Making Coup D’état History to Forge a New Independent Movement in Africa

By Syrulwa Somah, PhD

Executive Director, Liberian History, Education & Development, Inc. (LIHEDE), Greensboro, NC
&
Associate Professor, Environmental and Occupational Safety & Health
NC A&T State University, Greensboro, NC


Syrulwa Somah, PhD

An aphorism of the Bassa teaches that in the absence of a hunting dog, a billy goat is a substitute, which, of course, is useless to a professional cheetah hunter. This terse statement was uttered to the Bassa at a different epoch in history, but the essence of the message is as real and forceful as ever in today's coup endemic Africa. I have looked at the world with quiet eyes enough to speak to the leadership and followership crisis that beset Africa, and I can easily identify with the Bassa’s cautionary adage, having known for a fact that the refusal of many African leaders to grow up have contributed to everquest seeds of destruction and Africa’s demise. As a result, many Africans think the leadership problems of Africa can be abated with coup d’états. “Hunting” for good leadership in Africa’s wild presents a greater challenge for the non-runner and inexperienced billy goat to foot race with the swift cheetah, capable of reaching speeds of 70mph in 3 seconds. It only guarantees one thing: we will hear the dry, snapping noises, cracking ribs and vital organs of the billy goat as he tries to keep up with cheetah.

We must ripen our consciousness and spark in Africa a surge of pride to become curmudgeons, the proverbial hard headed analysts and remove the “feeding tube” that nourishes coup d’états. We must land a fatal blow at imperialism in Africa to address one of its deadest woes that have produced instability, poverty, rogue-nations, foreign occupations, underdevelopment, corruption, bloodbath, brain-migration, de-humanization, deforestation, and exploitation. Hence, it is no longer sufficient to denounce the coup leaders as mere game-changers. Coup plotters’ actions and deeds make them murderers and criminals who must no longer be seen by one pair of eyes, heard by one pair of ears, fashioned by one set of hands.

We, Africans, must go door-to-door and close down the “schools of coup d’état” throughout Africa. To delay action means it will make it a drastic turnabout--an expensive proposition--and this can make it into an extremely intolerable venture to forge a new independent development. Today, it is estimated that more than 800 million Africans are perennially held in economic, cultural, political, spiritual, and perpetual underdevelopment by coup plotters and bad leadership. Each time a coup d’état succeeds, Africa’s image suffers a serious fall, democracy undergoes a stillbirth or setback, and corruption looms as an overbearing turmoil and strife. And each time Africa's “liberators” ascend to power, they stand peeved in silence and seem reluctant to cut off the lifeline of corruption as if a demigod had injected their DNA with dementia psychosis.

Hence, there is a not one African political leader or coup leader who can be honored with a “Signature Anti-corruption Education” to educate continental Africa to stop this coup- this coup of de-humanization that has hemorrhaged Africa. My point is Africa has not effectively educated itself to understand that a coup is inseparable from imperialism and the likes of global population scam, modern slavery, intentionally prolonging civil war, diseases, and pathological warfare (www.uhurunews.com/story) against the African people and their land. It has been unequivocally established that imperialism is always about land and resource that capitalists want in order to further advance their heartless hordes of wealth. We've got to do something as opposed to fear and dread or allow coup leaders to use our traditional language to speak to the dark side of our humanity, that part of the cognitive mind that seeks ruthlessness, malice, and brutality. It's getting dark and even now darker each day as these winds are full of the debris of decadence that will pepper the next generation to come.

Combing through memories wouldn’t take too long to realize that one of Africa's first coup d’état victims, Kwame Nkrumah warned Africa to be on the watch and watch well against outward things appeared well to African leaders. In his book The Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare, he averred that Africa's primary enemies were imperialism and their puppets who will simply not leave Africa and its enormous wealth (http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/thestory.asp). True, we sometimes can not see the forest for the trees, but there can be little debate that Nkrumah sounded that warning bell as an obnoxious habit of noise making.

Since then, it can be said with a strong degree of certainty that Africa has had overwhelming "coup d’état" without reciprocal benefits. African people have actually the belief that coup d’état could take care of the political leadership flaws, turmoil, and strife. Our stubbornness continues to make our journey longer in this dense vegetation of coup d’état. Like all coup d’états on the Continent, we are stunned, depressed, shocked, uninspired and straight face disappointed with the recent Captain Moussa Camara led coup d’état in Guinea on December 23, 2008. It is precisely because of tongue-in-cheek or the indifference shown by Africans and their leaders towards Captain Moussa Camara coup d’état in Guinea that the 34 years old civilian Mayor, Andry Rajoelina staged his coup d’état against the democratically elected president of Madagascar on January 31, 2009. Mayor Rajoelina charged President Marc Ravalomanana with dictatorship, uncaring, failure to stamp out corruption, bad governance. However, like the coup leaders or liberators who preceded Rajoelina, all of them often turn out to be ruthless, corrupt, bloodthirsty, and suppress democracy (www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/01/africa/01madagascar.php).

Permit me to bore you by reciting tales of coup d’état as we tour the memory lane of our history. It is dreary, deadening, and shameful. At the 1965 conference of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now Africa Union (AU), the world watched Africa's freedom fighters gallantly explained their resistance to primitivism-those people over there- and colonization that originally led a moral justification for slavery of 100-200 million Africans in the new world. Africa’s post independence freedom fighters also discussed how they had fought for truth, self-respect, patriotic platforms, transparency, honesty, audacity, bravery, and most importantly praised the touches of consciousness and bravery that set in motion the independent movement in Africa. As it turned out, their collective -- and quite understandable -- euphoria did not take into account the extraordinary resilience of colonialism/imperialism, which has evil intent and ability to evolve, adapt, confuse and develop resistance to Africa’s freedom fighters. In other words, when freedom fighters were witnessing unusual ‘trends’ in post-independent celebrations, some nations became very worrisome in their emancipation pilgrimage. Instead of celebrating ‘self-rulership,’ the butchery of coup d’état became the appetite for conquest. Some of the highly educated natives of Africa who had acquired western education, should have helped post-independent Africa succeed, instead, they used their learning to abuse the unity of humanity and foster a criminal enclave against their own people in these newly independent nations.

