The initial waves of popular support that greeted recent coups in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger startled some analysts. They wondered whether the militarism embodied in these new regimes constituted a distinct form of government or was merely a way for ambitious people to pursue power. In this provocative book, Daly argues that militarism in Africa has historically been about more than power grabs. Several of the region’s coups, he insists, are a “calculated response to problems that existed in the moment.” In Daly’s account, the military figures who overthrew civilian rulers across Africa in the latter half of the twentieth century had visions of creating more disciplined societies, with some viewing militarism as an “ideological end in itself.” This important insight, which applies to coups past and present, goes against the standard view of coups as simply extraconstitutional and undemocratic events. Daly makes an important contribution, and in many ways a correction, to our understanding of what has motivated African civilian and military rulers alike.

Loading... Please enable JavaScript for this site to function properly.