Coups from Below Armed Subalterns and State Power in West Africa [Hardcover]

Coups from Below represents the first major effort at studying coups carried out by the lumpen section or the subalterns of the armed forces of African states. No previous study has attempted to examine coup making by those in the bottom ranks of the military as a distinct pattern of intervention in African studies. Kandeh examines this pattern as broadly symptomatic of state failure, especially the inability of political leaders to institutionalize power, eradicate mass poverty and promote socioeconomic development.Coups from Below represents the first major effort at studying coups carried out by the lumpen section or the subalterns of the armed forces of African states. No previous study has attempted to examine coup making by those in the bottom ranks of the military as a distinct pattern of intervention in African studies. Kandeh examines this pattern as broadly symptomatic of state failure, especially the inability of political leaders to institutionalize power, eradicate mass poverty and promote socioeconomic development.Class Dimensions of Military Coups * Situating the Militariat * Historicizing the Militariat * Ghana: Mainstreaming 'Junior Jesus' * Liberia: 'No Doe, No Liberia' * Burkina Faso: 'Robin Hood of the Sahel' * Sierra Leone: Sobels, Rebels and 'Foot of State' * Gambia: Kannillai Despot

This is indeed a pioneering study on a critical aspect (subaltern class) of the military and politics in Africa that has not received any attention in the scholarly literature. In Coups From Below, Jimmy Kandeh does an outstanding job in helping our understanding of the ways in which the subaltern class within the military in West African States has seized and mismanaged state power. Clearly, this work is a major contribution to the field of security studies. - George Klay Kieh, Jr., Chair & Professor of Political Science, Morehouse College

Coups from Below is a highly useful, important, and rare comparative study of subaltern militl£,