Dave Peterson

Guest Author

Dave Peterson (@Obapeda) is the Senior Director of the Africa Program of the National Endowment for Democracy, a privately incorporated, publicly funded grant-making organization in Washington, DC. Since 1988, he has been responsible for NED’s program to identify and assist hundreds of African non-governmental organizations and activists working for democracy, human rights, free press, justice and peace. He was formerly executive director of Project South Africa of the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, and a freelance journalist in Africa and Turkey.

Peterson has a BA from Columbia College and an MS from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York, as well as an MA in African Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC. He has visited more than 40 African countries since 1984, and has published numerous articles on African politics. He is author of “Africa’s Totalitarian Temptation: The Evolution of Autocratic Regimes,” published by Lynn Rienner, 2020.