This book reassesses the explanations given for the causes of coups d'état in post-1960 Africa, and in particular the putsches of 1963 and 1967 in Togo. For the first time, this study explores the socio-economic and security impacts of these two regime overthrows on the lives of the Togolese people who lived through them. I propose the pluricausal systemic approach as a tool for analyzing the seizure of power by force in Africa.

No single cause, or causes taken in isolation, can explain the occurrence of coups in African history. The pluricausal systemic approach or interdependence of causes set out in this book draws on the cases of the coup d'état in Togo to propose a new way of understanding the causes of putsches in post-1960 Africa.

It is the combination of socio-economic, internal and external political factors, and their dynamic interrelationships, that enable us to better understand the causes and effects of putsches in Africa in general, and those of 1963 and 1967 in Togo in particular.