In the Sahel, in South Sudan, and in the Great Lakes region, recurrent conflicts bear witness above all to the failure of modes of governance inherited from colonization. Those in political power have never reflected the diversity of their society’s communities. Under such conditions, the supposed democratization of the 1990s could hardly have been anything more than an illusion. Oligarchies have turned towards increasingly violent forms of predation, and all the pieces seem to be in place for these conflicts to continue.