Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

Ok. We move him to the "Opportunist" category.

Thanks for the perspective. 

Note also that the initial aspiration and 

hope of the coup leader(s) may change.

Power may go to his head, and corruption,

and kleptomania set in. This happens with

democratically elected leaders also.

Gloria 

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kaparry@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 2, 2022 4:33 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Gloria, 

Rawlings' bloody coup was not revolutionary. It was pathetically neo-evolutionary setting back the progress attained by Ghana. The worst regime to date. What his junta accused people doing, leading to 6PM-6 AM curfew, abuse of market women, abduction and killing of perceived opponents, reckless use of state funds, Abacha's gift of $5 million (just before his death, Rawlings said it was $2 million), Rawlings and his family ended up morally bankrupt. Today, they are one of the richest families in Ghana. His populism, narcissism, and  demagoguery blindfolded the masses as he gained power and amassed wealth that distanced him from the existential struggles of the very masses he hypocritically foamed about. 

Kwabena

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: February 1, 2022 9:54 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

 

think how hard this actual work would be. the "deliberative agency" could only be real if people could express themselves openly and freely.

an example of where this failed was the gacaca courts in rwanda, intended precisely to have people in the local communities, where the genocide took place, to judge those charged with being genocidaires.

when these courts began, and people came and testified before the whole community, i think a positive healing process was underway.

not too long after the central government intervened and basically barred accusations against any tutsis. it became a set of one-sided forced trials where the government overrule eventually dictated results.

the hard part of your plan, moses, lies in finding a way to intervene, to get the people's participation, when a system of rule is already in place. weren't there vaguely similar notions under qaddafi w his people's courts and ethiopia under the derg? i don't remember all these instances very well, but come on, how would such an ideal beginning be able to occur, say, in biya's cameroon, or even in today's nigeria. how could you begin, especially if democratic procedures were not instituted at the outset?

i feel we are back to the early days of marxist revolutionary thinking or even french revolutionary thinking, when an avant-garde determines whether the people's consciousness is directing the revolution. here we'd have to clear the decks for a new start. how could that be implemented?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 3:15 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

 

Like me, the brilliant Saun Jacob at "Africa is a Country," rejects the false, dichotomous choice between strongmen dictators and liberal democracy. I may not fully agree with his prescription, but at least his premise is correct, which is that both liberal democracy and strongman dictatorship have failed in Africa. We need to imagine a new type of democracy for each African country, one that builds from scratch and starts with what Uchenna Okeja calls the "deliberative agency" of each African country's people. Let them decide first what type of structure they want for their country. Then let them do the hard, rigorous work of beginning afresh to construct a unique governing system for their country, one that reflects their peculiar histories, experiences, demographic makeup, and aspirations. They can call it whatever they like and do not have to align it with any existing isms or ideological political formation. If folks in the West do not like it, who cares?

https://africasacountry.com/2022/02/are-strongmen-or-liberal-democracy-our-only-choices/?fbclid=IwAR36UXVheMCHC446mzKvfn0sT-AuVlJ1E0BTQnOo_AjL52VYtn591duw5P4

On Tue, Feb 1, 2022 at 11:26 AM Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

moses threw down the gauntlet, and i would love to hear people's response.

if western style democracies with elections are not the answer, what is?

how would people suggest to change things into better, more responsive systems?

for me it is easy to think of what is bad, or worse.

my question is not a challenge based on the idea that there is only one good answer, as churchill boringly put it.

what are some real alternatives that seem to have worked better or could work better than what is proposed under current dominant thinking?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 11:45 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

 

Point noted, Ken. We can put that

under opportunistic, as well, and

subdivide that category.

Note, too, Egypt's Morsi, who was 

democratically  elected and removed by

el-Sisi.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 11:29 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

gloria, in a sense when someone hijacks an electoral process, and uses force to suppress opposition, isn't that a sort of coup? nkurunzima did that in burundi in 2015, occasioning enormous violence, many dead, 300,000 fled the country.

kagame didn't do that. he simply shut down the opposition, and museveni same deal in last election.

are those "democratic coups"? maybe.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 1, 2022 9:58 AM
To: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>; dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Successful Coups in Africa

 

Useful map. Someone should do a

taxonomy of coups. Here is my

preliminary list:

Opportunistic coups (Babangida, 

Abacha, el- Sisi) Nigeria, Egypt.

Patriotic coups to save collapse

 (Doumbouya, Damiba

 Goita) Guinea,Burkina Faso, Mali

Fundamentalist, theologically 

inspired coups(Bashir) Sudan

Developmental, growth motivated 

coups (EPRDF, Murtala Mohammed 

Obasanjo) Ethiopia, Nigeria 

Revolutionary coups (Sankara; Rawlings 1)

Burkina Faso, Ghana

Neo-colonial / externally

 motivated (Kaka Deby, Taylor) Chad, Liberia

All subject to modifications and debate.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2022 7:38 AM
To: dialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Successful Coups in Africa

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Sent from my iPhone

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