For three decades, since the sixties, military coups became a ritual of African politics. They consist of self-perpetuating incidents, which spilled into the 1990's, though on a much smaller scale. This book is a chronological sequence of these events in West Africa. The focus is on the coups in sub-Saharan Africa during these turbulent decades, and what can be done to stop them in Africa's quest for democracy. The author chronicles his service with the God Coast Regiment in World War Two as well as in the Civil Service of the Gold Coast and Ghana. Contents: Maps of Italian Somaliland and Abyssinia and of the Gold Coast/Ghana; Pre-War Recollections; Soldier Days-to the Northern Frontier District of Kenya; Lance Corporal Sulley Bazabarimi gets his Rifle Butt Nicked; Into Abyssinia via Italian Somaliland; A Voyage to Brighton Belle; Into Abyssinia; The Battle of Uaddara; To Addis Abada-eventually, Postscript: Back to the Gold Coast and Soldier Days Finish; My Invitation into the Work of a District Commissioner; A Look Back in History; British and French Systems of Colonial Rule Compared; District Commissioner, Juaso; Life in the Secretariat; Nkrumah Arrives; Public Relations and Civi