Military coups in Sub-Saharan Africa

This book is a comparative study of military coups between 1958 and 1980. Africa south of the Sahara. It also provides background information on the causes of some refugee exoduses, for example, from Zaire, Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. There are three parts. The first deals with different theories concerning 'coups d'état' on a general level. The second part is an empirical review concentrating on the justifications given by military leaders immediately after their interventions. The third part analyses the attempts by the military to explain their involvement in politics. The author concludes that military coups rarely take place during periods of social unrest and that the military are very sensitive to civilian intrusion into what they regard as primarily military business.