Coups in Africa: Are They All Bad?
In West Africa broadly, the perception that leaders are beholden to external forces is deeply ingrained in public sentiment and undermines government authority.
Prior to Gabon, the world’s attention was focused on Niger, following the July 26 coup and the threat by regional organization the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to use military force to restore the civilian president Mohammed Bazoum.
Are these army takeovers of political power ongoing in Africa all bad? Is it, as some of the officers have claim, soldiers saving countries that are adrift under the autocratic control of corrupt civilian administrations beholden to French interests and exploitation? Are these merely reactionary opportunistic military officers seizing control for their own personal gain? Then why have these coups been followed by jubilant dancing in the streets by civilians?
Will African countries be permanently prone to military coups? Is a United States of Africa the only way to immunize the continent against the epidemic of coups as Kwame Nkrumah and Cheikh Anta Diop once warned? What is to be done?
Who: Milton Allimadi, Publisher Black Star News and Adjunct Professor Africana Studies John Jay College and Journalism, Columbia University.
Mamadou Niang, Managing Director, NextMedia Inc.
Gnaka Lagoke, Professor of History and Pan African Studies, Lincoln University
Others: TBA
Where: In person at Bronx Community College, 2155 University Ave., Bronx N.Y., 10453 and via Facebook Live
Recent Coups in Africa:
Gabon, September 2023
Niger, July 2023
Burkina Faso, January 2022
Guinea, September 2021
Mali, May 2021
Chad, April 2021
Mali, August 2020