That fact, the inescapable impact of being mentally colonized in a condition of self-destruction that coup plotters or European puppets find honorable, noble and somehow undeserved, has had dominion over these halfhearted African politicians, coup plotters, and some “highly educated” Africans to such an extent they have spent their lives trying to uphold it. Successive governments unashamedly continued this practice which has resulted in overthrowing and depriving those most ideally suited for leadership. Mostly importantly, it allowed Europeans to come through the back doors of independent Africa so that the real flow of wealth remains steadily one way: from Africa to Europe. What followed has been coup d’état after coup d’état, which continues to bear bad and ugly fruits, to the extent that the average solider is under the erroneous impression that one can lead a nation and get rich quickly by killing or plunging his nation into coup d’état chaos. This ultimately fulfills the imperialists’ pre-determined objectives to bring about a sustenance, of Western affluence in the exploitation of Africa’s brimming wealth.

History as Weapon

The brutal and mind numbing violence of coup d’états are manifold and wrecked havoc on the face of Africa's political, socio-economic, cultural, spiritual landscapes. Undeniably, Africa has been morally punch drunk with coup d’état that got the Continent no where. Sudan started the first step in a long journey when it hiccupped and sneezed out the coup d’état virus on November 18, 1958 when El-Ferik Ibrahim Abboud, in a military bloodless coup overthrew President Abdullah Khalid. Sadly, Africa demonstrated gross inept leadership during the aftermath to decontaminate and proactively contained the coup d’état virus in Sudan: a mistake that dearly cost the whole of Africa. However, like all military leaders who would follow him, Abboud dismally failed in the face of social and political challenges, including his Islamization of Sudan. His resignation came after six years in 1964 knowing that he had inflicted his nation with the deadly coup d’état virus. While Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifah headed a caretaker government after Abbound’s resignation until the election of April 1965, other soldiers were auditioning for coup d’état lordship. Indeed, the worst was yet to come when an expected powering sharing government between three factions leaders (1) Mahjub of the Traditionalists Ummah Party; (2) Imam al-Hadi, the spiritual successor to the Mahdi; and (3) Sayyid Sadiq al-Mahdi the Progressive Ummah Party dragged on. When economic, social, and constitutional problems over spilled in Sudan without an end in sight, Colonel Gaafar Mohamed el-Nimeiri and a group of young officers belonging to the Free Officers Movement stepped in. On May 25, 1969 they easily toppled the caretaker government of Sirr al-Khatim al-Khalifah during a broad daylight.

Coup d’état soon became like playing a checker game in Sudan: everyone wanted his ‘King crowned”. Major Hashim al Atta led an abortive coup on July 19, 1971 but his “king was not crowned”. The coup d’état virus became feverish when Brigadier Hassan Hussein Osman staged the second coup in 1975, but didn’t succeed either to militarily unseat Nimeiry. Thanks to Nimiery’s deputy, General Elbagir, a counter coup d’état by him reinstated Nimiery, court-martialled wounded Brigadier Osman and sent him to his early grave.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Sadiq al Mahdi, a Moslem went to Libyan Quaddafi for help before beginning the final thrust to overthrow the Sudanese government in 1976. Sadiq al Mahdi and his thousand-man strong insurgents, armed and trained by Quaddafi, entered the Darfur and Kordofan regions and engaged in three days of house-to-house fighting in Khartoum and Omdurman. Before the dust could settle some 3,000 Sudanese were left for dead. It sparked national resentment against Muammar al-Gaddafi, but Africa didn’t scratch. Nimeiry and his government were narrowly saved after a column of army tanks entered the city.

In 1985 Nimeiry ordered the execution of Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, a controversial political dissident and Islamic reformist. In 1985, after 16 years of military rule, Nimeiry’s chief of staff, General Abd ar-Rahman Siwar ad-Dahab overthrew him in a bloodless coup while on an official visit in the United States. He took refuge in Egypt, where he lived in exile until his return to the Sudan in 1999 (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-373511.html). Sudan was still showing more “coup fever” even after its 1986 election that returned Sadiq al-Mahdi to power as prime minister. A myriad of political instability, indecisive leadership, party manipulations and unforeseeable decision fed the June 30, 1989 coup led by Lieutenant General 'Umar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation.

In Dohomey, present-day Benin coup d’état symptoms from neighboring Sudan became to change the outlook of men. Coup d’état is addictive; the more of its power you rely on, the more evil you become. For example, several successions of military coup d’états would rock Dohomey for 12 years (1960 to 1972) until the one by Major Mathieu Kerekou on October 26, 1972 assumed rooted stance. For 17 consecutive years, he led his pro-Marxism-Leninism philosophy that failed his nation and people as the result of corruption and insufficiency. Never mind that, he was subsequently elected in 1980 and reelected in 1984. I must add, when the first democratic election in the history of Benin and the entire African continent threw Kerekou out of office in 1991 and Prime Minister Nicephore Soglo came to power with the mandate to move his nation forward, he, like all other Africa leaders got bent on nepotism and ignored the plight of the grassroots. Sadly, the people of Benin again voted Kerekou into office to become the civilian president. Besides overstaying point in office, the Beninese people never “ate the first fruits” of the corruption he had come to control. Instead, corruption became so visible like a windstorm that it sank his impoverished nation into deeper hardship. Luckily, he survived a military coup d’état, became a civilian president, and lived to tell the story of his delusional dream of installing a model Marxism-Leninism philosophy in Benin that suffocated the people and the country's wealth.

