Soldier's Paradise Militarism in Africa After Empire

"Samuel Fury Childs Daly's keen eye and steady hand push aside the conventional wisdom about military coups in Africa to show how military rule relied on courts to enforce the discipline that soldiers believed Nigeria needed. The rule of law and the rule of guns were not always an easy fit, but the space between them allowed for debate and dissent, most powerfully in the (literal) show trial of Fela Kuti." - Luise White, author of (Fighting and Writing: The Rhodesian Army at War and Postwar) "Samuel Fury Childs Daly makes a significant, although in some ways counterintuitive, argument that places law and legalism at the heart of studies of military rule and postcolonial transitions in Africa. While Daly recognizes that military regimes are marked by indiscriminate arrests and violence, control over judiciaries, and the crude abuse of legal processes, he shows that law and legality are central to military self-fashioning, identity, and practice, and therefore they are key to how these regimes are formed. This innovative and exciting work of legal history will speak to wide audiences." - Rohit De, author of (A People's Constitution: The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic)