Parte del Reportage dal Golfo di Guinea 2008

Sarebbe stato opportuno annotare queste brevi impressioni direttamente sul luogo; mi ritrovo, mio malgrado, a distanza di qualche giorno dal rientro, ancora con idee frammentarie su cosa e come scrivere.

Eppure la sensazione è che mi trovo a percorrere le strade con scarpe diverse; scarpe fuori moda, che non avrei mai messo prima, ma ora te le tieni strette strette fin su la caviglia e ti accorgi che sono addirittura confortevoli.

Non credo, almeno per l’età che ho, di dover cambiare il mio essere per un’esperienza ma questa è l’ennesima conferma che determinate situazioni ti danno l’opportunità di essere sempre lo stesso…anche quando vesti fuori moda o stai ai margini da tutto. L’importante è non cambiare ma adattarsi in ogni situazione per capire…

Beh…questo vestito è made in Africa. E’ un po’ retrò, kitsch, stancante con punte glamour…è l’Africa dei bollettini postali delle Ong che ti arrivano a casa, è la stessa Africa dei bambini con il pancione o con gli occhi strabuzzanti per la fame, è l’Africa del detto e ridetto.

Non è stata questa l’impressione della mia Africa. Per questo cambio la stessa definizione in Afrika.

Con un certo disgusto da occidentale ho iniziato a guardare la terra. Tutto qui!

La terra qui, il più delle volte ha fattezze di polvere, ma quando si bagna, per le frequenti piogge stagionali, diventa rossa. È questo incredibile rosso, che a seconda del cielo e delle diverse tonalità che gli fa assumere il sole, si avvicina al colore del sangue.

L’immagine che si riusciva a fotografare dal riflesso di quelle pozzanghere non le posso raccontare se non con questa metafora; e si sa, la metafora può essere tanto forte, quanto molto debole o peggio ancora banale. ancora banale

Il Golfo di Guinea comprende molti stati che nelle spartizioni e ridefinizioni politiche del passato hanno cercato di dare a quasi tutti uno sbocco sul mare anzi sull’Oceano.

Ho iniziato il mio viaggio dalla Costa d’Avorio, nome che per legge nazionale non può essere tradotto diversamente da Cote d’Ivoire.

Da qui e dal confinante Ghana sono iniziate le razzie con mercato degli schiavi che avrebbe fatto le fortune delle attuali potenze mondiali. Panta rei

Non voglio  dilungarmi nella storia…o perdermi in essa e allora cerco di guardare questo popolo attraverso le innumerevoli maschere per assumere il loro stesso colore e non avere il fardello da bianco che mi porto dietro.

Nelle loro tradizioni le maschere utilizzate nei numerosi riti animisti , non avevano né un nome né si conosceva l’artigiano che le aveva costruite: l’origine era divina.

Decido in corso d’opera di  cambiare nome di battesimo in  Kwame: questa è ora la mia maschera . Qui il nome della persona  viene associato al nome del giorno della settimana  in cui si nasce.

Oggi con una certa facilità queste mercanzie si riescono ad acquistare direttamente nei negozietti che te li possono costruire su misura.

Il mio viaggio inizia ad Abidjan soggiornando nel quartiere malfamato di  Abobo. Abidjan sconta ancora la follia dell’ ex capo di stato Boigny  che per capriccio trasferì la capitale politica a Yamoussokro,un ex villaggio di cinquecento anime, rendendolo simile a una sorta di Las Vegas post atomica, costruendo immensità architettoniche come  il clone della Basilica di san Pietro in Roma “Notre dame de la Paix” benedetta da Giovanni Paolo II.

Non sono d’accordo con chi ha definito “follia” la costruzione di questa immensa opera che può accogliere fino a trecentomila fedeli in piedi. Credo effettivamente, che per il Colosseo , le Piramidi o Notrè dame si pagò un prezzo più alto ed ora sono Patrimonio dell’Umanità o (disumanità).

La Cote d’Ivoire è stata una delle pochissime nazioni africane a iniziare negli anni 60-70 un incredibile sviluppo.

Ho vissuto ad Abobo un paio di giorni e questo quartiere rispecchia “la miseria grigia e la miseria allegra” ma ,come al solito,  sono paradossi…non solo africani.

Arrivo per partecipare ad un progetto sociale con una Ong che per varie ragioni viene annullato. Riprogrammiamo  tutto e ci troviamo  a decidere cosa fare con un biglietto aereo da qui ad un mese…

Decidiamo di partecipare ad un altro progetto che era già iniziato  nell’entroterra, a Nord.

Il villaggio si chiamava  Kossè N’Gattakro vicino a M’Bahiakro. L’etnia che vi vive è Baulè.

La Cote d’Ivoire esce dalla guerra dal 2006 ma dalla tensione basta poco per stimolare  i perenni  focolai, in particolar modo nella la zona in cui eravamo (tra  mussulmani e i pochi cristiani… abbondanti a Sud ) e come se non bastasse l’effetto del post colonialismo francofono.

Ho trasgredito tutte le regole igienico sanitarie, iniziando nel bere l’acqua del pozzo del villaggio di Kossè, senza antimicrobici, mangiando topi e gazzelle accompagnate fin dalle prime ore del mattino dal Koutukou, (una sorta di estratto della palma  distillato, simile alla grappa per sapore); il tutto allietato dal gusto del loro pane che qui si chiama attikè o lo yam derivati da enormi tuberi.

La  vita, con  tutte le loro giornate,  girà e girerà  intorno ad un fuoco sul quale c’è perennemente qualcosa in cottura. Il pozzo è l’altro punto d’incontro del villaggio: dalla famiglia al clan tra  un crocevia di donne e bambini che pompano l’acqua su immense tinozze trasportate sul capo. Capisco ora perché hanno un’andatura particolare causata dai danni sulla colonna vertebrale. I glutei sporgenti sono frutto di necessità, non di chirurgia estetica.