January 13, 1963, the first violent coup d’état, led by Gnassingbe Eyadema, took one of Africa’s finest sons and economists, Togo popular President Sylvanus Olympio, whose face was blown off by the point blank range of the shot. Eyadema helped established Nicolas Grunitzke as the new President of Togo. In 1967, he led a second military coup and installed himself as the new president. Thanks to the artificial or colonial territorial boundaries imposed upon our brothers and sisters of Togo by Britain, France, and Germany that incident fueled ethnic tensions. The tipping point was that the colonial masters completely ignored the affinity and taboos of the Togolese culture and people as the means of achieving their objectives. For the next thirty-eight years, the faces of the aged and youth of Togo would be eked the scars and wrinkles of social, political, and economic impacts brought on by Britain, France, Germany and the prolong trauma of being ruled by their puppet Gnassingbe Eyadema from 1967 till his death in 2005 (www.answers.com/topic/sylvanus-olympio).

It didn't take too long before the coup virus begin to spread like wildfire in Algeria right after one of the important decolonization wars that forced the French withdrawal. Col. Houari Boumedienne, who took over as head of state, deposed Ahmed Ben Bella- Leader of the "Secret Organization" on June 19, 1965, and sent him to exile in Switzerland and France (http://www.answers.com/topic/ahmed-ben-bella). Bella strong support for socialism, nationalism and agrarian reform, especially nationalization of Algerian companies that caused western non-support, led to his down fall. Suddenly, with a drugged and stony conscience, and a calcified heart, Col. Boumedienne became not only an ally, sympathizers for the colonial masters, but also a mouthpiece for anti-equipoise and pro-corruption. It became so evident even to the blind. In 1992 President Muhammad Boudiaf returned from exile to become the chairman of the High Council of State (HCE) of Algeria after an annulment of the national election results, only to be gun down by a lone gunman who described himself as “Islamic sympathizer”. The gunman charged President Boudiaf with tattered economy and ineffectiveness to reform the need of the Algerian people he had promised. Algeria would never be the same again.

It wasn't long before Central Africa Republic made its presence felt on New Year Day (January 1, 1966) with coup virus. It was two year after Ahmed Ben Bella fall, to be precise. Colonel Jean Bedell Bokassa staged a bloodless coup against his cousin President David Dacko and succeeded as a head of state. Miserably, he didn’t lift his thoughts above slavish animal indulgence—vanity, corruption, death and destruction, which became his legacy. It virtually made his citizens wore mournful looks even to this day. He spent $20 million for coronation ceremony while his people starved to death, ignorance, disease and poverty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-B%C3%A9del_Bokassa). History describes him: “He is remembered for the brutal, arbitrary, corrupt and extravagant nature of his government while the people of the country he ruled lived in fear and poverty. The excesses of his regime are usually described as “folies de grandeur”.

As events unfolded in Central Africa Republic after President David Dacko, Ghana showed early coup d’état signs and symptoms within less than 7 weeks. Ghana overthrew renowned leader, Kwame Nkrumah on February 24, 1966 for charges on economy woes and increasing authoritarianism. He would be sent into exile to ‘Big Brother’ President Ahmend Toure of Guinea. Like Bella, his fall from power was hailed and applauded by “Western governments, including the U.S” (http://www.seeingblack.com/x060702/nkrumah.shtml). Conversely, his pan-African activism, “United Africa” and pro-nationalism dreams for Africa destroyed him. Of curse, the demise of Nkrumah and his unflinching warning to African leaders did little to awaken Africa to hatch the egg of nationalism. His book Dark Days in Ghana (1966) echoes:

"An all-out offensive is being waged against the progressive, independent states. All that has been needed was a small force of disciplined men to seize the key points of the capital city and to arrest the existing political leadership".

For Ghana, it was busy with its Constitution and turned a deaf ear to Nkrumah’s warning. The people of Ghana would be the real victims who paid a dear price for years of coup d’états. After the Constitution rewrite, power would be transferred to civilian President Kofi Busia in 1969 who had returned from exile from St. Antony's College, Oxford, England to lead and uproot corruption. It was just a matter of time before he would be overthrown by Colonel Ignatius Acheampong while undergoing medical treatment in London, forcing him into exile for a second time. Lieutenant General Frederick Akuffo took his chance and maneuvered Colonel Acheampong and executed by firing squad at high noon as Ghanaians looked on. However, in 1979, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings was in waiting like a hungry cheetah waiting for a lost gazelle in the savannah of Africa. On June 26, 1979, Rawlings overthrown and executed him three weeks later at the Teshie Military Range, Ghana. Others military top brass, cabinet ministers, and public officers with dissenting views against his brutal and discriminating rule were made to suffer and die as a result of unfounded and politically motivated kangaroo court. In addition, Rawlings used bullets and kangaroo courts, a lethal mixes to administer justice, and while massive Ghanaians disappeared and incarcerated, other were publically flogged to terrorize the opposition and public to submit to his autocratic rule. Rawlings’ June 26, 1979 coup d’état and regime are classified as one of the bloodiest coups in Africa.

Coup lord Rawlings was just warming up. In 1983, Ghana elected President, Hilla Limann but the Rawlings led coup d’état toppled him in his second coup d’état of 1983 on charges of weak government and lack of economic growth. Rawlings, the last military leader of Ghana did not officially abdicate to make way for civilian administration from 1983 and kept his title until 1996. History and Human Rights organizations compared his 19 years rule to the likes of Chilean President Augusto Penuche.

