2016 was an eventful year for the continent of Africa, with important implications for U.S.-Africa relations. The Wilson Center’s Africa Program asked experts, scholars, and policymakers to weigh in on the most important and impactful events. This collection of essays reflects on those developments and their impact going forward.

The election of Donald Trump in the United States created surprise and shock around the world. While Mima Nedelcovych sees opportunity for Africa from this non-traditional politician, others, including Vivian Lowery Derryck, are concerned about the president’s campaign rhetoric and how it might translate into foreign policy changes for Africa. Likewise, Olusegun Sotola contends that “Brexit” represents uncertainty, but also opportunity.

Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg’s trip to the continent drew attention to Africa’s growing tech sector, writes Grant Harris. Despite the potential of the tech sector, there’s also concern that some African leaders are more interested in using information technology to exert control, says H. Nanjala Nyabola, restricting internet access at critical times in the democratic process.

The democracy landscape changed significantly in 2016. A number of African countries suffered setbacks, while others took halting steps forward. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a slow-motion constitutional crisis was unleashed by delayed elections, while in Burundi, the conflict kicked off by 2015’s elections continued. In South Sudan, efforts to find a solution to the civil conflict which restarted in 2016 showed little progress.

Elections in the Gambia struck a chord, with Kamissa Camara and Arsène Brice Bado hailing the results as a step toward democracy after 22 years of rule by President Yahya Jammeh, but also expressing concern about the rocky and uncertain transition as Jammeh refused to step down for some time. Benin continued a strong run of democratic success with its sixth presidential and legislative election since 1992, writes Landry Signe.

Insecurity continued to be a major source of concern across the continent. UN peacekeepers were forced to confront serious internal problems in several missions, writes Ann L. Phillips. After a decade of sustained increases, Raymond Gilpin argues that a dip in security sector financing offers an opportunity for reform that could lead to more security for ordinary Africans. In the fragile Sahel region, external actors are adding to environmental and poverty pressures, writes Sophia Moestrup, threatening to further inflame violence.

Amid the continued turmoil of conflict in a number of central African countries and the broader Horn of Africa region, Helen Kezie-Nwoha writes that Uganda has played an underappreciated positive role by taking in thousands of refugees in a crisis that gets far less press than the Mediterranean.

The United States, through U.S. Army Africa and AFRICOM, has continued to build mil-to-mil partnerships aimed at increasing capacities, writes Major General Joseph P. Harrington. China is also playing an increasingly assertive role on the security front while reconfiguring its foreign policy priorities around its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, with unclear implications for African countries, writes Winslow Robertson.

Meanwhile, in what is sure to be an ongoing story in 2017, the decision of South Africa, Burundi, and the Gambia to withdraw from the International Criminal Court provoked a heated discussion across Africa and internationally, write Nii Akuetteh, Ottilia Anna Maunganidze, and Anton du Plessis. A number of countries have defended the role of the court, while others have argued that reforms are needed for it to have legitimacy on the continent.

Download the full collection of essays from the Wilson Center’s Africa Program.