L’Afrika è una donna: non  è una banale constatazione.

L’etnia  Baulè deriva dagli Akan , che a loro volta sono i padri degli Ashanti e l’area interessata comprende anche quella del vicino Ghana.

Un antica leggenda orale Baulè racconta che l’origine di questo popolo  derivi dal lamento “Bauli !” (il bambino è morto) che la regina Pokou esclamò quando dovette immolarlo  per salvare il proprio popolo perseguitato dai vicini Ashanti.

Terminato il progetto si decise di andare nel vicino Ghana o meglio in quei luoghi, un tempo appartenuti all’antico   impero del Ghana, un altro tempo ancora  appartenuto, nella sola fascia costiera a portoghesi , svedesi , danesi, francesi, tedeschi e inglesi eccetera eccetera. Da Cape Coast, passando per Elmina in molte altre località, vennero costruiti fortezze e piccoli castelli, all’inizio utilizzate come magazzini per le merci e poi utilizzate per uomini. Ammassati in pochi metri quadrati solcavano quella che era definita “The door of no return”  per salire sulle navi. Non si conoscono i numeri ma le stime parlano di 20 milioni di persone di cui circa la metà morirono nel tragitto verso le americhe e il settanta per cento  originario di Ghana e Cote d’Ivoire.

Ci avviamo verso Accra e rincontriamo alcuni  amici che avevamo lasciato nel percorso

Il Ghana è stata la prima nazione africana a raggiungere l’indipendenza nel 1957.

Ripercorriamo più di 500 km in dodici ore facendo otto cambi e cavalcando ammassati le vecchissime ferraglie delle Peugeot 505 e dei pulmini chiamati (in Ghana) Tro- tro per l’aeroporto di Abidjan.

Glen, un artista, asserì che l’indipendenza del Ghana non ha senso se non è accompagnata dall’indipendenza dell’intera AfriKa.

Credo di non essere cambiato, almeno fisicamente, almeno emotivamente  ma il nome che, volentieri,  affianco  al mio con la massima razionalità è: Kwame.

Sono nato di sabato.

Per il resto contattami

Nel nome di Dio hai violentato la guerra.
Nel nome di Dio benedici il suo fango.
Nel nome di Dio sorridi e preghi.
Nel nome di Dio rimbalza il pallone.
Nel nome di Dio piangi e muori.
Nel nome di Dio canti ogni lode.
Nel nome di Dio chiedi le elemosina a pugno chiuso.
Nel nome di Dio la polvere schiavizza il cielo
Nel nome di Dio.
Nel nome di Dio.
Nel nome di Dio.

 
Dans le nom de Dieu as violé la guerre.
Dans le nom de Dieu benis sa boue.
Dans le nom de Dieu souris et pries.
Dans le nom de Dieu le ballon ricoche.
Dans le nom de Dieu pleures et meurs.
Dans le nom de Dieu chantes chaque éloge.
Dans le nom de Dieu demandes la aumône à poing fermé.
Dans le nom de Dieu la poussière esclavage le ciel
Dans le nom de Dieu.
Dans le nom de Dieu.
Dans le nom de Dieu.

In the name of God you have raped the war
In the name of God you bless his mud.
In the name of God you smile and pray.
In the name of God The ball rebounds
In the name of God you cry and die
In the name of God tou sing each praise
In the name of God you beg by your closed hands
In the name of God the dust makes slave the sky
In the name of God.
In the name of God.
In the name of God.

Foto reportage 2008 Africa

Il grigio
uccide il suo cielo, le sue case:
la sua gente,
tra ammassi di lamiere plastificate
che attutiscono i caos
frenetici mattutini.

Il bianco
sorride soltanto al tramonto,
con il sole enorme e rosso

Il nero
rallegra la notte
con musica e il magico poullè

Vers qui se tourne le citoyen lorsqu'il a besoin de protection?

La police bien entendu! Mais que peut on faire si l'instinct de survie est plus fort que le devoir?

Un chauffeur de taxi prend dans sa voiture des jeunes gens tout à fait comme vous et moi, de simples citoyens, des clients apparemment ordinaire. A peine ont-ils roulé quelques kilomètres que ces derniers sortent leurs armes et annoncent d'un air menaçant:

"c'est un braquage!"

Pris de panique, le chauffeur  roule jusqu'au pont H. Boigny, puis s'arrête à un poste de police sans qu'on lui ai rien demandé (habituellement, ce sont les policiers qui sifflent pour des contrôles d'identité ou pour les documents de la voiture, il n'en était rien dans le cas du chauffeur de taxi)

Il freine donc et s'arrête , à la grande surprise des voyous.

"aie! mon ami késia?" (disons plutôt "que se passe t-il?

"Excusez moi, nous sommes à un poste de police, je vais présenté  les papiers du taxis à l'agent, ensuite nous continuerons notre route."

"ok, mais dépêche toi alors"

Le chauffeur descend de la voiture, ses documents à la main, il s'approche du policier et lui annonce discrètement:

"Chef, dans ma voiture là, il y a des braqueurs"

Et le policier de rétorquer impatient:

"Mais mon ami, qui t'a arrêté même?"

Le chauffeur reprend sans se décourager:

"Chef, c'est sérieux! il ya des braqueurs dans mon taxi!"

Le policier ne comprend toujours pas ou feint de ne pas comprendre.

"Je sais, mais qui t'a arrêté même?"

Comme le chauffeur tardait à revenir, les braqueurs, très en colère, sortent de la voiture en hurlant, arme au point:

"Mais où est passé ce idiot de chauffeur?"