In the Congo, present-day Zaire, Joseph Mobutu, CIA-supported chief of staff, upon the directive of US president Dwight Eisenhower, murdered Patrice Lumumba on January 17, 1961 and seized power (http://www.edofolks.com/html/pub96.htm). Mobutu’s tempest tossed soul sent thousand of his country men who dared to challenge him, to their early graves. Obviously, the corruption control proof he left behind was $4 billion in foreign banks, his people’s future mortgaged, and his nation dragged into an unstoppable web of political and economic and ethnic violence, even to this day. In 1997, Rwanda and Uganda joint military invasion deposed Mobutu and began the catastrophic African “world war,” which ultimately claimed an estimated four million lives. President Laurent Kabila, on January 16, 2000, was shot by bodyguard. He is one of the few to survive coup plotters gunshot. However, Zaire continues to blaze in civil war, with increasing violence, brutal military countermeasures, while westerners are competing for its natural wealth and escalating the situation. There isn't a day that goes by that our brothers and sisters in Zaire didn't wish that they could turn back the hands of time and change what happened to Lumumba.

Like Lumumba, President Ibrahim Abbound became the casualty of instability in Sudan (1964) when he was violently overthrown. At this time, the military coups d’état ‘Sweep Stakes’ were in full swing across the length and breathe of Africa. Mali’s General Mousa Traore would come to power with the help of western intelligence to “cure corruption” in his nation. Oddly, the “czar of corruption” gave his country’s gold mines to the Soviet Union to exploit. General Traore pillaged $2 billion from his nation’s coffer before Colonel Amadou Toumani Toure put an end to his dictatorship on March 26, 1991. Colonel Toure would sentence General Traore and his wife to life imprisonment.

The pendulum “coup d’état swing” made its way back across to northern Africa. Libya‘s 27-year-old Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi and his group of henchmen shocked his oil rich nation on September 1, 1969 with his Al-Fateh (Conqueror) Revolution that toppled Kim Idris who had a fiercely independent nature, a muscularly held system of social rules, and were essentially Islamic in religious beliefs. At the time of the rise of Qadhafi, the country was called “The Kingdom of Libya”. Colonel Qadhafi renamed the country “The Libyan Arab Republic” and has ruled it for the past 40 unbroken years. However, his flamboyant and obsession with supporting coup leaders and training insurgent would exacerbate disease, death, destruction, ignorance, and poverty throughout Africa, including our Liberia.

In 1969, according to the account of coup chroniclers, Major General Mohammed Siad Barre, availed himself of the failing power of President Abd-i-rashid Ali Shermarke, shook off the age old ethnic division was in, and ascended to the military leadership of Somalia, in the Horn of Africa. It took 20 years of dictatorial and tyrannical regime without controlling corruption. The time he fled on January 27, 1991 and later died in exile in Lagos, Nigeria, 300,000 lives of his people have died from famine, nation impoverished, pirated and divided as he took it over ().

By the early seventies, the ‘coup d’état syndrome’ had made inroads unto Uganda, and Idi Amin came on the world’s stage in the early morning hours of January 25, 1971, with his famous saying “Uganda for Ugandans”. He would give 60,000 Ugandan Asians and other people 90 days to leave Uganda. The cheering crowds in the streets of Kampala hailed after the coup and the decisions that followed. As an individual, he loved brute power. He was a physically strong man, although he was not a "hero" in the sense of an outstanding up for all Ugandans. By the time he was deposed, the world has lost counts (300,000 to 500,000) of his fellow country men sent to their early graves. He would put to death a soldier or anyone who had tried to overthrow to his regime by, for example, betraying his command. As “Field Marshal Al Hadji, Doctor Idi Amin”, shameful military terms, verbal threats, and disgusting boastful postures, times were overly cruel, with execution being the usual punishment for transgressions. Treacherously, and somewhat stupidly, he declared war on neighboring Tanzania that forced his down fall. He too, like Major General Mohammed Siad Barre died in exile in Saudi Arabia after being deposed by jointed Tanzania Ugandan National Liberation Army (UNLA), exiled Ugandans (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Idi-Amin). He is remembered by history as probably the most unprincipled of the African coup leader.

Barely 3 years after General Ami’s first rally cry and pronouncement repeatedly rang throughout Africa in the early part of the 1970s, Lieutenant colonel Seyni Kountche made headlines. His coup d’état against Hamani Diori, the first President of the Republic of Niger seeded the April 15, 1974. He sent him in to a maximum imprisonment for six years. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, as most of the would-be coup d’état leaders do, turned to the “Sugar Daddy of Coup” Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi of Libya for support but it was just a matter of time before his downfall. Major Daouda Malam Wanke was in line waiting like a preying cheetah for Mainassare to make the wrong leadership move. For several years, the Mainassara regime did not improve the lives of Nigeriens; instead, intimidation, false imprisonment, and friendship hiring abound. The in roads made or standard of living, which had been rising in during Kountche regime, declined drastically. Coup d’état rally against Mainassara generated its own momentum. On April 9, 1999 Mainassara was brown apart in a military coup d’état.

The drum beat of coup echoed on. On November 1, 1976, Lt. Jean Baptise Bolgaza of Rwanda-Burundi (the UN trusteeship) seized power militarily. Abassania (Ethiopia) followed through with Mengistu Haile Mariam dethroning Haile Selassie I who had been in power for 40 years. During his regime, his armory of thought forged the weapons by which he destroyed himself and his nation.

The coup d’état tropical fever shook Equatorial Guinea as a “family feud.” Teodoro Obiang Nguema didn’t care if his uncle was the President of Equatorial Guinea. He was always befriending the military in hopes that this will enable him to overthrow President Francisco with relative ease. In 1979 Nquema deposed his uncle, President Francisco. But soon he forgot he has vowed to remain unbreakable bond in face of corruption he came to uproot. His administration is labeled as ruthlessly suppressing political opposition and human rights abuse.

In Mauritania, French installed puppet President Moktar Ould Daddah who built a fortress, one-party system around himself. He got a revelation that his nation was not ready for Western-style multi-party democracy. His guesswork would be stopped and unseated in a bloodless coup on July 10, 1978. For nearly fourteen consecutive years, a group of brain dead military officers thrust Mauritania in the darkest of poverty until the 1991 constitutionally approved referendum that occasioned the election that brought President Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya Democratic and Social Republican Party (PRDS) to the helm of power.

