Military coups are making a comeback: it’s a return to one of postcolonial Africa’s political traditions.
In the last few years, there has been a spate of military coup s in Mali , Niger , Burkina Faso , Sudan and Guinea. Military rule, long dormant in Africa n politics, is back.
Outside observers, and a fair number of insiders, were blindsided by these events. That’s because military rule, with its drab aesthetics and Cold War trappings, seemed like a relic of the past. Explanations for its return have mostly focused on meddling outsiders, especially Russia. Others emphasise the inherent vice of African states – the weaknesses that were there from the beginning of independence, including poverty and corruption, that made people disenchanted with democracy.
Africa’s military regimes Militaries ruled by force, not consensus, but plenty of people liked their disciplinary verve. Whipping the public into shape, sometimes literally, had a real appeal to people who felt that the world had become too unruly. Independence did not always mean freedom, and soldiers’ rigid ideas shaped decolonisation in ways that we’re only starting to understand.
Few did, and in some countries military rule lasted for decades. This could involve a graveyard-like stability where a single soldier-king ruled for an entire generation , or constant turmoil as one junta gave way to another . Military governments were petty and paranoid – each officer knew he had a line of rivals behind him waiting for their moment.
Militarism was a freestanding ideology, not just American liberalism, Soviet socialism or European neocolonialism dressed up in a uniform. Powerful outsiders pulled some of the strings in African politics, but not all of them, and officers were proud of the fact that they followed no one’s orders but their own.
Burkina Faso Corruption Decolonisation Democracy Dictatorship Mali Militarism Military Junta Military Coup Niger Nigeria Peace And Security Poverty Russia Soldiers Sudan Wagner Group West Africa
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