C'est à ce moment là que le policier réalise l'ampleur de la situation. Mais au lieu de réagir comme un policier respectable dont le devoir est de protéger la population, il déclare calmement:

"Allez mon ami, on t'attend! tes clients s'impatientent, va vite les rejoindre!"

C'est vrai que de nos jours à Abidjan, on ne sais plus qui protège qui....

Extrait de Gbich interprété par Willykean

         Well, let’s me just tell you about the 48 hours less to departure from Abidjan. Boy! I was excited all over, whether it was my first time in a plane, or it was the way I missed home so much. Don’t blame me, I mean how could you? Home is home, no place like it.

Within those few hours left to go. The house was empty; my two lovely cousins had travelled. I thought initially it would have got to me, but few minutes later, I was up the stairs cleaning the dishes, and getting juice from the fridge. If there’s one thing that Abidjan gave me that I didn’t have apart from the French, then it would be taking juices. I love their juices and drinks. I knew I had to buy some to put in my bag to bring it here, and sure I did! :D

The day my cousins left, it was a bit late; their flight was about 2am in the morning. Good graces! Why do some flights have to so early? I didn’t ask for you answer. :P No offense taken, right?  :) So after I came down to watch television, and as usual it was boring. Maybe it is my doing because when I came back to Ghana too, I realized that I really haven’t enjoyed television, maybe movies, but I have mainly stuck with my laptop. Okay! Let me ask you one question, do you find television nowadays boring, maybe not entirely but marginally? Tell me.

             The people: Cote d’ Ivoire, okay! Let’s get the facts right from the beginning. I mean Abidjan, not the whole country. Why? Well that’s where I lived. What I saying before you wanted me to explain things? :P Ahh! The people! Allow me to talk about the women. I remember the first day I went through the country, no! actually the second day. Someone made a comment, “Ivorian women are beautiful than Ghanaian women.” I laughed. Probably I was been patriotic, the person would have said, but then… not that I mean to say they are ugly. No, I didn’t say that. Don’t get me wrong. There’s one thing with the behaviour of the women that thrilled me, all the time. A very usual sight to see in the country is women who went wherever in a piece of cloth. Ok! I don’t mean to be so critical but…Jeees! You know like the ordinary cloth maybe you cover yourself in, when in bed. That’s even too big. I dislike the sight. I know, Africa and all but then come on, Ivorian women; we are in the 21^st century. Hey! You are getting me wrong again. :D I didn’t say all their women do that. :P

             The last point I’ll touch on will be the transport. I usually went to work in a private car, or the school bus. Seldom did I take the public transport. There are three or four kinds of public transport over short distances. The first is the local body manufactured, “Gbacar”. I don’t even know if I had the spelling right. The buses looked too awful, more like some sort of death trap. Almost all of those buses had the name, “Africauto” written on it. I always thought it was some African-Ivorian designer. I earlier told you that the car body was locally made. My African pals; I don’t mean to be the guy seeing all the wrong things here, but where’s the perfection and beauty of art in what we do. Well, those few occasions I sat in the bus was an amazing experience. The bus I was expecting to be so slow was speeding past better built cars. The way the driver drove made you wonder what would happen if the worse happens. Whoosh! I don’t want to imagine things now. It will kind of give you an idea when I tell you, it is like a death trap. I recall seeing one smoking from within and the passengers had to quickly get out.

                In Abidjan there are two kinds of taxi services, there’s the red and the yellow. The yellow coloured taxis were all old; sorry I mean OLD! I’m trying to imagine if I ever saw a slightly brand new looking, “Wororo- the local name” The name alone gives it away, “wororo;” as if the car can hardly support itself and has to be dragged everywhere the drivers took it. I never did sit in one of those. Sure u can guess; that was the less expensive type of transport. I use mostly the red ones, these one look better. The difference was not only in the colour; the red taxis had a counter in it. Where you don’t bargain anything if you don’t want to, the counter will tell you at the end of your destination and you pay, no questions asked.

                  Touching on the last part of this script will be the last transport service. It is one of those long buses run by a company called Sotra. The kind of buses that have so few seats and a lot more space for people to stand. Wow! You should see the scene on a busy work day. The bus is so packed, I sometimes wonder if the people are able to breathe. Seriously, things have to change but I still enjoyed “en tous cas” my stay there, being the first time I came out of my own country, it was an experience I’ll never forget. If there’s more, I’ll tell you, but that’s what I can bring my mind to remember.

CAUSES AND FACTORS

OF THE CRISIS IN

THE IVORY COAST

By

Francis Wodie

fwodie@hotmail.com

African American Studies 596             Fancois Muyumba

Summer I, 2003                             f-muymba@indstate.edu

Indiana State University                        (812) 237-2553

The Ivory Coast is a West African country counting more than 60 different tribes that can be divided into larger groups:  The Akans in the south, the east and the center of the country, the Krou, which include the Bete people, in the center-west, the Dan and the We in the west and the Mende in the north.  The Mende or Mandingos are Muslims in majority, while the other groups are essentially Christians and Animists.  For years this influential country was known for both its political and economical stability.  The country obtained its independence in 1960.  After forty years of only one party rule, the political arena became opened to the opposition.  Nine years later, the country experienced its first coup d’etat.  On September 19^th 2002, the Ivory Coast was victim of an assault followed by a crisis the magnitude of which it had never experienced before.  Many observers and even people in the Ivorian government qualified this attack of unexplained.  However, many signs were pointing to such a crisis.  To better understand this crisis and how it came about, one need to go back in time and look at the evolution of the Ivory Coast.  We will need to focus more particularly on the way the country was formed, was governed and was influenced by others.