In the early 1980's, Africa’s oldest Republic, Liberia, had sniffed the coup virus and fallen by the hand of a young Sergeant Samuel K. Doe after 133 years of settlers rule. His charges against President Tolbert were corruption and nepotism, but it much deeper than it seems. In 1974, President Tolbert accepted economic aid from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, joined the African nations in a trade agreement with the European Community in 1978, severed ties with Israel, and took national decisions President Jimmy Carter administration unequivocally considered threat to US interests during the heydays of the Cold War. For the most part, the CIA headed by former President George Bush saw President Tolbert as being out of his place when he propounded the vision of national sovereignty and Africa unification, a vision that had caused the destruction of Ghana Nkrumah. Tolbert’s flirtation with the USSR was considered a threat to US interests. Therefore, US purloined the passions of the rice riots in 1979 for Tolbert‘s assassination in the ‘heat’ of the Cold War. As it would be, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe whom the CIA aided to power began his administration by brutally executing Tolbert’s cabinet ministers in a firing squad on charges of corruption to announce his arrival on the world stage. Before the end of his regime on September 5, 1990 by rebel leader Prince Johnson who mutilated or killed him, not only “I was just holding it”, meaning, taking kickbacks during his regime still remains vivid in the memories of Liberians today, but corruption (which he pledged to eradicate) blossomed. Not only did he leave Liberia a divided house, but he was braved enough to stick around to die one of the gruesome deaths, began with cutting his ear that sears an image in our brains that will never go away.

Nigeria, Africa's super power wouldn’t be outdone in peculating the “coup tea pot”. Thanks to corruption, much-needed open calls echoed and re-echoed form civilian leaders for the military to step in to break post-independence stalemate as the result of the Biafra redrawn territorial disagreement. Suddenly, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi and his predominately Ibos soldiers lighted the “coup pipe” on January 15, 1966. General Aguiyi-Ironsi master minded the coup that overthrew the post-independence central and regional government of Benjamin Nnamdi Azikiwe and assassinated the Prime Minister Ahmadu Bello of Northern Nigeria. General Aguiyi-Ironsi selectively forgot that the GREAT Nigeria he came to save demanded transparent accountability, and credibility. When people sensed that his politics could not be trusted, General Aguiyi-Ironsi rulership lasted just for seven months before his loyalists toppled and murdered him on July 29, 1966.

Nigeria came under the authority of General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria first military leader. He ruled nine consecutive years as Nigeria's head of state before been overthrow July 29, 1975. His successor, Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammad, had him charged with dismal failure to check the power of the state governors and to reduce the general level of corruption. Brigadier Muhammad and his men shelled the residential and military areas and carried out massacres; they imposed censorship on the press and began shutting down some of the media. A vision of rule of law enthroned notably got him killed.

Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo stepped forward on February 13, 1976 with an abortive coup and assassinated Brigadier Muhammad. August 1983 national election ushered a civilian administration that Sheu Shagari Shagari headed for two terms before Major General Muhammadu Buhari toppled him in a military coup. General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida answered the call on August 27, 1985 when General Buhari repressive military regime and increasingly authoritarian character provoked public outcry. The crisis would force General Babangida to relinquish power on August 26, 1993. But his hat trick caused General Sani Abacha to force his successor Chief Ernest Shonekan’ resignation. General Abacha stalled himself as head of state during the ensuing chaos on November 18, 1993. This thrust Nigeria in political confusion. When the chaos remained unabated, Moshood Abiola proclaimed himself president on June 11, 1994 arguing that he won 58 percent of the vote. But General Babangida wouldn’t have nothing of that so he annulled the election. Scare for his life, Abiola sought refuge in hiding. He was later arrested and jailed where he remained until his death on July 7, 1998. Also his wife Kudirat Abiola met her death by assassination on June 2, 1996, for being overly outspoken. And it got muddier when Abacha suddenly died on June 8, 1996, too.

Nigeria would add to its record of military rule as the result of the political logjam. In other words, General Abdoulsalami Abubakar took charge on June 9, 1998, when Abiola was still incarcerated. Abubakar would remain in power until May 5, 1999 when Nigeria adopted its new constitution for a National Election Commission. The May 29, 1999 election declared former military ruler Olusegun Obasanjo president and he officially took over on July 27, 1999. As it turns out, the impressive “coups sum” turns out to be a classic example of leadership fraud and lies reminiscent of dictators’ creative manipulating and the promoting of corruption that ranks Africa’s superpower and oil rich nation ranks as the most corrupt nation in Africa (http://www.comebackalive.com/df/dplaces/nigeria/index.htm).

Upper Volta, present-day Burkina Faso was literally born with “coup d’état swarms” after independence. Its son and renowned military decorated veteran, Lieutenant-Colonel Sangoule Lamizana wasted no time in answering the open call to dictatorship. He ousted President Maurice Yameogo from the helm of power on January 6, 1966. It would take four years of unmerciful military rule before a new constitution would be ratified on June 14, 1970. In the seven years that followed, Burkina Faso would be pinned down with deadweights of four coup d’états: (1) Colonel Zaye Zerbo led coup d’état on November 25, 1980; (2) Commandant Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo led coup d’état on November 7, 1982; (3) Captain Thomas Sankara led coup d’état on August 4, 1983; and (4) Captain Blaise Compaore led coup d’état on October 15, 1987.

Before the advent of the four coup d’états, President Yameogo's trouble began with standing toe-to-toe with the power of chieftaincy, traditional institutions, paramount election that provided stability, cut stipends to the chiefs, and did way with deceased chief replacement. Most importantly, his authoritarianism and one-party rule caused national-wide public demonstrations, including student strikes, labor unions, civil servants, and teachers, all of whom made an open call to relinquish power to Lieutenant-Colonel Sangoule Lamizana. While in power, corruption blossomed like rice seeding.

