Putsch in Mali in 1968

The 1968 coup in Mali was a coup by Lieutenant Moussa Traoré that took place on November 19, 1968. He deposed President Modibo Keïta and sat himself as President, since he was the leader of the Comité Militaire de Liberation Nationale ("Military Committee for National Liberation"). The reasons for the coup were, on the one hand, the ever-increasing debt and the associated economic crisis . Mali had become independent from the French colonial rulers in 1960 and left the franc zone , although it did without French economic aid. The socialist government of Modibo Keïta brought in Soviet and Chinese advisors instead . In 1967, after the failure of his course, he had again approached France and had re-entered the franc zone. On the other hand, the country was firmly in the grip of the Unity Party of Keita, the Union Soudanais , or its paramilitary Young Mali militia , which terrorized the population, which the coup plotters did not like.

On November 19, 1968, Keita was on a steamer when the coup started. When he went ashore, he was able to attend a reception, but was arrested by an officer a few kilometers later. The militia headquarters were surrounded and subsequently disbanded by the coup plotters, as was the Union Soudanaise, which was banned. The coup lined up one of many in a number of other military coups in Africa, including the Socialist government in 1966 Ghana by Kwame Nkrumah superseded by a military coup.

Following the coup, the new leadership in Mali promised free elections until 1969 and wanted to meet all foreign policy obligations. However, in the following neither the economy could be saved nor were free elections held. In 1991 the dictatorship of Moussa Traoré itself was ended by a military coup (see coup in Mali 1991 ).

See also

• History of Mali

literature

• Stefani Hanke: System change in Mali - conditions and perspectives for the democratization of a neopatrimonial system (=  Hamburg contributions to Africa customer . No. 64 ). Institute for Africa Customers, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-928049-74-7 .
• Nervousness in Africa . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1968
• Africa's 17th military coup . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1968

Web links

• Moussa Traoré - Malian Politician and Military Strongman on About.com (English)
• Le Mali de Modibo Keita (1960-1968) on clio.fr (French, chronology of Mali under Mobido Keita)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Handbook of the Third World - West Africa and Central Africa . 3. Edition. Verlag JHW Dietz, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-8012-0204-6 , p.  311 .
2. ↑ Stefani Hanke: System change in Mali - conditions and perspectives of the democratization of a neopatrimonial system (=  Hamburg contributions to Africa customer . No. 64 ). Institut für Afrika-Kunde, 2001, ISBN 3-928049-74-7 , ISSN  0440-1670 , p. 93-96 .