I.          Colonial period

The written history of the Ivory Coast begins in the fifteenth century with the construction of fortified trading posts by the Portugese.  In 1842 the French navy in the person of Bouet Willaumez, an admiral for King Louis-Philippe, signed treaties with the local chieftains.  This placed Assinie[1], which was dependent of the Sanwi Kingdom, one of the two Agni Kingdoms, and Grand-Bassam[2], an Aboure[3] territory, under French protection.  He lead the construction of Fort Joinville at Assinie and Fort Nemours at Grand-Bassam.  The land for Fort Nemours was given in exchange of the French protection, but also of some guns, tobacco, alcohol and mirrors[4].  In 1893 the entire Ivory Coast became a French protectorate and in 1904 the Ivory Coast became part of French West Africa, which capital was Dakar, in Senegal.

            In the 1920s, France abandoned its system of collaboration with the local chieftains to become more authoritarian and systematically exploit the territory.  Following this new policy, the culture of cocoa was introduced in the south of the Ivory Coast, followed later on by other types of industrial cultures.  These years saw the establishment of the forced labor.  In 1932, the south of the Upper Volta, which represents the actual Burkina Faso, was attached to the colony of Ivory Coast, the north remaining a separate colony.  In 1934, Abidjan became the capital of the Ivorian colony.  In 1943, members of General DeGaulle’s provisional government took control of the whole French West Africa, replacing the Vichy government[5].  Once the war was over, in 1946, the Ivory Coast was declared an overseas territory and in 1947 the southern part of Upper Volta was detached from the Ivory Coast and once again attached to the rest of the Upper Volta.

II.        Before the independence

            Starting in 1946 the history of the Ivory Coast became undiscociable from the history of one man, Felix Houphouet Boigny.  He created with other wealthy plantation owners the “Syndicat Agricole Africain” (SAA).  This new syndicate had for goal to obtain equal treatment of French citizens and African subjects of France, the abolition of forced labor, which was really a form of slavery by the French administration.  The SAA was mainly composed of Ivorians.

In 1946, France granted its colonies the right to form political associations and to be represented in the French Assembly[6] and finally French subjects were awarded the French citizenship.  The same Year Houphouet Boigny created the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) and a few months later with other African leaders the Democratic African Rally (RDA), which was the principal pre-independence political force in French West Africa.  Still in 1946 Houphouet was elected with a narrow margin to the constituent assembly to represent the Ivory Coast.  One of the first political success of Houphouet was to obtain from the Assembly the abolition of forced labor.  Houphouet would remain the representant of the Ivory Coast in the Assembly until 1959.  He would also serve under four different French governments as a minister.  Mr. Houphouet  continued to work on improving the labor conditions.  A particular trait of the man was his opposition to nationalism, but also to pan-africanism.  In 1956 he expressed his position on the issue of indepedence asked by nationalist movements: “to the mystique of independence we oppose the reality of Fraternity”.  To him, the Ivory Coast would not be able to survive without France and the idea of independence was mere utopia. From the French perspective, Francophone Africa was often considered as a French preserve[7] from which other foreign powers were to be excluded[8].  Moreover, the concepts of France-Afrique or Eurafrique symbolized the intensity of France’s belief that its links with Africa were indissoluble[9].  This is the reason why at the conference held in Brazzaville in 1944, any possibility of decolonizing the French empire was shelved[10].  The crucial 1956 loi-cadre[11] located the vital institutions of African political autonomy at the echelon of the fourteen territories in the Afrique Occidentale Francaise (AOF) and Afrique Equatoriale Francaise (AEF)[12].  Although some nationalist leaders dreamed of achieving independence within the broader unit, especially in the AOF of which the Ivory Coast was part, the wealthier territories, Ivory Coast and Gabon, were opposed to this[13].  Houphouet considered that the Ivory Coast was the milking cow of the AOF.  He was tired of supporting the other territories and being used. 

Until literally the eve of independence, the “federal” formula the fifth Republic Constitution, sought to institutionalize, had the assent of most of the current political class, with the exception of the more radical intelligentsia-especially the students.  The referendum approving the fifth Republic Constitution in 1958 drew large, usually overwhelming majorities in all sub-Saharan territories except Guinea, reflecting the strong whishes of the African leadership for its approval[14].  In 1958, the Ivory Coast became a republic inside the French Community.

In 1959, Felix Houphouet Boigny became prime minister of the Ivory Coast.  Following the independence of the short-lived Mali Federation, regrouping Senegal and Mali in June 1960, all former French African colonies, including the Ivory Coast and Gabon but excluding Comoros and Djibouti, had become independent by august 1960[15].  We could say that in the final compressed surge to independence, the interaction of divisions among nationalist leaders and movements, combined with French interests, resulted in twelve states of modest size rather than two large ones[16].  The problem is that where state boundaries were cut through the territories of ethnic groups, these boundaries have remained, institutionalizing ethnic tension and communal violence[17].  In the case of the Ivory Coast the key example is the kingdom of Kong, which covers both part of northern territory and part of southern Burkina Faso.  Another example is the We, who are present both in the Ivory Coast and in Liberia.

III.       The independence               

The independence of the Ivory Coast was proclaimed on August 7^th 1960. Houphouet was elected president and assumed the title of father of the independence.  This title will be transformed years later in father of the nation.  Starting in 1960 Houphouet conducted policies, which were very different from what other ex-colonies were doing.  Unlike other countries such as the Gold Coast, which became Ghana, the Dahome, which became Benin or the Upper Volta, which became Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast remained the Ivory Coast.  The former colons were not asked to leave, but new French citizens were encouraged to come and work in the Ivory Coast and bring their expertise.  At the time a French secretary in a ministry was paid twice the salary of an Ivorian secretary in the same ministry.  This attitude led to maitaining the ties between the Ivory Coast and France.  The ministries and directions were given to a new ivorian elite freshly out of French universities.  Even though Houphouet used what was called the “geo-politique” by sharing the positions between people from the south, the east, the west and the north, the strategic ones were left to his kinsmen, the Baoule, an Akan tribe.  Under his forty year reign the defense ministry was always occupied by Baoule and for years the minister of defense was his own nephew Charles Konan Banny.  He also created a special unit, the republican guards, only composed of Baoule, for his personal protection.  Like other African presidents of the time he was careful in making sure that the country’s army was not too developed, underarmed and staying in caserns, except for when it was needed, usually to stop protestation movements.  The security of the country was maintained through accords with the French Army[18].  France signed military assistance and defense agreements and set up a base, the 43^rd BIMA, in Abidjan. 

Houphouet wanted to be the only one at the head of the country and everyone way under him, making sure this way that nobody could have in mind to replace him.  The constitution copied on the French constitution and allowed, in its article 7, Ivorians to create political parties.  All they had to do was to send a demand to the interior ministry, but the ministry never allowed the creation of any other parties.  As a consequence, the parties that existed before the independence, like the progressist party, were incorporated into the PDCI or disappeared.  For the elections, candidates also had to be recognized by the interior ministry, as a result only militants of the PDCI-RDA and handpicked by Houphouet himself were allowed to present themselves.  Like elsewhere in Africa where individuals and groups transformed government benefits from the economy into their own and their supporters’[19], Houphouet allowed people that he put at the head of ministries or state corporations, to live well above what should have been their standard of life.  It was a system that worked, because once somebody was placed, he wanted and needed to stay where he was, so he had to be one hundred percent supportive of Houphouet. 

Between 1961 and 1965 were the Houphouet Boigny purges based on fake plots.  Among the young elite that was already occupying higher posts or was in formation, Houphouet picked anyone who was susceptible to oppose him and even people who were clearly attached to him and emprisoned them in military camps, presumably guilty of wanting to remove him from power or other subversive activities.  Among the hundreds who were emprisoned the most prominents were Jean Konan Banny, a leader of the PDCI and Houphouet’s nephew, and a minister at the time, Charles Don Wahi, who later became president of the National Assembly for the PDCI, and was vice president of the same assembly before that, Gaston Koffi Gadaug, who was the grand Chancellor of the National Order, Seydou Diarra, actual prime minister of the Ivory Coast and who was a young diplomat at the time, Francis Wodie, actual leader of the Ivorian Labor Party (PIT) and Abdoulaye Fadiga, who became the first governor of  the central Bank of Western African States (BCEAO).  French intelligence services provided invaluable protection to rulers by their capacity to monitor and penetrate oppositions groups and to foil potential conspiracies by providing early warning to incumbents.  These security operations have always enjoyed high-level attention in Paris through such presidential advisers as eminence grise Jacques Foccart[20].  Francis Wodie, who was member of an Ivorian Student Association in France, criticized the paternal way Houphouet Boigny was conducting state affairs.  In 1961, he was picked up with others by the French police and without any explication sent to the Ivory Coast where they were emprisoned for six months.  The conditions of detention were hard, and some prisoners were tortured.  In many ways these purges traumatized those arrested.  The message was clear; imagine what would happen to you if you do try something.  Most prisoners after being released were left for a few months without any revenues before they found new positions similar to the ones they had before, and for others better, with more responsibilities. 

IV.       The early years of independence

By 1963, Paris continued to maintain influence through an intricate network of political, military, economic, and cultural ties.  Thirteen African countries tied their Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA) franc to the French franc, giving Paris effective control over the zone’s central banks and the French treasury control of their foreign reserves[21].  The relations of the new republic of Ivory Coast with France were excellent.  The problem however was Nigeria, the African giant of West Africa.  France, Gabon and the Ivory Coast saw the increasing influence of Nigeria as threatening.  Also, president De Gaulle was angered that in 1961 Nigeria had severed diplomatic relations with France to protest against its atomic tests in the Saharan desert[22].  In 1967, when the separationist Biafra crisis exploded, France set up a loan scheme with the Ivory Coast and Gabon to supply arms to secessionist Biafra.  French mercenaries were also sent to assist the Biafrans.  Ivory Coast and Gabon offered diplomatic recognition to Biafra, when the majority of francophone African states opposed such recognition[23].  The goal was to break the Nigerian Federation.  In 1970 the Biafrans lost the war.  According to personal interviews with Mrs Victorine Wodie[24], the Ivory Coast received many Biafrans refugees and students like herself had to take care of the children as an assignment. The Biafran conflict is an example of France being able to use its special relationship with its former colonies to prevent close cooperation between English speaking and French Speaking states[25].

In the Ivory Coast itself a young man from a Guebie village, in Bete region, called Kragbe Gnagbe tried to denounce what he called the take over of Bete’s land by Baoule and the lack of freedom of expression.  He created a political party called PANA[26].  Facing the refusal of the authorities to legalize his political party in Abidjan, he decided on secession and created the republic of Eburnie in the Bete region.  In October of the same year he organized an armed attack on the city of Gagnoa[27].  On the night of October 27^th 1970, Gnagbe and his followers took over the Police department, the prefecture and the office of the mayor.  The chief of Police, Obou Kouadio, was killed.  Houphouet then sent the army led by the Captain Ouassenan Kone, who would become General and security minister under Bedie.  The army killed both Kragbe Gnagbe and the people in villages where his followers were found.  This would later be called the Guebie massacre. People estimated the casualties to be between 4000 and 6000.  In 1973, another wave of arrests hit the union milieu of Ivory Coast.   Among the people arrested was a young professor of history named Laurent Gbagbo.  He was incarcerated in a military camp in Abidjan, before being transferred to Bouake.  In Bouake, his warden was none other than captain Robert Guei.  The two men developed a special relationship during the few years they spent together. 

