Is there a Sub Saharan African Nation that's stable?

Well…stable is kind of a vague concept. The USA fought a major civil war less than a hundred years after we were founded. At what point did we become stable? A few years ago South Africa seemed to be the most stable of the sub Saharan countries, and they actually managed to pull off a pretty smooth transition of power, so it isn’t really clear to me that it’s fair to label them as “unstable” naw; but since they have had there troubles I won’t mention them.

But yes; Kenya, Botswana and Gabon have all been quite stable since independence. I’m not mentioning some of the others (Zambia for instance) for what might be considered fairly minor disruptions once they get a hundred years or so of independence under their belts.

I’m not sure what the question is. As recently as 1945, there were only four recognized independent nation-states on the entire continent, the rest of the entire region being held by European colonizers. If you set some limit of “100 years” to achieve stability, then we wind up excluding the whole area by definition.

(By that definition, you can also exclude Russia (two complete governmental overthrows in fewer than 90 years), China (multiple exchanges of “who holds power”, the most recent fewer than 60 years ago), Germany, etc. (And what about the European nations that were held by either/both the Nazis and the Soviets for significant periods within the past century? Do the Czech Republic and Slovakia count as stable or “not yet stable” as neither existed 100 years ago–or, as identifiable nations, ever.)

If you use a slightly less rigid formula of “who permits changes of power by election at this time where no significant active rebel movement threatens?” you can add, at least, (off the top of my head), Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania and Zambia (where the “unrest” is of the Mexican “dominant party” variety of politics, not carried out in revolt), and with Angola inching up on the outside.

In fact, I think it would be easier to name the clearly (potentially) unstable countries: Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Congo (formerly Zaire), Liberia (stable but suspect), and Sierra Leone.

Then, there are countries such as Cote d’Ivoire where unrest, while recent, has not been a traditional part of their otherwise stable tradition or Mauritania, where there are ethnic tensions in a single-party state, but where there has been no serious disruption in over 20 years.

As I said, I’m doing this by memory, so I have not included every country (and may have faulty recollections of some situations). If you want to check out one perspective of each country, the CIA’s World Factbook 2002 allows a quick glimpse into each nation’s politics and economy.

JFTR, noting the names given, the OP (by Tristan appears to have been eaten by the hamsters; Zigaretten’s first post above appears to have been an attempt at an answer.

Which, based on my reading and the information Zig and Tom~ have provided, seems to be “Yes”

Polycarp…thanks, you are correct.

Tomndebb…I think we pretty much agree, I just looked at it more from the point of view of which countries have a history of stability. But your right about Cameroon, they’re rock solid. (I always forget about Cameroon, maybe because they’re so stable that one never reads about them.) As for Mauritania, I never think of them as sub Saharan, but then I don’t think I’ve ever seen an “official” list.

I don’t think of Nigeria or Angola as stable countries. The State Department describes Nigeria as a country that “has experienced periods of political instability” and “regularly experiences localized civil unrest and violence.”

http://travel.state.gov/nigeria.html
See also http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/af/700.htm

Angola’s a mess.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/af/8217.htm