African Powder Keg. Revolt and Dissent in Six Emergent Nations
Author: Ronald Matthews
Publisher: The Bodley Head
Edition: First 1966
ISBN: Not stated
Language: English
Condition: Good. Clean copy with tight binding. Rubbing and wear & tear to dustjacket
Binding: Hardcover with dustjacket
Pages: 223
Additional Information
The life of an African head of state or premier could not be called a particularly secure existence as 1965 passed on its way. The three years that had just gone by had seen a series of coups d'etat or plots or political murders directed against the local regimes reported from more than twenty African states, or well over half the independent countries of the continent. The August 1963 Congo (Brazzaville) rising led to the overthrow of President Fulbert Youlou, and the October 1963 Dahomey demonstrations to the eviction from the Presidency of Mr Hubert Maga. In the December 1962 plot in Tunisia, President Bourguiba owed his life, if the official version is correct, to a certain amount of luck, President Nyerere disappeared from circulation for twenty-four hours during the January 1964 mutiny in Tanganyika, while the August 1962 plot in Ghana involved an attempt on the life of President Nkrumah, a new bid to assassinate whom was reported in 1964. Nor was there
any sign of a halt in the succession of incidents: it was rare for a quarter to pass without a new one hitting the headlines of the world press. The close of 1964 saw the public execution in the Republic of Niger of four members of the banned Sawaba opposition party, which had launched an insurrection. The opening of 1965 witnessed the assassination of the Premier
of Burundi, whose predecessor in office was promptly arrested on suspicion of complicity, and an Algiers courts sentencing of Ait Ahmed, one of the nine historic leaders who had launched the seven-year war of liberation against the French, for mounting a rebellion against his former companion in captivity, President Ben Bella; in June, Ben Bella himself was overthrown by a military coup, while, in August, President Nasser announced the discovery in Egypt of a large-scale plot against his regime. The regular succession of acts of violence calls to mind the observation credited to the then Brazilian Emperor when he visited the Philadelphia exposition.
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