V.        The Ivorian “miracle”

During the 1970’s the economy, which was based mainly on the exportations of cocoa and coffee, exploded due to prices that were multiplied by seven for cocoa and by four for coffee.  This was the time of the Ivorian miracle.  Ivory Coast was considered an economic power at that time.  Houphouet, who was the largest plantation owner of the country, increased his fortune even further.  PDCI barons to whom were given land and forests also became considerably richer.  Starting in 1974 and until 1981 France, under President Valery Giscard D’estaing increased economic and military assistance to the Ivory Coast.  In 1977 Henri Konan Bedie, minister of economy and finance and Houphouet’s protege, was associated with the scandal of sugar refineries. The money that was destined to the construction of these complexes disappeared.  He had to resign his position, but Houphouet did not abandon him.  He was appointed Advisor for African Affairs to the head of the World Bank in Washington DC, before coming back in 1979 and being elected president of the national assembly in 1980.  The constitution was modified in its article 11, stating that the president of the Assembly was to assume the interim at the death of the president of the Republic, and Bedie became the constitutional Dauphin.  Philippe Yace, who was the former Dauphin, never forgave Bedie. 

The 1970’s were also the years of the opulence.  Houphouet decided to transform Yamoussoukro into the “Ivorian Versailles” and began big construction projects.  A lot was done to modernize the country, a lot of roads and highways were constructed, schools and hospitals appeared all over the country.  There was a real effort to develop each region of the country.

 Many Ivorians tended to only promote and support their kinsmen.  Every time a new minister came into function, he mostly hired people who were from the same region he was from.  It became a tradition. Since Houphouet was doing the same he did not see any problem with it.  The population beneficiated from the economic situation, public schools were entirely free, hospitals were also free and the government provided enough jobs so that unemployment was not an issue.  In those years corruption became a way of life and many people in public offices were involved.  Houphouet also tightened his grip on power by distributing favors and gifts to “worthy militants”. 

VI.       The economic crisis

            The end of the 1970’s was marked by the rise in oil prices, which ultimately led to the fall of cocoa and coffee prices.  This was a disaster for the Ivory Coast which entire economy was mainly based on these two products.  Without receiving enough money from its exports, or its taxes, the Ivorian government became more and more dependent on foreign funding to function.  As the country entered the crisis, Houphouet was unable to reconvert the economy.  Nobody had envisioned such a crisis so the infrastructures to adapt did not exist. As the socialists came to power in France, with the election of Francois Mitterrand in 1981, the aide to the Ivory Coast was considerably reduced.  Although Francois Mitterrand had proclaimed his intention to decolonize France’s policy on Africa, his socialist regime found its room for maneuver strictly limited by historical constraints and by the weight of economic, political and strategic interests.  Mitterrand was thus left to manage, rather than to radically transform, this inheritance[28].  In 1983 Yamoussoukro, the native village of Felix Houphouet Boigny became the political capital of the country, and Abidjan the economic capital.  This decision led to more money being poured into this new capital, for grandiose buildings. The most well known example being the Basilica Notre Dame de la Paix, constructed between 1986 and 1989.  This Basilica was financed by “Houphouet’s personal fortune”to a cost of 200 millions US dollars.  It is the tallest church in the Catholic world. 

The economy being weak and the country being dependent on punctual helps and loans from France and the World Bank-IMF (International Monetary Fund) it had to follow prescriptions of the World Bank, which wanted to discipline the African states.  The World Bank-IMF prescriptions, resolutely and uniformly prescribed since the early 1980s are well known: (1) more open, market-driven economies that are less encumbered by state regulation in order to promote international competitiveness as a part of domestic economic growth; (2) the devaluation of artificially inflated currencies to bring imports into line with exports and to increase export earnings as a percentage of the gross national product (GNP); (3) the removal of urban consumer subsidies as a step toward increasing production incentives to rural producers, long disadvantaged by the relatively greater political capacity of urban elites to tailor public policies to their own interests.  A fourth less rigorously enforced World Bank-IMF injuction was to bring political decision making closer to the grass roots, not only by shifting costs of key social infrastructure, such as schools and health care, to users but also by suggesting that local communities of consumers needed to decide collectively what they should pay for these areas.  An understated objective of the structural adjustement along these lines promoted by the World Bank and the IMF was to reach informal sectors operating beyond the control of governments that seemed to stultify enterprise.  The premise was that participants in informal sectors would not resist legitimate government regulation and taxation, thereby enabling governments to function more effectively and efficiently[29]. 

Houphouet Boigny in an act of self-denial was fighting these measures the best he could and as long as he could, using all his power and influence.  He was particularly opposed to any devaluation.

By 1989, the economic situation was so bad that Houphouet had to give something.  Furthermore France adopted a new line from 1989 onward because the personal fortunes of Africa’s elite in foreign bank accounts were greater than the debts of the countries in question.  France’s new policy was: political conditions with levels of aide dictated by the pace of reforms.  The effect of this new posture on the part of France was seen immediately.  Houphouet Boigny and Bongo immediately commenced the process of liberalization[30].  In accordance with the World Bank Houphouet solicited the service of Alassane Dramane Ouattara, who was governor of the BCEAO at the time.  Ouattara came in as the head of an inter-ministerial committee which sole purpose was to help the economy through the implementation of certain measures like having the Ivorians pay for public schools and health care in order to reduce the government expenses.  In November 1990, Alassane Dramane Ouattara was created prime minister of Ivory Coast.  Due to the fact that he grew up in Burkina Faso and held international positions for this country, people started calling him a Burkinabe[31].  On the other hand, northern citizens immediately adopted him, because they knew his family name[32] and because it was the first time in Ivorian history that somebody other than a Baoule or at least an Akan was in such a powerful position. 

