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INTRODUCTION
From the first successful military coup d'état in post-colonial Africa, registered in Egypt in July 1952, to the April 2012 one in Guinea-Bissau, and through to December 2012, a total of 88 successful coups, including these two, were recorded on the continent. Prior to 1990, military coups were the main mode of leadership change in the majority of African states (First 1970: 4-6; Charlton 1983: 281-2; Houngnikpo 2010: 111). This state of affairs stimulated a considerable volume of scholarly literature devoted to the study of various aspects of military interventions in African politics (Decalo 1976: 1). A study at the time by Johnson et al. (1984: 622) rightly observed that 'the African military coup d'état has accomplished the transfer of power and influence ... much more frequently than have elections and other forms of constitutionally sanctioned regime change', reducing the study of national politics in sub-Saharan Africa to a mere study of military interventions and military rule (Wiking 1983; Agbese 2004; Onwudiwe 2004). Ruth First put it ironically when she wrote: 'It has proven infectious, this seizure of government by armed men, and so effortless. Get the keys of the armoury; turn out the barracks; take the radio station, the post office and the airport; arrest the person of the president, and you arrest the state' (First 1970: 4).
Although these patterns have dramatically changed since the end of the cold war (Clark 2007; Engel 2010), and particularly since the year 2000, military coups still occur on the continent, as illustrated by the two successful coups registered in the first half of 2012 in Mali (22 March) and Guinea-Bissau (12 April). Thus, while Powell & Thyne (2011: 249) are right in their assertion that 'research on coup d'état has waned in recent years', these waves of coups on the continent have rightly led to a renewal of interest by many scholars in the subject matter. In fact, they have led some academics to point at a 'military re-engagement in politics' (Kieh & Agbese 2004), a 'pervasiveness of African military coups' (McGowan 2003: 341), or even claim the existence of a 'coup trap' in Africa (Collier & Hoeffler 2005).
However, only a few of these studies have looked...