African government data API

Query African government overviews, current leaders, historical terms, cabinet records, and related country government data.

Government History In Africa API

Government history is a separate domain from governance indicators.

Query:

current heads of state and government
historical leadership terms
leader detail pages across countries
country-level government overviews
recent elections embedded into those country overviews
recent policy and law records plus policy-event summaries embedded into those country overviews

Current sources:

wikidata_government_history
wikidata_current_governments

Use:

GET /v1/government/overview/{country_code}
GET /v1/government/leaders
GET /v1/government/leaders/{leader_wikidata_id}
GET /v1/government/terms
GET /v1/government/cabinet/{country_code}
GET /v1/government/cabinet-members

Related elections routes:

GET /v1/elections
GET /v1/elections/country/{country_code}
GET /v1/elections/{election_wikidata_id}
GET /v1/elections/results/{election_wikidata_id}

Scope Note

Governance covers annual institutional indicators like rule of law or corruption control.
Government covers leaders, terms of office, and current cabinet composition.
Elections covers election events and candidate-level results.

Country Overview Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/government/overview/ke" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Illustrative response shape. Values are examples, not a current government roster:

{
  "data": {
    "country": {
      "code": "ke",
      "name": "Kenya",
      "region": "East Africa"
    },
    "current_head_of_state": {
      "leader_wikidata_id": "LEADER_WIKIDATA_ID",
      "leader_name": "William Ruto",
      "office_name": "President of Kenya",
      "role_type": "head_of_state",
      "start_date": "2022-09-13",
      "source": "wikidata_government_history"
    },
    "current_head_of_government": {
      "leader_wikidata_id": "LEADER_WIKIDATA_ID",
      "leader_name": "William Ruto",
      "office_name": "President of Kenya",
      "role_type": "head_of_government",
      "start_date": "2022-09-13",
      "source": "wikidata_government_history"
    },
    "cabinet_member_count": 3,
    "current_cabinet_members": [
      {
        "statement_id": "STATEMENT_ID",
        "leader_wikidata_id": "LEADER_WIKIDATA_ID",
        "leader_name": "John Mbadi",
        "country_code": "ke",
        "country_name": "Kenya",
        "office_name": "Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury",
        "role_category": "minister",
        "party_name": "ODM",
        "start_date": "2024-08-08",
        "is_current": true,
        "source": "wikidata_current_governments",
        "source_url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/LEADER_WIKIDATA_ID"
      }
    ],
    "recent_terms": [],
    "recent_elections": []
  }
}

Leader Search Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/government/leaders?q=ruto&current_only=true&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Historical Terms Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/government/terms?country_code=ng&role_type=head_of_state&start_date_from=2000-01-01&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

Current Cabinet Example

curl "https://api.africa-api.com/v1/government/cabinet-members?country_code=ke&current_only=true&limit=25" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AFRICA_API_KEY"

How It Fits The Rest Of The API

Country profiles include current leaders, selected cabinet members, and the latest election when available. Use the Elections and Policies endpoints for event histories. Annual governance indicators are queryable through /v1/data.