Junta takes power in Gabon - Frogeaters on suicide watch

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

A big issue with Africa is that blacks were rapidly transitioned from tribal societies led by warlords, chiefs and kings into quasi-modern democratic societies without the much needed cultural development and evolution. That is to say a lot of countries in Africa are technically democracies but is populated with people that still hold onto tribal ideas of governance.

So yeah it's easy for warlords or dictators to rise up and gain mass support, because that's how it worked for literally thousand of years up until only a few generation ago.

On top of that, colony borders were drawn with no consideration of the different groups that lived in the territory. You'd have cultures that have been mortal enemies of each other for hundreds or thousands of years crammed together into the same country and expected to share power in a democratic system.

Even in Liberia which was never a colony that was still an issue. The freed slaves that became the Americo-Liberians transferred the social and economic structures of the antebellum South with them creating the same social hierarchy, with them on top instead of the whites and the native Kru and other tribes below them.

It got so bad in the 1920s it was de facto slavery, something expressly forbidden in the Liberian constitution.

When Congo received independence, there were barely a couple dozen Congolese with a university education. Belgium's plan was for gradual independence in 2000 after two more generations of development and education, not 1960.

 

[Spasticus Autisticus]

Like Niger, Gabon is resource-rich (it's a member of OPEC) but the people are poor with little opportunity. Nominally a democracy, their elections have historically been marked with accusations of fraud for decades. Omar Bongo, Ali's father, was savvy enough to placate the opposition enough to keep something like this from happening. Ali, who was educated in France, seems to have been more interested in cavorting with Western celebrities rather than doing the hard work of managing tribal rivalries.

The news is hitting the Western press this morning: AP article (archive)

 

[Pixy]

Is the coup announcement broadcast as good as the last attempt?

Levez-vous, Gabon, levez-vous!

 

[Pedophobe]

The news is hitting the Western press this morning: AP article (archive)

It's okay everyone, this is one of the good coups.

 

[Rudolf's Friend]

How much money do you guys bet which african country is going to be the next one to be couped?

 

[Scout Trooper]

How much money do you guys bet which african country is going to be the next one to be couped?

South Effrica deserves a coup. But we know what a good coup for South Effrica would look like and we know how they would be treated by the international community if it happened (and so do they).

So based on nothing I'm going to pick Sierra Leone.

 

[Spasticus Autisticus]

How much money do you guys bet which african country is going to be the next one to be couped?

I think we'll see shit go down in Equatorial Guinea once old man Obiang finally kicks the bucket. His son reminds me a lot of Ali Bongo: an effete France-educated brat who doesn't even pretend to give a shit about his countrymen.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

What the fuck is a Gabon?

It's a French speaking Catholic African country located at the equator.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

It's a French speaking Catholic African country located at the equator.

It also used to be an OPEC member but I think their oil fields have peaked and declined to the point where they're no longer an exporter of any significant amounts. I'd have to check to see if they still are.

 

[Spasticus Autisticus]

It also used to be an OPEC member but I think their oil fields have peaked and declined to the point where they're no longer an exporter of any significant amounts. I'd have to check to see if they still are.

They left OPEC in 1995 but rejoined in 2016. Their oil output has been declining as their existing fields are being depleted and they haven't been developing new plays to keep up. According to the US Energy Information Administration, they were the 33rd largest oil producer in the world in 2022.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

The real question in all of this is what is the junta's view on Niger and Ecowas,

 

[NevskyProspekt]

Ooh, this is interesting. Gabon is a quite well-off country by West African standards - it's certainly no Niger. The country is (was, I suppose) pretty stable, has decent infrastructure and quite a bit of oil revenue. I'm quite curious to see how this pans out.

 

[I (Don't) Have A Gun]

South Effrica deserves a coup. But we know what a good coup for South Effrica would look like and we know how they would be treated by the international community if it happened (and so do they).

So based on nothing I'm going to pick Sierra Leone.

Unlikely to happen.
Those in power are smart (or rather cunning since I doubt most of them can even read) enough to realise that a coup that leads to outright civil war would mean they lose a lot of wealth.
So the politics of South Africa is more often marked by large internal party struggles for power that only occasionally spill outside of the political realm and the political class (although those are marked by large scale protests and property damage but tends to die down quickly).

A largely docile population does help to keep coups away too. Whites are doing pretty well (with the exception of those who were very reliant on the government during Apartheid and struggled with the end of apartheid... but they're basically what you'd call white trash so no one really cares) and blacks are... well not doing too well but social welfare seems to keep them happy enough.

 

[CognitiveDeficiency]

What the fuck is a Gabon?

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

View attachment 5304314

Finally somebody with a proper answer!

 

[Montalbane]

View attachment 5304314

Why would anyone coup this little guy
He looks awesome

 

[Overly Serious]

I can never hear about anything to do with Gabon anymore without thinking of Absolutely Fabulous.

 

[whatever I feel like]

How much money do you guys bet which african country is going to be the next one to be couped?

Mauritania.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

What the fuck is a Gabon?

its a corner on the old Top Gear test track

 

[Corpun]

So this is where Prigozhin went after he faked his death. Remind me when we see a very slavic man wandering around in blackface here.