Paper short abstract:

Militaries in Africa are products of colonial states, designed and implemented for the promotion of Western interests. This paper seeks to reveal how the persistence of the military in African politics from the immediate post-independent Africa till date, is highly upheld by colonial ingredients.

Paper long abstract:

The military has played an indisputable part in the history of “nation-state” building. These “nation-state”-building militaries are however different in their conception and raison d’être, from “state-nation”-building militaries, which characterize most of Africa. To be precise, African militaries are products, not of the indigenous African realities and needs, but of colonial masters who designed and implemented a colonial culture that shaped the modus operandi of the African military for the promotion of Western interests. This paper seeks to demonstrate how the persistence of the military in African politics from the immediate post-independent Africa till date, is highly upheld by colonial ingredients that accompanied state importation in Africa. In comparing the cases of Gabon and Burkina Faso, how do we understand on the one hand, the resurgence of a coup in Gabon in 2023 after decades of civilian rule that was supposed to promote democratization and deter military takeovers and on the other hand, the inability persistence coups in Burkina Faso to put an end to civilian authoritarian rule and eradicate corruption as most coup leaders overtly claim? We defend here that, the ignored colonial ingredients that characterize “state-nations” of Africa meaningfully contribute in this complex back-and-forth military and civilian rule in the quest for democratization. This is a qualitative research where relevant literature will be exploited, and interpreted by theories related to coups d’états, authoritarianism/democratization, nation and state building.

Keywords: colonial culture/ingredients, military coup, democratization