CONFERENCE ON THE PERMANENCE OF MILITARY COUPS IN AFRICA
In line with the program of conferences in The Muntu Institute Foundation, a new series of conferences was launched on the 28th of July 2023 at the “Librairie des Peuples Noirs” in Yaounde, Cameroon. The first theme in this series of conferences was on “The Permanence of Military Coups in Africa”. This conference started at exactly 3pm when the Moderator Koge Samuel took the microphone, addressed the audience and introduced the panelists. On set, there were three panelists among which were; Fouda EHOWA Hermann Brice, KINANG Derick and AWAFONG Julius TENENG. The first panelist who was given the floor to do his presentation was Hermann. He presented on the theme; “The reemergence of coup d’états in Africa: Assessing the Rational of Military Intervention and a focus on its Neo-variant”. Hermann articulated his analysis on the causes of military coups in Africa which corresponds with the first argument of the conference. Here, he started by analyzing the sociological definition of military coups which differs from other forms of revolutions. In line with the causes, he highlighted on corruption, popular uprisings, external manipulations, conflicts as well as terrorist attacks. To this, he concluded by advocating for a more conscious Africa that can wake up to work for the general will.
The next speaker of the day was KINANG Derick who presented on the theme; “Military Coups and Popular Support: an Empirical Analysis of Concordant Civil Military Relations in West Africa”. To start with, Derick tried to draw the attention of the audience on the types of military coups. In doing this, he drew inspiration from Stephan Wikens who made a distinction between Oligargich Pletorianism and Middle Class Pletorianism. To him, looking at the present-day military coups in Africa, he associates them to the middle class pletorianism whereby the people accord their support to juntas and at the same time the coups are less deadly. To this, he advanced the reasons why people support for military coups today in Africa. Amongst the reasons, he cited; the advancement of checks and balances, bad governance and economic hardship, as well as unsatisfied public demands. To end with, Derick tried to advance some points which if implemented can curb the continuous resurgence of military coups in Africa. These include; the construction of an effective democratic culture, the professionalization of the role of the military just to name these.
The last speaker of the day was AWAFONG Julius. He did his presentation on the theme: “The Persistence of Military Coups in African Politics from the One-Party System to Multipartism: what has Changed”. Here Julius tried to compare coups in the post-independence era and those of the post 1990 era when the democratic wind of change swept across Africa. To give his analysis, he drew inspiration from Ted Robert Gur’s book entitled, Why People Rebel. In his analysis, the Relative Deprivation theory was used which holds that, when basic amenities which a people are supposed to enjoy are not given to them, they turn to rebel. He equally used the modernization theory which holds that, for a people to develop, basic amenities need to be put in place. Transposing these in line with coups he holds that, the absence of these amenities make the people disappointed with their leaders who turn to keep grievances against them. To this, the military cease the advantage to kick out the incumbent and if this is done, the junta is seen as a messiah who has come to save them from cruel leadership characterized by leadership.
After the presentations of the panelists, the floor was given to the audience for a question-and-answer session. In line with this, two series of questions were taken. The first constituted five questions and the second, three questions.
At exactly 5:40pm, the moderator picked up his microphone in which he thanked the audience for coming to participate in the great scientific exercise. He equally thanks the organization committee for making the conference a success, the technical team that was there to ensure that the conference is been diffused online and finally the moderator expressed his gratitude to the Executive Director of the Muntu Institute Foundation for this great initiative to give young scholars the opportunity to express their thoughts on diverse social or societal happenings plaguing the development of the African continent today. On this note, the conference ended successfully.
Samuel Koge
samuel.koge@muntu.media
Se connecter Inscription