Scholars and policymakers increasingly confront the possibility of a democratic recession around the world, which recent events in Central Africa seem to affirm. The optimism following the Burkinabé Revolution of October 2014 has quickly given way to resignation and dismay, especially in Burundi and the Republic of Congo, where Presidents Pierre Nkurunziza and Denis Sassou-Nguesso, respectively, have secured new presidential terms through a combination of fraud and violence. Nonetheless, this essay argues that Central Africa’s democratic recession will be brief, all the more if the international community remains committed to the values it shares with Africans themselves.