversimplifies. Shameless plug, it's fascinating to read about ECOAS and the African Union

I never said "the whole of Africa" was shitty - why are you putting words in my mouth?

All I said was that Africa does have a bunch of shitty regimes, relative to most other places on Earth. This is true - I talked about Afwerki and Kais Saied, but I could've mentioned Paul Biya, or Museveni, or Teodoro Mbasogo, or any number of violent dictators or corrupt governments that have managed to remain in power. In comparison to, say, Europe, it is indisputable that things like freedom of the press, democratic participation and free elections, or the Human Development Index, are lower. While it is true that there are a number of stable regimes with societies that are becoming better to live in, the continent in general, on average, compared to other continents, remains less developed and in the grasp of more dictatorial regimes.

This wasn't a statement intended to generalize the people living in Africa (as, quite obviously, the people from South Africa have a markedly different set of cultures than the people from Kenya, for instance), and it certainly isn't "because they're Africans" or whatever; the simple reason this is the case is that, much like the Middle-East, the continent has been r*ped by centuries of reckless colonization by imperialist powers that care not for cultural boundaries or human rights and have divided the land like fuckin' contestants at a competition for artistic cake-cutting.