On August 4, 1983 Captain Thomas Sankara militarily willed his fellowman and deposed President Lamizana Sangoule. He changed the country’s name to Burkina Faso, "the country of honorable men" or “land of upright people” in 1984. History holds him in higher esteem in the mantra of our time for being one of the few progressive, but short-lived leaders of Africa. His assassination robbed not only Burkina Faso but the world of a great son and leader. By October 17, 1987 morning, a counter-coup involving Blaise Compaore led to a bloodbath and barbarism that would assassinate Sankara in clod-blood and propel Compaore to a level where he did not know how to cultivate his plot, keep his nation free from corruption and weed out the wrong. Since then, Compaore, who only charge against Captain Sankara was ‘‘madman’’, has won every election, including the highly contested 2005 election where he supposedly won 80% of the vote facing 12 oppositions.

By this time, the coup floodgates in Africa were well and truly open now. Prime Minister Zine el Abidine Ben Ali surprised the African continent when he moved Tunisia’s father of independence Habib Bourguiba from the presidency on November 7, 1987, citing mental ill-health as the main reason for the coup. Soon, he too turned against all his declared convictions, abandoned all of his previous anti-corruption plans, and sided with the western-minded thinkers and pro-corruption officials, businessmen and politicians to the detriment of his people. Interestingly, he won the 2007 Zambian Chronicle’s African President of the Year Award.

In 1989 Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir sounded the coup gun in Sudan against the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi, deposing him. Since then, his regime has produced misery for the people of Sudan, especially the Darfur region that has been sold to the Chinese and Arabs. Bashir is currently (7/2008) indictment by the International Criminal Court for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

The island nation of Comoros, present-day Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros would be silent in the scheme of things (coup d’états). Right after independence in 1975 from France, President Ahmed Abdallah who came to power broke diplomatic relationships with France. Kicking the colonial master dearly cost, including coup d’état and imminent execution. A Madagascan born and French educated Ali Soilih, politician and self-claimed socialist revolutionary retained French mercenary Bob Denard to help him overthrow President Ahmed Abdallah. On August 3, 1975 President Abdallah was toppled and Soilih rule the island nation. One would say "you make our own luck." This described deposed President Abdallah very well. Abdallah clearly made his own luck. While in exile, he and former VP Mohamed Ahmed amassed enough money and bought out Bob Denard’s loyalty of Soilih. On May 13, 1978, Bob Denard had ousted Soilih and the waves from Abdallah’s supporters dragged Soilih to his grave. Back in power, President Abdallah governed the Comoros until on November 27, 1989 when he was shot point-blank while at sleep in his Beit el Salama (House of Peace). When Abdallah was assassinated, all fingers point to Bob Denard, who from most accounts hated Abdallah enough to kill him. Two days later, the provisional government of President Haribon Chebani handpicked Mohamed Said Djohar, older brother of ousted and murdered Soilih. Then, with barely a day of mourning as the nation coped with the awful reality of the coup d’état, Djohar too is overthrown. Before the dust could settle, Comoros would be governed by three presidents in less than a week. The OAU, now AU, only issued a weak response with a revocation Comoros’ membership in the Organization (http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-3395.html). The Leader of National Union for Democracy, Mohammed Taki Abdoulkarim, had resumed the leadership of his country in March 1996 election, following a disastrous coup d’états and three president in less than a week on Africa’s clock. Two years into his term, he died at age 62, following a visit to Spain and Turkey. Tadjidine Majiddine Ben Said Massonde became interim president in 1998, but Colonel Azali Assoumani led coup d’état on April 30, 1999 deposed him in less than a year.

As the sixties had polluted the seventies, so did the eighties infuse and pollute the 1990s. In the 1990s, Niger rejoined Guinea, Gambia, and Sierra Leone in utilizing military coup d’état to eliminate their civilian presidents. Sierra Leone, Lion Mountain, twenty-five year old Captain Valentine Strasser took hold of the coup d’état sweepstake on April 29, 1992 and deposed President Momoh. Five years later, Johnny Paul Koroma led Sierra Leone second coup d’état on an early Sunday on May 26, 1997 before the church bell was rung. He toppled the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah who fled in the open-arm neighboring Guinean leader Lasana Conte. Kabbah’s crime was that he was being “nurtured on tribal and sectional conflict.” Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, OAU Secretary General described the Koroma led coup as "a setback for Africa." During Strasser and Koroma’s Sierra Leone, women and girls were gang-raped, forced recruitment, torture, amputations, limbs cutoff, resources plundered, 50,000 left for dead, and 2.5 million displaced.

On December 24, 1999, 58 years old General Robert Guei, loyalist to President Felix Houphouet-Boigny had a proverbial “Christmas gift” for his nation and Boigny groomed Henri Konan Bedie for Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast that had ruled the from 1948 to 1999. Mr. Bedie became de facto heir to the Head State on December 7, 1993 by virtue of Article II of the Ivorian Constitution after the death of President Boigny. Prior to his death, President Boigny appointed a high profile and educate son Alassane Dramane Ouattara on November 7, 1990 as Prime Minister charged with the mandate for Ivory Coast economy recovery. This created an interesting dichotomy between both loyalists and “sons” of Boigny, Prime Minister Ouattara and “heir President” Bedie. However, the older General Robert Guei played a very low profile during President Bedie’s two year terms (1979- 1980). It was during this two years term that a modification “natives whose parents are both born Ivorian” can run for president was engineered to secure Bedie’ victory against likely opposition leader for the presidential election, Alassane Ouattara, former prime minister. President Bedie would face off with Alassane Ouattara, former prime minister for national presidential election. In need, President Bedie evoked the “natives whose parents are both born Ivorian clause”, knowing that the former Prime Minster Ouattara, former prime minister born in the northern part of the country, a Muslim who did have both Ivorian parents. France, Ivory Coast’s colonial master applauded the newly created “native Ivorian” for president clause. It created a stalemate between two favorite sons, a version of biblical Esau and Jacob birthright struggle.

To break the “who is a citizen of Ivory” stalemate, President Bedie called on the 58 year old decorated General Guei and President Boigny loyalist to use the military to seduce Prime Minster Ouattara, former prime minister. General Guei refused to take side because a sitting president ran the most hateful, venomous campaign in the history of Ivorian politics. It didn’t take two long for relationship between men to turn ugly. President Bedie demoted Robert Guei twice for taking side between him and Alassane Ouattara, former prime minister and opposition leader disqualified by a revised Constitution. It meant utterly destroying General Guei’s name, tearing him down, and politically assassinating him. To others, President Bedie nationalism demonized and ridiculed the character of a good and thoughtful man who has done nothing but serve his country for his entire life. Ivoirians fear that their nation was clearly tittered towards a civil, regional, and religious war contrary to the “Open Door Policy” of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. Countless days into this nightmare, and General Guei has reached the coup d’état solution to stalemate. Sadly, their fears were correct. On December 24, 1999, President Bedie is ousted.

In the October 2000 elections, General Robert Guei and Laurent Gbagbo faced off. General Robert Guei was resoundingly defeated but refused to concede, charging that the election was stolen. Countless others across the country say they refuse to concede. Despite many warnings and pleas for restraint before the election, General Guei ended up occupying the northern part of the country where the largest numbers of the Ivorian soldiers originated, including former Prime Minister Ouattara who was denied to contest the presidency. On September 19, 2002, General Guei is killed in his strongholds, following a series of confused stand off, involving 4, 0000 French troops stationed in the country. Tension flared up and gruesome violence has erupted. By sun fall, the citizens of world's largest cocoa nation were flanked by more men cradling AK-47s than cocoa bags. For the most part, soldiers from the north were in complete control of the north region, other cities, and attacked Abidjan. For General Guei burial wouldn’t be until four years after August 18, 2006. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/1999/12/991226-ivory2.htm.

The Gambia, the smallest country on the continent of Africa would write herself into coup d’état history. July 22, 1994, occasioned it when a dispute over unpaid salary to Gambian military officers caused 29 years old Yahya Jammeh to oust President David Jawara in a bloodless coup. Mysteriously, United States warship docked in Banjul to help President David Jawara sail to Britain. Since he came to power, Yahya Jammeh has won two elections and thwarted a coup attempt on March 22, 2006.

In Mauritania, coup d’état recipes loomed when President Ould Taya systematically neutralized every political opposition he considered threats to his power. For example, after years (2003-2005) of "close calls" (i.e.; three coups), on August 14, 2005, the fourth bloodless coup succeeded. Iron-fisted president Maaouiya Ould Taya ousted while attending the funeral of King Fahd in Saudi Arabia and ushered in General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Military Council for Justice and Democracy who masterminded. Africa was in the winding down stage when the Togolese military forcibly installed former dictator Gnassingbe’s son Faure Gnassingbe as their nation’s president.

While military coup d’états were sweeping through the political landscape of Africa, regional conflicts were squashing cultural loyalties in the Republic of Chad between Hissene Habre and Goukouni Wedeye and in Mauritania, where the Sahara guerillas were active. For Habre, he would siphon $3 million as his best way of mitigating corruption in Chad.

What would Africans discover if we turned a time-lapse camera on the past 50 years, or into the “50-years locked box of coup d’états?” We did find an enormous explosion of change, an exponential acceleration in the pace of destructive political history. Most strikingly, we would see a loss of our cultural, political, economical, and spiritual wealth. Africans would see we have not yet found a way to get out of this void, a malicious vacuum that prevents us from living up to our potential. The past 50 years we have witnessed the progressive looting of Africa’s resources and the retardation of the Continent all in the name of “liberators” or coup d’états.

I have learned with great difficulty why coup plotters believe that violence is a healthy approach to Africa leadership quagmire, especially when these “liberators” are like a deer in headlights. What galls me is the hypocrisy that permeates African “liberators” who cannot make a common choice between water and champagne but instead live a life-style of wasteful luxury while the only reward of the poor, oppressed and unlettered populace is entertainment with glorifying national anthems, while they over-flow the streets in thousands, waving flags and wearing T-shirts bearing the portraits of these “liberators”. Sadly, Africa's corruption and unpatriotic deeds have matured generations of leaders who definitely are not true leaders in the practical meaning of the word. Though they have illegally seized power by citing one common factor or corruption, all of them suffered memory lapses as soon as they ascended to the wielders power. As this never-ending mirage of revolution dehumanizes tropical Africa each of us must take responsibility for ending coup d’état by not tongue-in-cheek, by awaking up and condemning the senseless and wholesale slaughter that continues in our name in Africa liberation and freedom. It is in our power to put an end to this suffering [of debilitating diseases called coup d’état].

We, Africans, cannot afford to pretend to be independent. There can be no real freedom in poverty and deprivation. We must and need to remember that we should not be at war with each other but should share the same dream of liberation and try together to break the bonds of our colonial umbilical cords that are still deoxygenating our lifeline. We are also not as "united" and “independent” as we are lead to believe. Independence simply means total emancipation that empowers the inner individual to shine and see Africa in its full cultural, political, economical, and spiritual regalia. We, as Africans, cannot claim independence when coup-leaders and failed politicians occupy our countries, destroy our institutions, siphon our wealth, force our people into refugee camps, mess with our delicate demographic, cultural, traditional balance; enslave, persecute, kidnap, imprison and kill thousands and thousands of innocent civilians. True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what's right, seeing everything, and thinking our own thoughts and acceptance of a higher discipline. People can do great things when they start thinking for themselves. It means claiming ownership of nationalism and patriotism and not betraying Africa. It is a sweeping and unwavering mental revolution. Our task then is to alert the African nations that coup d’état must not be business as usual and that we must alter the way we work and change leadership. Unless we the people demand it, the killing and dying will continue. There is an exit.

