One-Party States and Military Coups

Many new states that began with multiparty constitutions soon became one-party states or military regimes. Leaders such as Nyerere argued that one-party systems could unite diverse nations, avoid ethnic parties and focus on development, and Tanzania allowed competition between candidates within the single party. Critics saw such systems as excuses for repression. Armies, often small and recently Africanized, also intervened. In January 1963 Togo's president, Sylvanus Olympio, was killed in one of the first coups in post-independence sub-Saharan Africa.

Ghana and Nigeria saw coups in 1966, and Idi Amin seized power in Uganda in 1971, beginning a brutal regime. Historians explain these trends through several factors: weak institutions inherited from colonial rule, ethnic competition, economic hardship, Cold War support for friendly strongmen, and the ambitions of leaders. Not every state followed this path: Botswana and Mauritius sustained multiparty democracy from independence, showing that outcomes were not inevitable.