African Coup d'Etats

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Between January 1956 and the end of 1985 there were sixty successful coups in Africa, that is, an average of two every year (Hutchful 1991, 183). In 1966 alone there were eight military coup d'etat and by 1986, out of some 50 African states, only 18 were under civilian rule (Nyong'o 1998, 78). Behind virtually every coup was the hand of one or the other imperial power, and, more often than not, the US. Overthrowing nationalist regimes and installing tyrannical dictatorships was, then, a “fair game” for today’s champions of democracy and “good governance"!

I read this quote a long time ago in The Struggle for Democracy (http://marxists.org/subject/africa/shivji/struggle-democracy.htm) by Issa Shivji in the 'Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa' section of marxists.org. It's always intrigued me as the history of post-colonial Africa is such a stark expression of the failures of capitalism and long ago, when I was a hippy left-liberal, reading about the disaster in the Congo following the assassination of Patrice Lumumba made me question my understanding of history and the world. I've tried to list as many of the coup d'etats as possible but there are so many I've missed that it's almost tragic. If there's more that you know about, or want to comment on a particular historical incident, don't hesitate to post.

1958 - Sudan - near bloodless coup d'etat to put Ibrahim Abboud in power
1960 - DRC - coup d'etat to overthrow the government of Patrice Lumumba
1961 - Somaliland - coup d'etat to dismantle the union between Somaliland and Somalia
1963 - Togo - coup d'etat to overthrow Sylvanus Olympio by Togolese ex-French Army soldiers
1964 - Zanzibar - revolution of Africans to overthrow the Arab Sultan
1964 - Gabon - coup d'etat to stop dictatorial powers of Léon M'ba, suppressed by French intervention
1965 - Algeria - coup d'etat to overthrow Ben Bella
1965 - DRC - coup d'etat that put Joseph Mobutu in power
1965 - CAR - coup d'etat to overthrow David Dacko due to alleged communist sympathies
1966 - Ghana - coup d'etat to overthrow Kwame Nkrumah due to his relationship with USSR and PRC
1966 - Upper Volta - popular coup d'etat to overthrow Maurice Yaméogo's one-party regime
1966 - Nigeria - coup d'etat to overthrow Abubakar Balewa by pro-southern officers
1966 - Nigeria - counter-coup overthrowing Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi by pro-north officers
1967 - Togo - coup d'etat that put Gnassingbé Eyadéma in power
1967 - Sierra Leone - coup d'etat overthrowing Siaka Probyn Stevens
1968 - Sierra Leone - counter-coup to put Siaka Stevens back in power
1969 - Libya - Muammar al-Gaddafi overthrows the Libyan monarchy
1969 - Somalia - bloodless coup d'etat to establish pro-Communist, pro-Arab Supreme Revolutionary Council
1969 - Sudan - coup d'etat to end domination of Arab Muslims and put Gaafar Nimeiry in power
1971 - Uganda - coup d'etat by Idi Amin supported by Britain to end regime of Milton Obote
1971 - Sudan - coup d'etat by Communist Party, eventually suppressed and Gaafar Nimeiry's regime restored
1972 - Ghana - coup d'etat to overthrow Kofi Busia
1974 - Ethiopia - military committee the Derg gained powers to depose the majority of the parliamentary government and then ousted Emperor Haile Selassie
1974 - Guinea-Bissau - after Carnation Revolution in Portugal, revolutionary independence movement seizes power
1975 - Comoros - coup d'etat lead by mercenary Bob Denard overthrowing Ahmed Abdallah
1975 - Nigeria - coup d'etat to overthrow Yakuba Gowon regime percieved as corrupt
1975 - Chad - coup d'etat to overthrow François Tombalbaye
1978 - Mauritania - coup d'etat overthrowing pro-French Mokhtar Ould Daddah and stopping the war in West Sahara
1979 - Ghana - coup d'etat led by Jerry Rawlings handing power to a civilian government
1979 - Uganda - overthrow of Idi Amin by UNLA
1980 - Liberia - coup d'etat to overthrow William Tolbert and the True Whig Party
1980 - Guinea-Bissau - relatively bloodless coup d'etat lead by the Prime Minister João Bernardo Vieira
1980 - Upper Volta - Sangoulé Lamizana's regime overthrown
1981 - CAR - coup d'etat to overthrow David Dacko
1981 - Ghana - second coup d'etat led by Jerry Rawlings to overthrow Hilla Limann
1982 - Upper Volta - Saye Zerbo's regime overthrown
1983 - Nigeria - President Shagari overthrown by Muhammadu Buhari
1983 - Upper Volta/Burkina Faso - internal infighting sees the rise of Thomas Sankara's revolutionary regime
1984 - Mauritania - coup d'etat due to Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah recognising Sahrawi independence
1984 - Guinea - coup d'etat during turmoil following Ahmed Sékou Touré's death
1985 - Uganda - military coup d'etat to overthrow the civilian government
1985 - Nigeria - coup d'etat lead by Ibrahim Babangida
1985 - Sudan - coup d'etat to overthrow Gaafar Nimeiry and establish the Transitional Military Council

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

I don't think Obote can be called a "socialist" even by the standards of the Derg and similar groups - he ended up doing less than a run-of-the-mill European social democrat. He did claim to be a socialist, but so did everyone and their dog in post-colonial Africa. His poor relations with imperialist powers probably didn't help him, though.

The Derg were originally not Marxists-Leninists - in fact the Derg was just another military committee appointed to bail out the imperial premier Endelkachew Makonnen. The takeover by the Derg wasn't really a coup - the Derg used the power given to it by the civilian government to arrest members of the imperial government for corruption, then later deposed the emperor, having already become a de-facto government. The shift to explicit Marxist-Leninist rhetoric was slow, and the Derg itself, unlike the succeeding COPWE/WPE, probably can't be called a Marxist-Leninist body.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I don't think Obote can be called a "socialist" even by the standards of the Derg and similar groups - he ended up doing less than a run-of-the-mill European social democrat. He did claim to be a socialist, but so did everyone and their dog in post-colonial Africa. His poor relations with imperialist powers probably didn't help him, though.
I guess I just meant 'socialist' in that broad way many post-colonial leaders claimed to be but you're right that I should probably not pander to that.


The Derg were originally not Marxists-Leninists - in fact the Derg was just another military committee appointed to bail out the imperial premier Endelkachew Makonnen. The takeover by the Derg wasn't really a coup - the Derg used the power given to it by the civilian government to arrest members of the imperial government for corruption, then later deposed the emperor, having already become a de-facto government. The shift to explicit Marxist-Leninist rhetoric was slow, and the Derg itself, unlike the succeeding COPWE/WPE, probably can't be called a Marxist-Leninist body.
I was trying to condense the events surrounding the Derg in Ethiopia into one short sentence.... but yeah, I'll change it to something else.

[Redistribute the Rep]

You should make this into a YouTube video

[Red Terror Dr.]

I bet you the CIA had their Guilty Hands directly over all of them in one way or another. :crying: