West and Central Africa have become a cradle of military coup d’états (or coups) – the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group – in postcolonial Africa with 9 coup events since 2020. Gabon has become the latest state after Niger, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, etc., to experience a coup in that period.
Naturally, the democratic world will frown upon the recent resurgence of military coups and a shift towards military rule in Africa, but if we are to fix the problem, greater attention must be paid on what makes such interventions seem necessary and why they are increasingly receiving extensive public endorsement while there is growing resentment towards the West, especially France, in that part of the continent.
Studies identify causes of Africa’s systemic instability as poorly developed political systems which remain unfit for purpose, military centrality, ethnic antagonism, and World system dependency.
While the chief prerequisite for a coup is control of all or part of the military, police, and security forces, poverty and poor economic performance create a conducive climate for coups, and unaccountable leaders, weak and undemocratic institutions are the root of all African poverty amid plenty. We can neither justify the current level of Africa’s debt to all sorts of lenders nor excuse the perennial beggars tag when we are endowed with natural resources that fuel economic growth, support, and maintain good living standards elsewhere in the world.
In terms of natural resources alone, Africa is a powerhouse, yet the benefits are enjoyed by the few politicians and the elite while the countries of the continent drown in unprecedented levels of debt and citizens face unimaginable suffering and poverty.
While concerning, it is unsurprising that the last three years has overseen a resurgence of military coups in Africa with the west and central Africa disproportionately represented. The highlight, however, is that the latest military coups have been widely celebrated by the public; it is hoped that frustration and relief over the removal of despotic regimes is what people are celebrating the most.
Equally significant is the increase in anti-French sentiment across the region. Rightly or wrongly, the Sahel region population blames France’s interference, including the alleged propping up of despotic regimes in the region, for the ongoing socioeconomic and political instability.
While we appreciate the reasons for the recent resurgence of coups and the implosion of what should have been the birth and growth of democracies in Africa, we remain sceptical of the broader societal, economic, and political benefits of coups. The history of coups in Africa and experience of the Zimbabwean political and economic situation in the last six years following the 2017 military coup is our reference point.
The hope in Zimbabwe was that the military had learned a thing or two about the damaging effect of despotism and that the coup was going to usher in objective institutional reforms and bring about real alterations in the country’s power structure. For a second, people believed the so-called ‘second revolution’ was about to genuinely open public access to power and decision-making process.
However, that was always a longshot judging by ZANU PF’s history. The real lesson we got is that the military is the real designer of Zimbabwe’s society and uses ZANU PF elite to exercise its power and protect its interests.
By their nature military coups thrive on the shock effect they instil on the system; they are fast-moving events conceived by a few powerful people within the armed forces or police or security services, and conspicuous by their absence are the public. Unlike a revolution which is often executed by large numbers of people working for basic social, economic, and political change, a coup is predominantly a change in power from the top that merely results in the abrupt replacement of leading government personnel, and not necessarily the governance architecture.
Coups rarely alter a nation’s fundamental social and economic policies, nor do they significantly redistribute power among competing political interest groups. Admittedly, some coups have led to democratisation of systems, these are in the minority, most have resulted in adverse regime change where power has changed hands from one set of autocrats to another. At least half of all coups – 56% during the Cold War and 50% from 1990 to 2015 – initiated new authoritarian regimes.
The African experience has mainly been that of coups transitioning to new and more brutal autocratic regimes either military led or civilian fronted; we have seen further tightening of screws, denial of rights to citizens, and significantly reduced transparency.
Independent Africa must be left to exercise its independence. Perhaps this is the time for France and the West to abandon their self-appointed role of watching over Africa. Home-grown solutions are required to alter the polity of Africa. Despotism and weak government institutions are the fuel for socioeconomic and political instability in contemporary Africa, and they are the primary cause of military coup d’états. However, we remain unconvinced that military coups are the solution; coups must be the exception rather than the norm; African coups have only served to breed new tyrannies.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 