Word: dahomey
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...months the small West African country of Dahomey had been racked by a three-way tug of war among rival politicians. The tugging ended abruptly one morning late last month when a burly general in a French paratroop uniform with a chest full of medals led his 1,000-man army into the commercial capital of Cotonou. "I am taking over," declared General Christophe Soglo, 56, "because of the incapacity of the politicians to govern." With that, he dissolved the government and declared himself chief of state...
...radical hardcore-Ghana, Guinea, Algeria, Mali and Egypt-18 of the continent's 35 nations had signed the complaint. The signatories included the tiny leftist kingdom of Burundi, where Chinese influence is strong, and backwater states that once belonged to France: Central African Republic, Brazzaville Congo, Dahomey, Mauritania and Mali. Also on the list, however, were normally more moderate Ethiopia and the Sudan, and the Commonwealth nations of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, of which better things should have been expected...
...President, ordered mauve cassocks from Dior, quaffed champagne and built himself a luxury hotel. Meanwhile, his country's timber-based economy fell victim to dry rot. Crowds of New Class labor union members, with the aid of the army, politically defrocked him last August. A similar fate befell Dahomey's President Hubert Maga, who built himself a $3,000,000 palace and shrugged off charges of "squandermania" until his countrymen last December gave him the boot...
...looked as if Mba had followed in the ignominious path of Dahomey's Hubert Maga and the Congo Republic's Fulbert Youlou, both of whose governments were toppled last year. De Gaulle did not choose to intervene in those insurrections. This time, however, more was at stake. Claiming that the Gabon coup did not have popular support, De Gaulle implemented a "mutual defense" agreement signed in 1960 when Gabon became independent. Eleven hours after Mba's rude awakening, French help...
...unions, which still howl for Maga's complete removal, and the northern Bariba tribesmen, who are on the warpath to win Maga's complete reinstatement. Though massive French aid helped the new nations in the area to achieve a measure of economic progress and political stability, Dahomey and the other former French colonies are now threatened with tribal and sectional wars that could spread disorder through much of West Africa...