Coup d’état

        My family witnessed a very serious coup d’état in my country, Mali. In 1968, high military officials decided to overturn the Malian government which included my grandfather, Sekou Ly, and his close friend Moussa Traore, who was the president of Mali. My grandfather was the minister of defense. Conducting the coup along with protestors of the past regime destroyed the city of Bamako. Over two thousand civilians died during this coup d’état. That year all schools were closed due to the political and economic crises. The salaries of civil servants were very little, and they especially did not have enough money to feed their families well. Due to my family’s parts in this crisis, it was hard to go to places My family was looked strangely wherever they went by the citizens, so they stopped going out for a while. My family struggled for a while to rebuild their lives after this Coup d'état because most Malians knew who they were, and they were despised for it.

          This event traumatized my mother and her siblings, who were just kids at the time. According to my mother, the initial events took place while she and her siblings were at school. It was the end of recess, so everyone was supposed to enter their class. When they were entering the classrooms, students, teachers, and security guards heard gunshots coming from nowhere. At that moment, it was a mess in the schoolyard, and everyone was panicking. Students were running in all directions to hide, and the principal of the school tried to call the police, but nobody was responding. Suddenly, a security guard got a call from his colleague saying that multiple military trucks were passing and shooting their guns in the air near the school. It was the beginning of the coup d'état. My mother was trying to find her siblings, by looking everywhere in the school which was divided into two parts junior, and high school. She was also scared about what might happen to her siblings. She tried to call home, but no one picked up the phone. Therefore, she called their driver who usually stays at the school door with a bodyguard. With all the students running back and forth, my mother finally found her extremely terrified siblings, and they made it to the exit door. My mother and siblings found their driver and bodyguard outside, and they were taken to a safe place. Although they were safe and able to get out, my mother was still afraid of what would come next. This event has stayed with my mother for a long time.

         Another effect of this event was that my grandmother was not allowed to go out anymore without bodyguards for months. Before the event started my grandmother, and her driver were going to my grandmother's friend’s house without bodyguards. My grandmother explained to me that when she was going to her friend’s house, she stopped in the city center to buy some fruit for her friend. When they arrived, her driver saw some people running, but in his mind, it was nothing. At that moment, he heard gunshots and understood that there was a problem going on in the city. He tried to call one of the bodyguards to get some information, but on the radio, journalists were already talking about the chaos and the gunshots it was the beginning of a coup d Etat in Mali. In the area, my grandmother and her driver were stuck, so they decided to find a safe place to hide before someone got hurt. After hiding for hours, bodyguards rescued my grandmother and her driver and took my grandmother to her kids to a secret location where no one could find them. After what happened to my grandmother, she could not go out alone anymore because the country was not safe for her family.

      During the event, my grandfather’s family had no news of him for months. Military officials kidnapped my grandfather and the president. Before the kidnapping, my grandfather was at his office discussing a traitor in the government who stole money and gave insider information to the military officials with the president. Military officials already had their plan. In the middle of my grandfather and the President having a discussion, they heard gunshots and lots of commotion downstairs. My grandfather told me that he went downstairs to see what was going on. Then he saw a lot of soldiers with their guns pointed towards the building, so he ran as quickly as possible upstairs to warn the president. It was too late, some soldiers had already made their way upstairs through another entrance, and they had their guns pointed to the President, and quickly turned towards my grandfather as well. My grandfather and the president were detained and taken to an isolated place where no one could find them, they had no idea where they were. My grandfather and the president were not even allowed to talk to their family and tell them that they were fine. According to my grandfather’s explanation, the military officials were very mean. My grandfather and the other detainees only ate once a day. They were unable to take a bath alone, so they had guards watching them 24/7.

        Hearing my family explain what happened to them during the coup d'état, I have realized how difficult and traumatizing it was for them. Even after the coup d'état, my family was unable to focus on rebuilding their life, because they were still traumatized, and the country was not safe for them. My mother and her siblings didn’t go to school for months. Since the Malian government decided to close all the schools due to economic crises, my mother and her sibling’s studies were disrupted for another year. Overturning the Malian government whenever the military has the opportunity must stop because they are putting many people's lives at risk, especially innocent civilians.