VII.     Foreign policy

In 1980, Master Sergeant Samuel Doe led a coup against President Tolbert of Liberia, ending the 110 years rule of the True Whig party[33].  Tolbert and thirteen senior officials were publicly executed by firing squad on the beach of Monrovia, an act that raised the ire of Tolbert’s ally, President Houphouet Boigny of the Ivory Coast[34].  Worse, Doe had killed Houphouet’s “son in law”[35].  When Doe, came into power, being supported by the United States, which gave millions of dollars, he closed the Lybian and the Soviet consulates.  This act led to him having another important enemy, Khadafi, who had in mind to break up all imperialist influences in Africa[36]. 

In 1987, relations between Ouagadougou and Abidjan suffered following accusations by President Thomas Sankara that voltaic laborers were facing discrimination in Ivory Coast.  Accusing Abidjan of deriving the bulk of profits from tariffs and duties in the jointly administered Abidjan-Ouagadougou railway, the Burkinabe leader cut these bilateral ties in 1987.  Sankara was assassinated in October 1987 with the apparent complicity of his previously loyal lieutenant, Captain Blaise Compaore, who took over as head of state.  Compaore moved Burkinabe diplomacy back closer to Abidjan and Paris[37]. 

In 1989, Charles Taylor triggered the civil war in Liberia from the Ivory Coast and his rebels received military support from Burkina Faso and Libya[38].  Taylor’s forces entered Liberia through Nimba country, rallying Gio and Mano[39] to his National Patriotic Front of Liberia.  In response, Doe murdered Gio and Mano civilians in Monrovia and officers in the Liberian army, turning to his own Krahn tribesmen for support.  The Gio people are also found in Ivory Coast where they are called Yacouba.  The civil war in Liberia soon degenerated into a brutal struggle for power between various warlord factions, often through, not exclusively ethnically based[40].  The following year, while Guei was chief of staff of the army in the Ivory Coast, Taylor was using Danane, in the west of the Ivory Coast, as a base for its operations.  The same year, Prince Johnson, an ex lieutenant of Taylor, gunned down Doe and his guards.  Among the NPFL[41] fighters were a lot of Burkinabe and Sierra Leoneans.  In 1991, a small group of Sierra Leoneans, allied to Charles Taylor, invaded eastern Sierra Leone[42].  They formed the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and all the looted goods were sold in the Ivory Coast, which exported 1.5 million carats in the mid-1990s, though diamond mining had ceased in the 1980s[43].  

VIII.    1990

            In the Ivory Coast, the decisions of the inter-ministerial committee to allow the country to pay its exterior debt were badly received by Ivorians, especially students.  In February 1990, these austerity measures led to unrest and strikes.  Peoples across sub-Saharan Africa came to see multiparty democracy as their salvation from more than a quarter century of corrupt, authoritarian and economically ineffective regimes.  In one country after another, popular pressure forced governments to allow competition from opposition parties[44].  In April 1990, all the opposition parties that wanted to declare themselves were legalized in the Ivory Coast.  In May, four political parties, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), the Ivorian Labor Party (PIT), the Union of Socialist Democrats (USD) and the Ivorian Socialist Party (PSI), created the Coordination, which was a socialist block of independent parties to obtain the conditions of transparent elections.  By October, the Coordination decided to boycott the upcoming election because they considered that nothing had been obtained.  The two candidates announced for the presidential election were Houphouet-Boigny and Laurent Gbagbo, member of the coordination.  This was a clear example of Gbagbo’s habit of changing his official positions to fit his own interests.  He obtained 18 percent of the votes against 82 for Houphouet Boigny.  The following month, the elections for the national assembly were held.  The PDCI obtained 163 seats, the FPI 9 seats and the PIT 1 seat.

            In 1991, Ouattara reduced state agents salaries, and he cut down on the state scholarships.  This led to important manifestations and protests by students. On May 17^th 1991, the government turned to General Guei to send the army to the campus of Yopougon.  That night the military went into the rooms and beat up the students, many girls were raped.  As a result, on February 18^th 1992, the opposition led by the FPI decided to organize a gigantic march.  The march was repressed.  Gbagbo and the 75 leaders of political and civil organizations who were present at the march were arrested.  Francis Wodie of the PIT was also arrested, at his home.  Because of international pressure, Wodie was freed two days later.  The others were judged and condemned.  They spent six months in jail before receiving a presidential grace.  Many observers think that Gbagbo never forgave Ouattara for those six months in jail. 

IX.       The Ouattara-Bedie conflict

The year 1993 represented the beginning of the Ouattara-Bedie conflict.  Houphouet had let Ouattara free of forming his own government except for the defense and foreign ministries.  It is fair to say that a new elite came to power.  Among them was a majority of citizen from the north even at the army level.  As Houphouet became sick and had to leave the country often to go in France and receive special care, Ouattara became the real head of state.  His support from the Dioula[45] and Muslim community increased further when he made two Muslim sacred days, National Holidays.  Bedie, who was the constitutional dauphin, began to worry, and for the first time in Ivory Coast history, law tests presented by the government to the assembly were not immediately adopted.  Bedie and the Barons around him started criticizing the privatization program of Ouattara accusing him of selling all the state owned sectors, such as water, electricity and telephone to French companies[46].  At the end of 1993, Yace[47] did not want to follow the article 11 of the constitution.  The alternate solution was the formation of a national counsil, presided by him.  Ouattara would keep the executive branch and the government would be open to the opposition.  The coup was supposed to be enforced by General Guei. 

