Column by Trevor Busch: Throughout much of the 20th century during the post-colonial period, much of Africa was truly living up to its less-than congenial sobriquet as the Dark Continent. A nom de guerre once applied by the continent’s imperialist overlords, the post-colonial descent into violence, dictatorship and even genocide was proving the boundaries drawn on maps by bickering imperialist European powers at the end of the 19th century was still taking its toll on Africa’s present — as it still does today. Today’s Africa is finally a reawakening giant that has often seen the worst that humanity offers the world. Tribalism, genocide, coups in descending order, apartheid, abject poverty, kleptocracies, child warfare, blood diamonds, warlordism, failed states — there are encouraging signs that in many instances the continent is freeing itself from the ravages of the past. Some of the old dictators have finally gone — notably Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, Mobutu Sese Seko in the Congo, and old-school authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. There are still some perennial bad apples — Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe comes to mind — but as a whole much of Africa seems increasingly ready to join a family of nations as developed and free societies. In the early 1970s, things were much different. Africa was a wild west of cowboy diplomacy as both the Soviet Bloc and the United States faced off in numerous African backwaters over ideological differences, with both sides arming their own ideologically-friendly regimes in a deadly game of Cold War cat and mouse. Unfortunately freedom — no matter what side of the political spectrum Africans found themselves under these various regimes — was an unintended casualty of proxy warfare. American novelist John Updike stepped into this maelstrom with The Coup (1978). Set in a fictional sub-Saharan African nation known as Kush during the early 1970s, it follows the struggles of dictator Col. Ellellou in attempting to prevent a pro-Western coup from sweeping him from power and instituting a style of government and economy he most hates. Read the full story here: tabertimes/blog/2014/11/12/updikes-the-coup-scattered-in-its-message/
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 21:06:20 +0000
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