by Guy Arnold
Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the President of Central African Republic (CAR), came to power by coup at the end of 1965 and like other leaders of Francophone states tried to lessen the French grip on his country. In 1971 he decided to create a CAR central bank and national currency and break from both the franc zone and French-controlled airline, Air Afrique, then the national carrier. However, he was forced by French pressures to abandon these initiatives and in doing so was made aware of the extent of general economic control exercised by France. In 1973 Bokassa accused France of using its embassy in Bangui to support and promote his enemies; in 1974 he launched another offensive against French influence when he banned French newspapers and nationalized a number of French companies. In order to halt these moves President Giscard d’Estaing visited CAR in 1975 (Bokassa returned the visit later) to restore good relations and maintain France’s grip on the economy. CAR in any case was heavily dependent upon French aid. In the meantime, Bokassa had become increasingly megalomanic. In 1972 he made himself President for life, in 1974 Marshal of the Republic. Then, in December 1976, he dissolved the Council of Ministers and announced the foundation of the Central African Empire with himself as its first Emperor. A new constitution provided for a parliamentary monarchy but all power resided in the hands of the emperor and the ministers he appointed. In December 1977 Bokassa had himself crowned Emperor in a coronation ceremony of ostentatious splendour, which cost an estimated 25 per cent of the country’s foreign exchange and led to widespread criticism for its extravagance.
By the end of the decade opposition to Bokassa’s rule was general and he was seen as capricious, tyrannical and in no sense of any benefit to his subjects. Student riots in 1979 set off wider expressions of discontent and Bokassa was only able to restore order with the help of troops from Zaïre. Then, in May 1979, Bokassa’s reputation was damaged beyond repair when a number of school children who had defied him were beaten to death in the market place of Bangui. As a gesture of disapproval France cut military aid but at the time this amounted to very little. In Paris the Central African Empire’s ambassador, Sylvestre Bangui, resigned and announced the formation of a front de libération des oubanguiens which brought a number of opposition groups together. Then at Cotonou, Benin, on 9 July, the opposition groups united in a common front against Bokassa and on 20 September, when Bokassa was in Libya, a bloodless coup was carried out and David Dacko, the former President who was then the personal adviser to Bokassa, assumed the presidency and formed a government of national salvation, returning the country to its former name of Central African Republic. France sent 700 troops from Gabon in support of the coup since, by then, it had come to the conclusion that Bokassa was too unstable to safeguard its interests in his country.
Equatorial Guinea, consisting of the former island of Fernando Po, renamed Bioko, and the enclave of Rio Muni, became independent from Spain on 12 October 1968. Francisco Macias Nguema became its President. Anti-white demonstrations and incidents led to an exodus of Spanish residents and this, in turn, led to a near collapse of the economy. In 1970 the various political parties were merged into a single Partido Unico Nacional, later renamed the Partido Unico Nacional de los Trabajadores (PUNT). Over the years 1970 to 1979 Equatorial Guinea was subjected to the dictatorial and arbitrary rule of Macias Nguema who made himself life president in 1972. The cocoa plantations of Bioko provided most of the country’s income and these came close to collapse when 20,000 Nigerian contract workers returned home following the end of the Nigerian civil war. A new constitution was adopted in July 1973 with the principal object of reinforcing Fang supremacy over the islands, the Fang being the dominant ethnic group on the mainland. By the mid-1970s Nguema had become brutally tyrannical and treated the tiny country as his personal fief. Mass executions of political prisoners were carried out in 1975 and the Roman Catholic Church was persecuted while Equatorial Guinea became increasingly isolated. Nguema’s dictatorship survived as long as it did as the result of an odd combination of foreign assistance, which came from Spain, Cuba, the USSR and China. In 1976 Nigeria evacuated its nationals from the country, forcing Nguema to harvest the Bioko cocoa crop by recruiting workers from the mainland. By that year an estimated third of the population had fled the country and only French firms continued to operate in it. In 1978 Nguema proscribed the Roman Catholic Church. On 3 August 1979 a military coup, led by Lt-Col. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (a nephew of the President), ousted Nguema who was later executed. Obiang opened up the country to foreign contacts and received immediate aid from Spain. His continued refusal to restore the rights of political parties, however, meant that his intentions were doubted and though he invited exiles to return (there were an estimated 130,000 in 1983) few did so.
These three dictators – Amin, Bokassa and Nguema – shared a number of characteristics: ruthless brutality, a bloodthirsty disregard for life that came out in massacres and murders, indifference to international opinion and a total contempt for the people over whom they ruled. They provided excellent anti-African propaganda for white racists both inside and outside Africa. Far worse, however, was the refusal of Africa through the OAU to take action against them after their activities had become notorious, falling back on the provision in the OAU Charter that forbade interference in the internal affairs of a member state. The attitude of external powers, in general, was to turn a blind eye to what happened while the attitude of the former colonial powers was even less excusable. Britain positively welcomed Amin’s advent to power since he eliminated Obote who was a powerful critic of Britain’s policy towards South Africa. Amin accepted all the attentions the British bestowed upon him and then, in no uncertain terms, gave them their ‘come-uppance’ when he first expelled the Asians and then nationalized British companies and humiliated Britons living in Uganda. France went along with Bokassa’s tyranny for as long as it was possible to do so in order to safeguard its economic interests and then, with total cynicism, supported the coup that overthrew him. Spain, only a minor colonial power in Africa, provided Nguema with aid for some years on the general principal of maintaining a foothold in the tiny country though Equatorial Guinea had little enough to offer. Aid from the three Communist countries to Nguema was no doubt given on the grounds that support for such a maverick state might cause some embarrassment to the West.
WEST AFRICA
The states of West Africa, many of which are very small by international standards, had a great deal in common and yet each faced unique problems of its own. Apart from Portuguese Guinea, they entered the decade of the 1970s as independent members of the international community but their independence was fragile and elusive. Constantly, whether they wished to or not, they were obliged to refer to their former colonial masters whose economic and political interests could not easily be cast off. The majority were one-party states whose military either provided the government or played a significant role in the wings. Their economies depended upon one or more commodities, usually agricultural though sometimes mineral, and there seemed little likelihood that they could break free of an economic dependence that tied them to Europe. Aid and increasing debt had become part of this relationship. A number had embarked upon radical or socialist development paths that caused deep resentment and opposition in the West, which maintained a proprietorial attitude towards Africa, whose objective, always, was control. Those countries that experimented with Marxism or some other form of socialism did so for a complex mix of reasons. These included the desire to throw off Western tutelage and follow an independent path of their own; a genuine ideological commitment to the one major system that was not part of Western capitalism; a belief that had been nurtured during the period of nationalist struggle for independence that only socialism would answer the needs and deal with the poverty of the people.
After a decade of coups Dahomey settled down to a period of collective leadership over 1968–72 but in October of the latter year yet another military coup brought Maj. Mathieu Kérékou to power. He overthrew
the collective leadership and set up in its stead a Conseil National Révolutionnaire (CNR); Kérékou was to rule for 20 years. He adopted a strong nationalist, anti-French line and made Marxism–Leninism the official ideology. His early years in power were precarious and a major plot to overthrow him was uncovered in 1975. Subsequently, he reorganized the country’s structures and renamed the country Benin (in 1975). He created a single party, the Parti de la Révolution Populaire du Benin. Relations with France deteriorated sharply and military co-operation was brought to an end. Relations became yet worse in 1977 after an unsuccessful raid had been mounted on Cotonou by mercenaries, a majority of whom were French, led by the notorious Bob Denard.
In Cameroon, a larger, more complex country that had combined Anglo and Franco mandates, a new constitution was approved in May 1972 that abolished separate Anglo- and Franco- state institutions and turned Cameroon into a one-party state. President Ahidjo steered the new united Republic of Cameroon sharply to the left. He established diplomatic relations with Communist regimes in Vietnam and Cambodia and renegotiated the 1960 co-operation accords with France so as to lessen dependence on the West. Cameroon withdrew from the Francophone organization Organisation Commune Africaine et Malagache (OCAM) and insisted upon full non-alignment. In 1975 Ahidjo was re-elected President unopposed with 99 per cent of the votes cast. He named Paul Biya, then Secretary-General in the President’s Office, as his Prime Minister. A single-party system with a single list of candidates – the Union Nationale Camerounaise (UNC) – led to complaints by Anglophone politicians that they were underrepresented. Ahidjo was re-elected President in 1980 but by then there was growing discontent with his government, especially among the Anglophone community. Ahidjo resigned in 1982 and was succeeded by Prime Minister Paul Biya.
Félix Houphouët-Boigny dominated the politics of Côte d’Ivoire for more than 30 years from before independence until his death in 1993. Unlike a number of his contemporaries he was always conservative, deeply pro-France and opposed to socialist experiments. By the end of the 1960s increasing student unrest was evidence of a more radical younger generation that opposed Côte d’Ivoire’s close tie-up with France although they posed little threat to Houphouët-Boigny’s grip on power, which he maintained without difficulty through the 1970s. In 1975, when he was 70, Houphouët-Boigny was re-elected for another five-year term. In 1976, a precaution in the light of the president’s age, a constitutional amendment provided for the president of the national assembly to become executive head of state in the event of the death or incapacity of the president. In 1980 Houphouët-Boigny won a fifth presidential term, leading to further speculation about the succession. The economy had grown remarkably through the 1960s and 1970s to provide Côte d’Ivoire and its president with one of the most secure political bases in West Africa. But given Houphouët-Boigny’s age, as well as the longevity of his tenure of office, the expectation was for change in the 1980s.
