Another coup has taken place in West Africa. What else is new? Military leaders rise up, take control, promise to end rank corruption and empower the people, but the corruption continues and the old adage is proven to be true yet again, that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The Seraaj File, by Kevin Seraaj, J.D., M.Div.
In the latest iteration of this misuse-the-people playbook, Burkina Faso’s military leader Paul-Henri Damiba has been deposed in the country’s second coup in a year. Damiba had led a coup this year against a civilian government that lost support over rising violence by Islamist extremists. His ouster comes at a time when Islamic Jihadists are deepening their encroachment into the country, killing thousands and forcing as many as 2 million people to flee their homes.
Damiba, who came to power citing the failure of the previous government to combat jihadist violence, took some steps to address what he viewed as the most pressing concerns. He reorganized Burkina Faso’s armed forces to improve counterterrorism efforts. He launched military campaigns like Operation “Jangris” (meaning “harvest” in Mooré) to reclaim territory from jihadist groups (AQIM, JNIM, and ISGS). But Jihadist attacks increased during his rule, undermining public confidence. In addition, soldiers accused him of failing to improve conditions for the military– a cardinal mistake.
Coups have become common in West Africa. Eroding faith in weak governments is widespread. The new leader in Burkina Faso is Captain Ibrahim Traore, who seems to have felt that Damiba was either incapable of true revolutionary leadership– or already headed in the wrong direction.
Traore and a group of military officers moved quickly to dissolve the transitional government and suspend the constitution. These could be warning signs that the nation should brace for more of the same government-sponsored plunder. But it could mean that Traore understands that Western models of government– implemented for generations throughout the continent– have simply not worked.
Many pan-African-minded African-Americans, among whom the writer counts himself, look hopefully toward the day when African countries will see their commonality and unify the continent. Kwame Nkrumah pushed the idea in the 1950s, and was toppled by the CIA for his efforts. It will take a massive continent-wide movement, because the West wants what it has been comfortable taking– through bribery and outright theft– the gold, diamonds, and other minerals that have fueled global wealth for centuries, and it has proven that it is willing to kill the occasional African leader who dares to oppose them.
Standing together makes threatening any one or two African countries pointless. But the allure of fancy cars, tailored suits, and fat off-shore bank accounts have left hundreds of millions of Africans destitute on the richest continent on earth.
Unfortunately, the dream of a United Africa, with one central government, borderless “states,” and its own continental currency, held by such visionaries as Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankora and Muammar Khadaffi, is still on hold. In the case of Ibrahim Traore, things remain to be seen.
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
- Kevin Seraaj