The Way Forward

This sounds like mental revolution because it is. One thing we already know how to do, and do whenever we can, is to educate ourselves about ourselves and follow our shadows that hold the essence of who we are. Our shadow is the secret of change, change that can influence you and I, all of us to effect the change in our very DNA to immunize coup d’état. I mean a new brotherhood of nations: who we are and who we want to become for a better tomorrow. It is by embracing all of who we are that we earn the independence and freedom to choose what we do in this world. With great minds this task should not take centuries because the truth is that our heart is the nucleus of our being. If we forget to learn lessons from the past, or if we fail to live good lives in the present and forget the present, we will not be prepared for the future. Hence, Africa should:

  1. Africa should combine resources to build a Regional University to produce the character of leaders the African people long to have. This statement does not imply that such leadership education should be limited to Africa. We must give Africa leaders the gift of loved based and violence-free leadership, patriotism, nationalism, corruption-fee, so they don’t become leaders with no license to destroy our people and wealth.

  2. The University should be African scholars (best and brightest brains) that will develop curriculum and write textbooks reflective specifically of Africa and the world in general. For example, countries in North Africa should join and build the University of North Africa; nations of West Africa should build the University of West Africa; nations of Central Africa should build the University of Central Africa, and southern nations should build the University of South Africa. Degrees offered will benefit the Continent’s political remaking, thereby lifting up the Continent from its political dungeons and the alienation of its people. Another incentive of such an institution will be boasting student exchange between African nations.

  3. Establishing agenda/curricula specific University of Africa is one of the possible solutions for countries that are struggling to build universities to educate future leaders of Africa. There is a need to minimize sending Africans to the West to return home not knowing how to apply what they have learned to their working environment. When Africa is stable and the citizens are educated to love their own nation, there will be no threat to develop bilateral ventures with other nations for Africa’s benefits.

  4. The military in Africa should not be used for the wrong purpose. For example, corrupt civilian presidents and coup leaders use the military as a policing body. By policing civilian residents, the military in Africa seem to hold allegiance to civilian presidents as opposed to their country. Africa’s prospective and stability are jeopardized in this way. The second task should be indoctrinating African military personnel to be more loyal national group or property, not their ethnicity. To lower the chances of military coup d’état, there should be an educational requirement for individuals joining the military. The recruitment should mandate that a soldier be a high school graduate, but preferably have military education with African principles. Patriotism and the rule of law should be taught at an early age in all schools but children must not become soldiers.

    5. The military should be trained to carry Africa’s cause of freedom, sovereignty, human rights, liberation. Recruitment of military personnel should be limited in terms of the numbers of individuals applying from any ethnic group. This facilitates equal numbers of soldiers from an ethnic group being represented in the military. The military should not be located in the Capitol City to avoid misuse of forces. Preferably, military barracks should be located all over each county and should not be used for minor civil disobedience. There should be a proper chain of command and accurate accounts of ammunition and weapons in the arsenals. There should also be international border monitoring and proactive measures against breeding grounds, infiltration, or incursion of ‘rebels’ who want power by machine guns.

    This brief overview of the history of coup in Africa is a reflection of the larger context of the Continent. Its roots are ideological, economical, and psychological that must be seriously dealt with. And if this generation is to manage the present state of affairs and avert future coup d’états, we must address the roots causes of coup d’états: corruption, failed politicians, and untrained African leaders in the tradition and culture of the people whom they lead. If we examine the origin of coup d’état, it is evident that it is inseparable from Africa not training its leaders and military, in patriotism and nationalism. This is the dark veil you and I, all of us in Africa must lift the unfathomable fears that our minds author.

  5. Coup leaders shouldn't be airlifted from their nations in time of trouble and live on their bank accounts in foreign nations. The only airlift should be for the prison compounds.

  6. The African Union should hold a conference on coup d’état abatement in Africa as opposed to always be in a reactive mode.

The liberty of Africa, our freedom, your freedom is in limbo as long as our leadership remains coup d’état-driven and our economies in tatters. Unequivocally, post-independent Africa was coup d’état fed with violence, neo-colonialism, physical, emotional, and cultural mis-information that do not ennoble. Hence, Africa lost its social capital and trust to coup d’état. To rebuild its educators and the intelligentsia, Africa must rather quickly, consign coup d’état to the scrap heap of historical curiosities where it belongs. If we resist self-destruction, self-hatred, mental colonization, and empty our minds of its ills, this generation will find a panacea to undo our entrapments, lying myths, and see ourselves as equals, not 'child-like people' who need shepherding to full adulthood. We need to take action - to return to our humanity because we are not people who wait for someone to bring opportunity to us. Therefore, we must rise, rise together, all the sons and daughters of Africa, to forge a new independent movement, mental revolution, and coup d’état free Africa. This new way of seeing ourselves, once enshrined, it then will pass on as "natural" until a new corps of transformational leaders emerge as the dominant power of the geopolitical leaders of Africa.

For one day, it will be the new corps of African leaders' tasks to gallantly step into history and take their newfound independence, mental revolution, and democracy forward. This will finally usher in a new interpretation of independent Africa, a mightier sword never again to confine a hungry person in the midst of plenty that constitutes Africa.

About the Author

Syrulwa Somah, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health at NC A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is author of several books, including, The Historical Resettlement of Liberia and Its Environmental Impact, Christianity, Colonization and State of African Spirituality, and Nyanyan Gohn-Manan: History, Migration & Government of the Bassa (a book about traditional Bassa leadership and cultural norms published in 2003). Somah is also the Executive Director of the Liberian History, Education & Development, Inc. (LIHEDE), a nonprofit organization based in Greensboro, North Carolina. He can be reached at: somah@ncat.edu; lihede2003@yahoo.com