One interpretation of current events in West Africa, particularly in the Sahel, is that we are currently witnessing the completion of the decolonisation project that was interrupted and derailed by the activities of the Fran?afrique architects. The coups d'état that led to the creation of the Alliance of Sahelian States (ASS) would thus be a Hegelian "cunning of reason" to free itself from colonialism, which traps Africa in a world system that is fundamentally at odds with the needs of its people. This interpretation is supported by the observation that the decolonisation of the 1960s, even if Fanon understood it essentially as a violent process, proceeded relatively smoothly. Smooth in the sense that the privileges of a transnational ruling class remained intact.
In his lecture, Mouhamadou El Hady Ba, philosopher and cognitive scientist at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, shows that the decolonial claims of the proponents of these coups are deceptive. He bases this on three points: “First, the course of historical events in these countries favours a displacement of legitimate popular anger rather than a genuine anti-colonial revolution. Secondly, I will address the nature of power and authority from a philosophical perspective, arguing that the regimes that emerged from these coups are on the whole more illegitimate than those they replaced. Finally, I will refer to two revolutionary pre-colonial moments: the founding of the Mali Empire and the Fouta Revolution led by Thierno Souleyman Baal, to substantiate the illegitimacy of the ASS countries' juntas, even against the backdrop of their endogenous political traditions.”
Date
- Title of the event: ‘Decolonial Coups d'Etat?’
- Date and location: Thursday, 18 December, 7:15 p.m., Senatssaal of Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin