AP Photo

After 50 years of independence, the path to democracy does not follow an obvious, straight line in this region, just as it did not in the West—the model for most citizens here—where it was centuries in the making.

That is the most obvious lesson from the sharply contrasting experiences of two West African nations over the past week: Senegal, where power is being transferred peacefully after a fair election on Sunday, and Mali, where after two decades of relative success, democracy was snuffed out in a military coup on Thursday.