West Africa’s latest successful coup (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/24/burkina-faso-government-denies-coup-after-army-mutiny-and-gunfire-near-presidents-home), in Burkina Faso on January 24, has renewed unease about coups “returning” and democracies “dying” in Africa. The recent attempt (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60220701) in Guinea-Bissau recalled the first decades after independence, when coups were rampant.

By 2012 there had been more than 200 coups (https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Economic%20Brief%20-%20Political%20Fragility%20in%20Africa%20Are%20Military%20Coups%20d%E2%80%99Etat%20a%20Never%20Ending%20Phenomenon.pdf) and attempted coups in African countries from their various times of independence. There was a coup attempt every 55 days (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2781957?casa_token=ZVehwpVUvy0AAAAA:Drc6_hTUbRyfl88JzYSTo0Hzo2Sxkuxp2HPcqP9PJu1P1isOAyhRRPA8TKh2JFQPsUX0SKyhCrJcuD9lSeDDIkby5o_K3thjqd82gHeTkXrDaT0AWhY) in the 1960s and 1970s, and more than 90% of African states had a coup experience...