This week, African leaders met in South Africa for the 25th African Union Summit. They did previously scheduled things, like writing up a list of development goals called "Agenda 2063," a rather future-forward way of "learning the lessons of the past."
And like listening to Angelina Jolie telling them how important women's rights are.
But some unexpected things happened, like when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir almost actually got arrested for genocide.
And like when Robert Mugabe, who has run Zimbabwe for 35 years and currently heads the AU, started telling jokes about leaders who cling to power. Addressing his fellow presidents, Mugabe briefly turned from statesman into stand-up comic.
He knows — personally, you might say, although he didn't — how hard it is for leaders to leave. "'The first term I served, oh no, it was not a real term.' But you were there for five years!"
The audience roared with laughter, or what counts as roaring when a room full of politicians — all without irony, many corrupt, and some literal war criminals — meet up for statecraft.
Mugabe never mentioned him by name, but the jokes were thought to be about Pierre Nkurunziza, the president of Burundi, who is literally fighting for the chance to run for a third term in an election scheduled for July 15.
The real joke, though, is in the delivery. Mugabe is the very cliché of the African strongman, the president who refuses to leave power no matter how bad things get for his people.
