African Politicians and Politically Motivated Assassinations
- Ernie J. Burgher and SitiTalkBlog
- Jul 10, 2016
- 6 min read
Image Credit: Public Domain
Politics they say is a dirty game. Politicians have always made it beyond dirt and especially in the developing world, it has claimed more bloodshed and taken away more heroes than any disease or activity on earth.
Africa is not void of partaking in the bloodbath of politicians or enemies of politicians. In fact, before Africa was chopped and shared into colonies it experienced notable assassinations like the assassination of Shaka Zulu the king of the Zulu kingdom in South Africa and Al-Ashraf Khali, the Mamulk sultan of Egypt in North Africa.
Most African countries regained independence from the 60’s. The colonial masters were forced in most cases to hand over power to the nationals; in some instances the masters were not happy in whom had taken over, they felt like the baton wasn’t properly passed especially if the new ruler did not play according to their rules. This led to the former rulers sponsoring and in some cases carrying out assassinations. When African nations regained independence in the 1960’s, the fight to gain power, greed and ethnic divides engineered by colonial powers, led to military coups all over the continent. Within a decade the continent had experienced not less than 60 coup-d'etat (coup) attempts and 30 successful coups. These coups led to frequent assassinations not only of politicians who stood in the path of plotters but a huge number of civilians and military officers most of whom are unknown to the public media.
The assassination of revolutionary leaders like Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso and Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who wanted to sever ties from their colonial masters are clear examples. Mr. Sankara took over power in Burkina Faso through a military coup; he was a military captain, Marxist revolutionary and Pan African theorist. He nationalized lands and alienated his country from the French colonial power in his quest for Burkina Faso to have true economic and political independence. This led to a French sponsored coup which caused his assassination in 15th October 1987. Patrice Lumumba was the first legally elected prime minister of the DRC. The guardian wrote “Patrice Lumumba, the first legally elected prime minister of the DRC, was assassinated… on 17 January, 1961. This heinous crime was a culmination of two inter-related assassination plots by American and Belgian governments, which used Congolese accomplices and a Belgian execution squad to carry out the deed.” From the Western perspective, Patrice Lumumba was also not without controversy of his own; during the Congo Civil War or “Congo crises” (1960-1964) caused by mutiny in the Congolese army, Lumumba the then Prime Minister of Congo sought help from the Soviet Union during the height of the cold war, and many believe this led to his assassination in 1961. Post independence also witnessed assassinations as a result of power tussle between the elites, dictatorship and ethnic divides, orchestrated and fueled by colonial powers.
Nigeria in West Africa seemed to have experienced the most of these kinds of incidents. 1966 alone saw the assassination of five different political leaders; Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Alhadji Sir Ahmadu Bello and Samuel Akintola assassinated in a coup in January 1966; while Johnson Aguyi Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi assassinated in a counter coup in June 1966. These created an air of mutual suspicion among the different ethnic groups in the country which is a huge reason behind the 1967 Nigerian civil war which was primarily triggered by the 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom, was a series of massacres directed at Igbo and other people of southern Nigerian origin living in northern Nigeria. This started in May 1966 and reached a peak after 29 September 1966. It has been estimated that during this period 1966 anti-Igbo pogrom 30,000-50,000 Igbo civilians were murdered throughout northern Nigeria by Hausa-Fulani soldiers and civilians. The massacre was largely believed to be a revenge for the 1966 Nigerian coup d'état, carried out by 6 Igbo Majors and 3 Igbo Captains and resulted in the deaths of 11 Nigerian politicians and army officers. During the Nigerian civil war (1967-1970) during which over three million Biafran civilians died (some estimate up to 6 million deaths) in fighting and from starvation primarily due to the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government. This does not include the hundreds of others (non-Igbos) who died during the war.
In 1994 Rwanda saw an assassination that led to Genocide; Juvénal Habyarimana the then president of Rwanda was assassinated when his plane was shutdown as it approached the Kigali airport signaling the start of the Rwandan genocide. The Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana and her husband got assassinated the morning after the genocide began. The genocide lasted for a hundred days but claimed about a million Rwandan lives.
By the Mid and late 90’s dictatorship was widespread and military coups became infrequent. The dictators had strengthened their military and were smart at tackling any opposition or dissenting voice immediately. Poverty had spread like wildfire and rich elite’s greed overcame their desire of good governance as long as the Government favored their interest. Media owners and activist suffered in the Hands of these dictators, most of their stories are undocumented, some left home and never returned, some went through suspicious circumstances, while others were victimized by the system. Ken Saro-Wiwa a Nigerian writer, television producer and environmental activist suffered this fate. Under the the military dictatorship of late General Sani Abacha, he was tried by a military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the murder of the Ogoni chiefs, whom were chiefs from his own village. In 1995, he was hanged till death, this provoked the international community and as a result the Commonwealth of Nations suspended Nigeria for three years. Retired General Muhammadu Buhari, former renowned military dictator and current President of Nigeria, had a long list of extra-judicial killings and human rights abuses during his dictatorial reign (December 1983- August 1985), and many have accused him of continuing such acts during his current tenure as President through his so-called Security Agencies, Police and Military. Today the world is smarter and the international legal system is not as weak as it was before, notable former rulers like Charles Taylor of Liberia and Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast have seen the international wheel of justice roll before their eyes. Many more African rulers may still face the international wheel of justice as time goes on.
In recent times politicians in African countries are taking stringent though selfish measures to ensure their anti-coup security is impenetrable; Cameroon in central Africa has an entire military force with thousands of trained soldiers with the sole aim of protecting only the president and family. However assassinations still persist in different circumstances; former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, in 2011 was removed and assassinated by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-supported opposition fighters during a revolutionary war in Libya.
Orchestrated and sustained by an underworld of politicians and other sinister “power-wheeling” Islamist extremist groups, as alleged, what today witnesses are the rise of terrorist sects like Isis in the North of Africa, Boko Haram in the west and central Africa, especially in Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, Fulani-Hausa Herdsmen in Northern Nigeria, and Al Shabab in Somalia and East Africa, using religion or some other nomadic primordial thinking, as a political reason to stand up against civilized thinking and way of life, civil authorities, and terrorizing societies through savage killings including suicide bombings and beheading of innocent civilians.
By and large, until African politicians are culled from the truly well educated and exposed, true leaders (and not just rulers) who understand that continued ill-run systems and negative actions will only keep African nations in the “dark ages”, individual African countries cannot fully emerge into the 21st century; and the African continent as a whole will not be able to catch up with the developed world.
References and links
Adam Hochschild, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa,
""Akintola: Remembering a controversial politician""
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch.
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Ernie J. Burgher is a bi-lingual freelance journalist and author, and speaks English and French. Ernie writes for SitiTalkBlog.
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