A Couped Continent

In the latest edition of Samfundsnyt 'Africa and Globalization', a journal for social studies teachers in Denmark, Associate Professor Stig Jensen explains some of the reasons for the recent military coups in Africa. Most of the military coups are in francophone African countries and have to be seen in the light of a growing dissatisfaction with France and what is seen as French colonization on the continent.

Another factor is that democracies in the countries, often promoted and in other ways support by the Global North have not provided the promised economic development and stability. Ultimately, instability coupled with increasingly difficult living situations and corruption have led to an increase in military coups. The military coup leaders have presented themselves as forms of emergency aid to try an stabilize their countries. Additionally, with more and more nonwestern actors entering the region there are not new resources that do not rely on previous colonizing powers to aid in development projects and funding. This multipolar world order is a new factor on the African continents military coups. 

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