Policy makers, diplomats, and commentators in the secular West often fail to take into account the profound influence of religious leaders in sub-Saharan Africa, whether among Christians, Muslims, or adherents of traditional religions. Heaven, hell, and what secularists regard as magic are literal realities, more immediate than government policy or the pronouncements of political leaders. What the preacher says is more credible than the utterances of politicians.

The South African Independent Electoral Commission has announced that national elections will occur on a Wednesday between May 7 and the end of the month in 2019. The three leading parties will be the governing African National Congress (ANC), led by current state President Cyril Ramaphosa; the official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), led by Mmusi Maimane; and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema.

South Africa’s national elections on May 8 are likely to be dominated by the governing African National Congress (ANC) and the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA). However, the third largest party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is likely to continue to benefit from outsized media attention because of its economic radicalism and its anti-white stance. In the national elections in 2014, its first election after being founded in 2013, it won 6 percent of the vote, and in local government elections of 2016, it won 8 percent. 

This week, President Trump made the long-anticipated announcement that the United States is prepared to remove Sudan from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST). Sudan has been on the list of …