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Military Government in Mali

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Extract

A notable imbalance exists in the literature on the rôle of soldiers in politics – far less attention is given to their rule than to their intervention. This is particularly true for the African continent, where scant effort has been made to relate patterns of military rule to patterns of demilitarisation. The policy objectives of officers are often dealt with as two opposing ideal types: broadly ideological, leaning towards ‘anticommunism’, ‘modernisation’, or ‘Arab socialism’; or fundamentally apolitical and unable to formulate reasonable policy objectives because of their narrow corporate perspectives. The logic of these two ideal positions leads to the alleged dichotomy that juntas with broad political ambitions will tend to stay in power indefinitely, while those with limited corporate interests will find it easy to turn power over to civilians who will ‘grant autonomy to the armed forces’.1

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

Page 249 note 1 Welch, Claude E. Jr, ‘The Dilemmas of Military Withdrawal from Politics’, in African Studies Review (Lansing), XVII, I, 1974, p. 221.Google Scholar

Page 249 note 2 For an analysis of the crises, see Stryker, J. Dirck, ‘The Malian Cattle Industry: opportunity and dilemma’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XII, 3, 09 1974, pp. 441–57.Google Scholar

Page 249 note 3 For Traoré's recollections of these events, see Golan's, Tamar article in West Africa (London), 20 08 1973, pp. 1147–9.Google Scholar

Page 250 note 1 al-Fajr al-Jadid (Tripoli), 31 03 1973, p. 5,Google Scholar translated from the Arabic by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Page 250 note 2 Lee, J. Michael, African Armies and Civil Order (London, 1969), p. 36.Google Scholar

Page 250 note 3 Legum, Cohn (ed.), Africa Contemporary Record, 1971–72 (London, 1972), p. B 614.Google Scholar

Page 251 note 1 See Luckham, Robin, The Nigerian Military: a sociological analysis of authority and revolt, 1960–67 (Cambridge, 1971), ch. 1.Google Scholar

Page 251 note 2 Edward Luttwak recommends ‘ remote command positions and “promotions” to less vital parts of the state apparatus’ for the dangerous allies of coup-makers. Coup d'état: a practical handbook (London, 1968), p. 115.Google Scholar

Page 252 note 1 For a list of those who were retired, see L'Essor (Bamako), 27 01 1969, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 253 note 1 Ibid. 16 December 1969, p. 4. According to the French Communist newspaper L'Humanité (Paris), Diarra has since died in prison at Taoudenit.

Page 253 note 2 L'Essor, 20 September 1969.

Page 254 note 1 Bebler, Anton, Military Rule in Africa: Dahome, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mali (New York, 1973), p. 121.Google Scholar

Page 254 note 2 L'Essor, 8 04 1971, p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 254 note 3 Jeune Afrique (Paris and Dakar), 19 08 1972, p. 13.Google Scholar Diakité died in prison in June 1973.

Page 255 note 1 Bebler, op. cit. p. 90.

Page 255 note 2 If ‘mixed companies’ – i.e. those owned jointly by the state and private interests – are included, there were approximately 40 public enterprises.

Page 256 note 1 Sangaré, Meskou, Minister of State Enterprises, quoted in Le Moniteur african du commerce et de l'industrie (Dakar, 27 12 1973), p. 1.Google Scholar

Page 256 note 2 Ibid. 7 December 1972, p. 12.

Page 256 note 3 Pinkney, Robert, ‘The Theory and Practice of Military Government’, in Political Studies (Oxford, 2 06 1973), pp. 160-1.Google Scholar

Page 257 note 1 Economist Intelligence Unit, Quarterly Economic Review: former French West Africa (London), 1, 1972-

Page 257 note 2 L'Essor, 21 June 1972, p. 4.

Page 257 note 3 Le Moniteur africain, 7 December 1972, pp. 10–12.

Page 258 note 1 Ibid. 27 December 1973, p. 1.

Page 258 note 2 L'Essor, 10 11 1970, p. 4.Google Scholar

Page 259 note 1 Jeune Afrique, 4 December 1971.

Page 259 note 2 Le Monde (Paris), 30 0405 1972.Google Scholar

Page 259 note 3 Le Moniteur africain, 19 07 1973, p. 4.Google Scholar

Page 259 note 4 See Stryker, loc. cit.

Page 260 note 1 For the difficulties involved, see Church, R. J. Harrison, ‘The Development of the Water Resources of the Dry Zone of West Africa’, in Dalby, David and Church, R. J. Harrison (eds.), Report of the 1973 Symposium: drought in Africa (London, 1973), pp. 62–5.Google Scholar

Page 260 note 2 For the Senegalese rôle, see Mytelka, Lynn K., ‘A Genealogy of Francophone West and Equatorial African Regional Organisations’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, XII, 2, 06 1974, p. 307.Google Scholar

Page 260 note 3 Ronald Bornstein, ‘The Organisation of Senegal River States’, ibid. X, 2, July 1972, p. 267.

Page 260 note 4 African Research Bulletin: economic, financial, and technical series (Exeter), 15 01–14 02 1973, p. 2611C.Google Scholar

Page 261 note 1 Marches tropicaux et méditerranéens (Paris), 1445, 20 07 1973, p. 2276.Google Scholar

Page 261 note 2 Mytelka, loc. cit. pp. 308–10.

Page 261 note 3 I have discussed these problems in greater detail in ‘Patterns of Demilitarization in Africa’, in The Quarterly Journal of Administration (Ibadan), 10 1974.Google Scholar

Page 262 note 1 L'Essor, 20 10 1970, p. 4.Google Scholar

Page 262 note 2 Ibid. 30 Januray 1971, pp. 1 and 4.

Page 262 note 3 Europe-France outremer (Paris), 03 1972, p. 12.Google Scholar

Page 262 note 4 African Research Bulletin, 1–20 11 1972, pp. 2661C2662A.Google Scholar

Page 262 note 5 Le Monde, 18–19 02 1973, p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 263 note 1 Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens 1469 4 01 1974.Google Scholar

Page 263 note 2 African Research Bulletin, 1–28 February 1974, from L'Essor.

Page 264 note 1 West Africa, 5 08 1974, p. 963.Google Scholar

Page 264 note 2 African Research Bulletin, 1–30 April 1974.

Page 264 note 3 Article 5 of the 1974 Constitution.

Page 264 note 4 Ibid. Article 22.

Page 264 note 5 African Research Bulletin, 1–30 April 1974.

Page 265 note 1 Le Monde, 18–19 02 1973, p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 265 note 2 The results proclaimed on 18 July 1974 were as follows: registered voters, 2,904,292; votes cast, 2,674,520; Oui, 2,665,531; Non, 8,989. In six of the regions, the Oui votes were better than 99 per cent; in Bamako district, 97.8 were in favour of the constitution.

Page 265 note 3 Le Monde, 26 June 1974.

Page 265 note 4 Agence France presse, 11.27 G.M.T., 8 June 1974.

Page 266 note 1 For a discussion of the continuities between Keita's Government and the colonial administration, see Hopkins, Nicholas S., Government in an African Town: Kita, Mali (Chicago, 1973).Google Scholar