Senegal’s new President, elected in March, is an unlikely African political leader for a number of reasons. For one, Faye is not from the elite or the military – the usual pedigree for politicians in many African countries. At the age of 44, the new leader is a relative youth on a continent ruled by a gerontocracy. A former tax inspector, Faye has presented an alternative vision of his country that ends rampant corruption and the ‘French economic stranglehold’. It’s a rapid promotion for someone who had been sitting in jail just 10 days before his election, locked up by Senegal’s former president Macky Sall on the catch-all charges of ‘spreading false news, contempt of court and defamation of a constituted body’.

But with its post-colonial history of political democracy (from 1960 onwards), Senegal was distinctly nervous about Sall’s attempt to postpone elections and his arrest of opposition politicians. In February this year, thousands of protesters hit the streets of Dakar and other cities in defence of their young democracy. The police used live ammunition, killing three and arresting hundreds more. The judiciary, however, displayed robust independence, with the country’s Constitutional Council overturning Sall’s postponement decree. His restrictions on internet access and revoking of the licence of a major broadcaster were also overturned. In the ensuing election, Faye won with 54 per cent of the vote.