Could West Africa become a dictatorship? Gabon's leader has been overthrown and replaced by soldiers. It is only five weeks after the same thing happened in Niger.
Another African nation falls to military rule
Military measures: Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso and São Tomé and Príncipe have all experienced recent coups. Glossary
Elections - When a vote is held to decide who should represent a group of people.
Gabon - A country on the west coast of Central Africa.
Coup - When an individual or group takes control of government by illegal means, including by violence.
Niger - A landlocked country in West Africa. It has a population of 25 million.
President - In some countries, the leader is called the president.
Burkina Faso - A landlocked country in West Africa with a population of 22 million.
Colonialism - This refers not only to the material realities of colonial rule, but also to the mindset of the colonising powers and their ways of justifying empire. Most Europeans believed that empire was a moral good, because it imparted 'civilisation' to 'primitive' cultures and so helped them to develop.
Dictatorships - A form of government in which one person possesses all the power without any limits.