Abstract: This article is an historical analysis of West Africa’s first coup. Starting from contemporary accounts of the 1963 assassination of president Sylvanus Olympio of the Republic of Togo, and the overthrow of his government, the article identifies three competing explanations of events. It follows these three explanations through Togo’s “shadow archives,” asking how and why each of them was taken up or disregarded by particular people at particular moments in time. The article develops a new interpretation of West Africa’s first coup, and outlines its implications for the study of national sovereignty, neo-colonialism, and pan-African solidarity in postcolonial Africa.

中文翻译：

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西非第一次政变：多哥“影子档案”中的新殖民主义和泛非项目

摘要：本文是对西非第一次政变的历史分析。从 1963 年多哥共和国总统西尔瓦努斯·奥林匹奥 (Sylvanus Olympio) 被暗杀及其政府被推翻的当代描述开始，本文确定了对事件的三种相互竞争的解释。它通过多哥的“影子档案”遵循这三个解释，询问他们中的每一个如何以及为什么在特定时刻被特定的人接受或忽视。文章对西非的第一次政变进行了新的解释，并概述了其对研究后殖民非洲的国家主权、新殖民主义和泛非团结的影响。