Soldiers on the March

For two 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.

Trends form fast in Africa, and Dahomey seemed to set a pattern last week in two nearby countries:

> In the Central African Republic, Colonel Jean-Bedel Bokassa, 44, over threw President David Dacko, 35, the country's only President since independence in 1960.

> In Upper Volta, Lieut. Colonel Sangoule Lamizane, 50, ousted President Maurice Yameogo after four days of demonstrations in the capital city of Quagadougou against a proposed 20% cut in government salaries.

"Moral Cleanup." That three regimes fell in less than two weeks underscored the fact that political independence has not turned out to be the panacea many Africans had dreamed it would be. Dahomey, the C.A.R. and Upper Volta are all pitifully poor, lack the mineral deposits and rich soil necessary to lift the standard of living much above the bare minimums their populations had endured for years. Unable to do much for the people, the politicians unwisely did what they could for themselves. Dahomey's first President built a $3,000,000 palace; the Upper Volta's Yameogo built himself a sumtuous country retreat with a swimming pool, while farmers still desperately seek water holes on the arid plains to keep their cattle from thirsting to death.

Trouble had to come, and when it did, the military was the logical, cohesive force to assume leadership. Demonstrators in Upper Volta actually carried signs asking the army to take over. As products of austere French military traditions, the army commanders abhorred frivolity and waste. "France gives us money, and all we do is waste it," said Colonel Lamizane after ousting Yameogo. In the Central African Republic, Colonel Bokassa used almost exactly the same words as he instituted a "moral cleanup" campaign for government officials: no bars, dance halls, riding in taxis. Also forbidden: tom-tom playing during working hours.

Once in power, Dahomey's Soglo and the C.A.R.'s Bokassa immediately broke relations with the Red Chinese, whom they accused of meddling in domestic affairs. Colonel Bokassa claimed to have found evidence that the Red Chinese had been planning a coup against the government, and summarily packed the entire 32-man embassy staff on a Brazzaville-bound airliner.

Little Losses. By any standard, the transitions to military rule were mild enough. In the C.A.R., it was cousin ousting cousin and putting up the ousted kin in his own house. In Upper Volta, former President Yameogo praised the coup. "Contrary to what people may think," said he in a broadcast speech, "my ministers and I are the first to rejoice in the way things have been settled." In Dahomey, not a shot was fired, nor were more than a handful of politicians placed under arrest. The only deaths in the three military takeovers came in the C.A.R. where eight people died, including a government television station guard who threatened to fire his bow and arrow.

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