<
https://theconversation.com/military-rule-is-on-the-rise-in-africa-nothing-good-came-from-it-in-the-past-242219>
"In the last few years, there has been a spate of military coups in Mali,
Niger, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea. Military rule, long dormant in African
politics, is back.
Coup leaders have suppressed protest, gagged the media and spilled much
civilian blood in the name of public safety. They claim to be protecting their
people from enemies both internal and external – some invented to justify their
takeovers and others very real (while military regimes have arguably made
violent extremism worse, they did not create it).
The generals fight with one another as much as with their enemies, leading to
duelling coups in Burkina Faso and a full-on civil war in Sudan.
In west Africa, soldiers have shaken up the geopolitical order, pushing away
France and the United States, while drawing the Russian Federation (or more
precisely, Russia-funded mercenaries) closer.
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.
I’m a military historian, and over the last few years I watched with alarm as
the history I was writing about military dictatorships in the 1980s became
current events. Military rule has deep roots, as my open-access book
Soldier’s
Paradise: Militarism in Africa After Empire argues. The coups of the last few
years are a return to one of independent Africa’s most important political
traditions: militarism.
Militarism, or rule by soldiers, is a form of government where military
objectives blur into politics, and the values of the armed forces become the
values of the state at large.
West Africa’s recent string of coups can only be understood in the long view of
postcolonial history. The military regimes of the past were brutally
innovative. They made new rules, new institutions and new standards for how
people should interact. They promised to make Africa an orderly and prosperous
paradise. They failed, but their promises were popular."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
