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Why do people keep claiming a string of military dictatorships in the Sahel represent the will of their populace?
I’ve been baffled by how many people keep pretending the coup in Niger somehow represents the will of the people or popular sovereignty. It seems so self insulting to me as someone old enough to remember the last time our region was majority under military rule.
And it’s funny cause this isn’t a new phenomenon, not here in West Africa or any other region of the world. There is no part of the world that got long term positive results from the military violently seizing power and entrenching lifetime kleptocracy. Not Latin America in the 1800s, not Europe in the 1900s, not Asia in the second half of the 20th century, Not anywhere Africa etc.
Everywhere violence is introduced into the political system and military big wigs can exercise vetos with impunity over any form of oversight or curtailment of their power all you get is a kleptocracy even more perverse and rapacious than the most corrupt civilian government.
It feels to me this weird fetishization, especially among younger, often westernized or diasporan terminally online people who think cutting off our nose to spite the white mans face is somehow a noble thing to do. When in fact we’re just punching ourselves expecting the other person to feel pain.
It feels like such a self deluding extremely destructive impulse to see as people cheat as the voice is striped from millions of our brothers and in some places civil conflicts even breaking out cause some general thinks he can do better and doesn’t need a popular mandate.
Worse yet so many support them and claim these men have a popular mandate cause they pretend they too hate the west and so whatever they do is legitimate and justifiable. It’s very disturbing.
I’ve been baffled by how many people keep pretending the coup in Niger somehow represents the will of the people or popular sovereignty. It seems so self insulting to me as someone old enough to remember the last time our region was majority under military rule.
And it’s funny cause this isn’t a new phenomenon, not here in West Africa or any other region of the world. There is no part of the world that got long term positive results from the military violently seizing power and entrenching lifetime kleptocracy. Not Latin America in the 1800s, not Europe in the 1900s, not Asia in the second half of the 20th century, Not anywhere Africa etc.
Everywhere violence is introduced into the political system and military big wigs can exercise vetos with impunity over any form of oversight or curtailment of their power all you get is a kleptocracy even more perverse and rapacious than the most corrupt civilian government.
It feels to me this weird fetishization, especially among younger, often westernized or diasporan terminally online people who think cutting off our nose to spite the white mans face is somehow a noble thing to do. When in fact we’re just punching ourselves expecting the other person to feel pain.
It feels like such a self deluding extremely destructive impulse to see as people cheat as the voice is striped from millions of our brothers and in some places civil conflicts even breaking out cause some general thinks he can do better and doesn’t need a popular mandate.
Worse yet so many support them and claim these men have a popular mandate cause they pretend they too hate the west and so whatever they do is legitimate and justifiable. It’s very disturbing.
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