Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger: in four West African countries, the military had recently seized power in coups. At our symposium on October 28, 2023, at the Kurt-Schumacher-Haus, we asked about the reasons – and about the opportunities for sovereign, democratic change.
What it was about
The region has been on our minds for years: Guinea was already a focus in 2021, and Mali and Niger in 2022. This time, we wanted to understand why the coups happened and which paths lead toward sovereign democratic development in West Africa.
The symposium ran from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., in person and on Zoom, with simultaneous German–French interpretation.
Key questions
- What are the reasons for the coups?
- Why have democratic transformation processes failed so far?
- How can stable political alliances for lasting democratization be built?
- How can these alliances effectively tackle weak state institutions, clientelism, corruption, and political and economic dependencies?
Four keynotes
In the morning, four talks examined the topic from different angles.
Coups and their consequences
A professor from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal asked how the coups can be explained and what social conditions preceded them. He also asked how autocratic tendencies weaken governance.
Civil society and women
A former member of parliament from Burkina Faso spoke about the role of civil society, especially women’s organizations: in resolving conflicts, in democratic change, and in standing up for women’s rights.
Young people
A representative of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung asked how young people in West Africa can have a say in politics. And why it has not yet been possible to develop a social contract free from colonial continuities.
International actors
The research director of the WATHI think tank in Dakar looked at Germany, France, Russia, the EU, the AU, and ECOWAS: Where have they stabilized the situation – and where have they unintentionally achieved the opposite?
Partnership on an equal footing
After a lunch break with an African buffet, it was time for the panel. The Ambassador of Burkina Faso, a representative of Afrique-Europe-Interact, the speakers, and other experts took part. Afterward, the audience was invited to join the discussion.
The discussion focused on the opportunities for democratization, for restoring stable statehood, and for sovereign paths of development. We also asked how Germany can develop its own vision of a partnership on an equal footing. And what role it could play in promoting peace and independent, anti-colonial paths of development in West Africa.
The symposium was funded by Engagement Global on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and by the Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises.
