The crisis of French imperialism: debating military coups in Africa

Since 2020, the African continent has witnessed a series of nine successful military coups, prompting the narrative of a ‘return of coups’ and a ‘democracy backslide’. This article argues that this view is flawed: it is based on data that are both superficial and devoid of historical contextualisation. These putsches, instead, signal first and foremost the crisis of French imperialism in Africa, as they have mostly happened in former French colonies. This article also analyses how these coups differ from those of previous decades and from each other in terms of liberation aspirations and how they relate to the phenomenon of ‘choiceless democracies’.