On 20 April 1970 the tiny state of The Gambia became a republic and Sir Dawda Jawara became its first president; he was to face growing opposition during the decade. A former vice-president, Sharif Mustapha Dibba, formed the National Convention Party (NCP) although its aims were similar to those of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP). A second opposition party, the National Liberation Party, also appeared at this time but it made little impact and the NCP became the official opposition. However, criticism of the government, for corruption and stagnation, mounted from both the opposition and from within the ranks of the PPP. More radical opposition to Jawara’s government emerged at the end of the decade with the appearance of the Gambia Socialist Revolutionary Party (GSRP) and the Movement for Justice in Africa-Gambia (MOJA-G); they rejected the idea of parliamentary opposition and advocated more extreme policies. They appealed to the unemployed, the discontented and the youth, especially those in the towns. When in October 1980 the deputy leader of the paramilitary field force was murdered, the government revealed its sense of insecurity and fear of a possible coup by appealing to its neighbour, Senegal, which sent 150 troops to support the government. The GSRP and MOJA-G were proscribed and their leaders charged with dissidence. The Gambia remained a Westminster-style democracy but the appeal of this system had obviously worn thin.
The 1970s, arguably, were to be Ghana’s worst decade during the latter half of the twentieth century. In 1969 Gen. Joseph Ankrah had been replaced by another soldier, Akwasi Afrifa. Civilian elections were held and were won by the Progress Party (PP) of Dr Kofi Busia who obtained 105 seats in the legislature. The PP represented the capitalist middle classes that had always opposed Nkrumah. Busia became Prime Minister on 1 October while three former coup-makers – Afrifa, Harlley and Ocran – shared the presidency. Busia was neither strong nor imaginative and he lasted for little more than two years. On 13 January 1972 he was overthrown as yet another military coup brought Lt-Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong to power. Acheampong banned political activity and set up a National Redemption Council (NRC) composed of army and police officers. Acheampong pursued a policy of Ghanaian self-reliance: he repudiated some foreign debts, launched an authenticity programme and an agricultural programme – Operation Feed Yourself (OFY). He kept Ghana non-aligned and made no attempt to return the country to civilian rule. The Acheampong reforms in fact led to massive inflation, which in turn created a huge black market (Kalabule), and by mid-1978 the economy was in ruins. On 5 July 1978 Acheampong was replaced as head of state by Lt-Gen. Frederick Akuffo; but he had been closely associated with the policies of his predecessor and made little impact upon the problem of corruption that embraced the members of the Supreme Military Council who were seen to have enriched themselves while presiding over a collapsing economy. On 1 January 1979 political parties were legalized and elections were promised for the following July. The masses of Ghana became increasingly vociferous against both the military and the middle classes who were seen to have bankrupted the country. On 15 May junior officers and NCOs staged an abortive coup and its leader, Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings, was imprisoned. Three weeks later junior officers and others freed Rawlings and this time, 4 June, they mounted a successful coup. An Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) presided over by Rawlings became the country’s ruling body. The Rawlings government began spectacularly when on 16 June generals Acheampong and Utuka were executed by firing squad; 10 days later on 26 June generals Akuffo and Afrifa as well as others were shot, bringing to three the former heads of state to be executed. The July elections were held as scheduled. They were contested by five parties and were won by a coalition of the People’s National Party (PNP) led by Hilla Limann and the United National Convention (UNC). Limann went on to win the presidential elections comfortably on 24 September. The Limann government lasted for just over two years and suffered from an impossible handicap for it owed its existence to Rawlings and the military and they, rather than the elected government, came to be regarded as the final court of appeal. Rawlings remained immensely popular and Limann’s authority collapsed at the end of 1981. On 31 December Rawlings resumed power.
On 22 November 1970 Guinea was subjected to a mini-invasion when 350 Guinean exiles led by Portuguese officers landed from the sea at Conakry in an attempt to overthrow the regime of Sekou Touré. Over two days of fighting considerable damage was done to Conakry, the presidential palace was destroyed, as were the headquarters of the PAIGC, which directed the war in Portuguese Guinea. Harsh repression followed this shock to Sekou Touré’s rule; there were many arrests including former ministers and army officers and in January 1971 91 people were sentenced to death. In 1973 the PAIGC leader Amilcar Cabral was assassinated in Conakry and his death raised suspicions of a plot against the regime. Yet another plot surfaced in 1976 to implicate Diallo Telli, the former Secretary-General of the OAU, who was to die in prison the following year, apparently of starvation. The failure of his socialist policies and his general isolation led Sekou Touré to seek a reconciliation with France, which he achieved in the second hal
f of the decade while he also embarked upon a policy of greater economic liberalism. This latter policy followed a massive demonstration in 1977 by the Conakry market women in protest at ‘economic police’. Riots occurred in several towns and three local governors were killed. After diplomatic relations had been restored in 1976 France agreed the following year to pay the pensions of 20,000 Guinean ex-servicemen while also curtailing the activities of Guinean exiles in France. French businessmen were then allowed back into Guinea and in 1978 President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing paid an official visit. Touré, meanwhile, was slowly relaxing his grip on politics to allow a wider, more representative expression of views. In January 1979 the country was renamed the People’s Revolutionary Republic of Guinea although Touré said his government was prepared to co-operate with capitalists as well as socialists. However, relations with the USSR now deteriorated and, for example, the landing rights allowed to the USSR (which it had used when ferrying arms to Angola in 1975) were withdrawn. The rapprochment with the West was accompanied by more open contacts with the country’s neighbours, including Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, while Guinea also began to take a more prominent role in regional organizations such as the Mano River Union, which Guinea joined, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Sekou Touré died unexpectedly, aged 62, in 1984.
Only in 1971, after nearly 10 years of fighting, did Portugal admit that a state of war existed in Portuguese Guinea by which time 30,000 Portuguese troops were facing 7,000 Guinean guerrillas. Gen. Antonio de Spinola, who remained Governor-General to 1974, came to rely more and more on air superiority while also becoming convinced that Portugal could not win the war, a fact that influenced his decision to take part in the 25 April 1974 revolution in Portugal. On 20 January 1973 Amilcar Cabral, the PAIGC leader, was assassinated in Conakry; his naval commander, Innocenta Canida, admitted responsibility. However, PAIGC survived the crisis of Cabral’s death and the following month elected a co-founder of the party, Aristides Pereira, as leader. On 24 September 1973 the PAIGC declared the country independent as Guinea-Bissau. The new state was at once recognized by a majority of OAU countries and then by a majority of UN members including the USSR and China. On 2 November 1973 the UN General Assembly by 93 to seven with 30 abstentions voted to recognize the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. Portugal finally recognized Guinea-Bissau’s independence on 10 September 1974 and by the end of October had withdrawn all its military forces. The President of the new country to 1980 was Luis Cabral, the brother of Amilcar; his government described itself as ‘revolutionary socialist’. Indirect elections for the assembly were held in 1976. Outside the party, whose membership was limited, there were mass structures based upon trade unions, women’s and youth movements. There was little evidence of opposition to PAIGC rule through the 1970s: it was, after all, one of the most successful of all African nationalist guerrilla movements. The government followed a strictly non-aligned foreign policy: it accepted military aid from the USSR and East Germany and economic aid from UN bodies, the EC, the Nordic countries, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In 1978 Luis Cabral made an official visit to Portugal, which was returned by Portugal’s President, Gen. Antonio Eanes, in 1979. The government, however, demonstrated little economic aptitude and neglected the vital agricultural sector. Up to 1980 the PAIGC ruled both Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and the two countries intended to merge. But there was growing disaffection in Guinea-Bissau at the disproportionate influence wielded by Cape Verdeans in the government. On 14 November 1980, the Prime Minister João Vieira, whose power had just been reduced by the President, mounted a coup to overthrow Cabral. A new revolutionary council of nine replaced the national assembly and state council, which were abolished. An immediate result of the coup was to reduce the influence of Cape Verdeans and this was taken to mean that a full merger of the two former Portuguese territories would not in fact take place. The islands of São Tomé and Principe, Portugal’s other West African colony, became independent on 12 July 1975 with Dr Manuel Pinto da Costa as President and Miguel Trovoada as Prime Minister. Most of the Portuguese then left, their departure precipitating a collapse of the cocoa industry upon which the economy depended. In 1978 Dr Carlos da Graca, a former minister of health, attempted a coup from his base in Gabon; this was suppressed but the government was obliged to call upon Angola to send troops in its support. In 1979 da Costa abolished the post of prime minister though Trovoada retained his other posts. A UN attempt to conduct a census was resisted since it was seen as the prelude to a return to forced labour that had been the practice under the Portuguese. Trovoada fell from favour at the end of the decade and was briefly imprisoned but released in 1981. In December 1981 Principe was the scene of riots following food shortages. The government had pursued an ambiguous foreign policy after independence, proclaiming its adherence to socialism and non-alignment but not Marxism. President da Costa visited China, Cuba and the USSR; he also joined the IMF in 1977 and acceded to the Lomé Convention of the EC in 1978.