Word: africa
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...disarray of his black adversaries must have delighted Ian Smith. Each day he had more reasons for joy: heavily laden tanker trucks have been roaring north along the highway from South Africa, bringing in some 40,000 gallons of gasoline daily, nearly one-third of Rhodesia's rationed needs. The petroleum is being sold to Rhodesia by independent South African oil companies, which have been emboldened by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's decision not to abide by Britain's oil embargo. The trucks were seized by Smith from British Petroleum and Shell subsidiaries in Rhodesia, repainted grey...
...ever a revolution swept a continent, it was Black Africa's independence movement, which in one wild decade transformed 28 European colonies into nations. This year, for better or for worse, the continent has taken off on its second revolution, and at a pace even faster than the first. Military coups have overthrown six of the new regimes within the past four months...
...concept of military rule may seem repugnant to the world's established democracies, even when the generals replace such an unfriendly fellow as Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah. It is not necessarily evil in Africa, however. Nigeria, the continent's most populous land and one of its most sophisticated, rocked with cheers when the soldiers took over in January, and Ghanaians were still dancing in the streets last week. Far from being resented as oppressors, Africa's new military rulers are almost unanimously hailed as the saviors of their people. Their revolution was inevitable...
Tyranny & Greed. The reasons are not hard to find. Once they got into power, Africa's heroic independence leaders let their nations down. To the growing disgust of the populations and military alike, the new regimes began restricting political freedoms instead of broadening them, bleeding their nations instead of building them, dividing their peoples instead of uniting them. Nkrumah was a petulant oppressor who demanded constant adulation for himself and the wild schemes that all but sent his country into bankruptcy. In Nigeria, Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, although personally respected, presided over a conspicuously corrupt regime that...
Guns & Discipline. The wonder is that Africa's military revolution was so long in coming. The stage had long been set for change, and the armies were the only force capable of bringing it about. Opposition politicians were either exiled, imprisoned, scared or bought off, and labor unions were weak. The ar mies, on the other hand, had guns, discipline and communications, and were the only truly national organizations in their divided lands. Their officers, often bright young men educated in the military academies of Europe, had long been symbols of selflessness: they ate simply and rode around...