Guinea Coup may prove cynics wrong

The feeling of “who cares?” by South Africans – if they even noticed – about the military coup in Guinea, is understandable.

After all, we have seen this post-colonial African movie so many times it has become a cliché.

Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, the coup leader, even did the normal African strongman thing by sporting a red beret and sunglasses as he announced the dissolution of the constitution, whose changes had enabled Alpha Conde, the West African state’s 83-year old president, to secure a third term in office.

As predictably, the rebel leader accused Conde of betraying the people by taking the path of authoritarianism.

Yet, this was perhaps not so easy to dismiss from the colonel, evoking as he did the memory of Jerry Rawlings, one of the few African coup leaders to hand a country back to democracy.

It remains to be seen whether Doumbouya walks in the footsteps of Rawlings… and cynical experience makes us wonder about that, because soldiers, once they have tasted power, seldom relinquish it.

Yet, if Guinea does return to democracy, then it will be another green shoot of optimism about the future that our suffering continent may have ahead of it.

Colonel, do not prove the cynics correct…