The French government overall was ruling for Bedie succeeding to Houphouet, as it wanted stability in the country, which was the center of French interests in West Africa.  Ouattara proclaimed Houphouet’s death on December 7^th 1993[48], and on December 9^th, Bedie accompanied by an important contingent of gendarmes went to the state television and announced that he was the new president according to the constitution.  Finally, on December 11^th, when it became clear that Guei had decided not to intervene, Ouattara resigned.

The opposition was approached to participate in the new government.  Most opposition leaders refused, at the exception of Zadi Zaourou of the USD, because the only thing Bedie and the PDCI offered were ministerial positions.  No agreement was reached on how to deal with the problems of the country.  In July 1994, Alassane Ouattara following a secret agreement with Bedie did not run for the presidential elections of 1995, and in exchange he was appointed Associate Director at the IMF for the Ivory Coast with residence in Washington D.C.  In July 1994, Djeny Kobina and his renovators split from the PDCI and created the Rally of Republicans (RDR).  The direction of the RDR was composed essentially of people who had worked with Ouattara and had lost their positions when Bedie rose to power. 

X.        1995

In 1995, a new electoral code was adopted requiring that both of his parents be Ivorians before one could present his candidacy at a presidential election.  To fight this electoral code that they considered unfair and to obtain conditions for transparent elections, the FPI of Laurent Gbagbo and the RDR decided to form a tactical alliance, the Republican Front.  Gbagbo was claiming at the time that the two candidates to the presidential election from the opposition would be Ouattara and him.  It was around the same time that the direction of the RDR started to claim that by trying to reject Ouattara’s candidacy, the government was trying to reject all the people from the north.  By the end of the year, the Republican Front had not obtained anything and decided to conduct an active boycott of the elections.  Fearing the violence and the possible death of many Ivorians, the PIT decided to participate in these elections in an effort to break this boycott.  Francis Wodie was immediately accused by the FPI journal of being a traitor.  The elections were conducted in October.  The FPI and the RDR were successful in disorganizing the vote only in the Bete region and in the north of the country.  Bedie called on Guei to have the army help the police, but he refused because he did not want to spill the blood of “innocent civilians”.  This active boycott caused many deaths and hundreds of people were arrested.  The official results of the elections gave 95.25 percent to Bedie and 3.7 percent to Wodie.  The FPI then accused the PIT of having accompanied the PDCI in those elections.  General Guei was fired from his head of staff position.  After the elections for the national assembly, the PDCI obtained 148 seats, the FPI 12 seats essentially in the Bete region and the RDR 14 seats essentially in the north. 

In 1998, many RDR militants, including their secretary general Mrs. Henriette Diabate[49], were arrested.  Later a warrant was issued for the arrest of Alassane Ouattara.  He was accused of having forged identity papers in order to show proof of his nationality and be eligible for the presidential elections and had to stay in exile.

XI.       The Bedie era

            On the economic level, the Bedie era was an era of progress, at least in the numbers.  In 1993, the plan to devaluate the CFA franc lost one of its most powerful opponent with the death of Houphouet.  In addition the French government, with its strong franc policy due to European community and domestic politics, found itself under intense pressure to devaluate the greatly overvalued CFA franc[50].  As the CFA crisis progressed, in August 1993, the central banks of the two currency unions that constitute the CFA announced that they would no longer repurchase CFA francs from outside the franc zone in order to reduce smuggling[51].  Finally the loosening of ties with France ultimately led the CFA to being devalued by 50 percent[52].  The short-term result of this was a boom in the exportation followed by a rise in the prices of imported goods, which led to an inflation that the government had difficulties managing.  Worse, because of the rise in oil prices, even the price of domestic products, which had to be transported from farms to markets, rose.  During these years, the government received a lot of help and loans from the World Bank, the European Community and France.  There were even in partnerships with the United States and China.  However, because of the way the Bedie clan was conducting the state affairs, the population did not feel the economic growth.  Under Bedie, the corruption reached levels never seen before.  Entire loans from the international community were stolen.  The French government, under cohabitation of socialist and republican parties, started to distance itself from Bedie.  Another aspect of Bedie’s way to govern was to give himself and his family monopolies on entire economic sectors. 

Under Bedie, the foreign policy changed a little bit.  There were less ties with France, and the government opened the country to other international partners.  In West Africa however, the policy stayed the same.  Taylor was still using Danane until he became president after a controversial election in 1997.  Fode Sankoh of the RUF once conducted his military operations from Abidjan[53].  In 1996 a government of national unity was formed in Sierra Leone after the Abidjan Peace Accord.  Foday Sankoh became minister responsible for the mining region[54].

XII.     The 1999 Coup and the CNSP         

            On December 23^rd 1999, a group of soldiers among whom were the subaltern officers who had positions under Ouattara entered in mutiny for non payment of their solds.  Bedie refused to see them.  The next day, General Guei announced on national television that the “young men” called upon him to replace Bedie as head of state.  There was a general air of relief at the ouster of Bedie’s decadent regime[55] because it had become clear that there would be no political improvement with him.  On the 25^th Guei made other declarations to reassure the population.  At his sides were Generals Palenfo and Coulibaly[56].  The rumor began to circulate that Guei had conducted a coup d’etat for Alassane Ouattara.  Guei responded by saying that he had only come to clean up the house. Bedie had to exile himself to France.  All his ministers and many PDCI barons were arrested.  The national assembly was dissolved.  It seems that Gbagbo who had many friends in the French government intervened so that the 43^rd BIMA would not enter in action.  Ouattara, who had been elected president of the RDR in August, announced his arrival to Abidjan.  Guei formed the CNSP[57] with all the officers that joined him right after the coup.  The CNSP agreed with the FPI and the RDR to form a government, and all the political prisoners were freed, along with some criminals.  On January 4^th a new government was formed.  There were conflicts between the RDR and the FPI about the number of ministries attributed to each.  Special agreements were made and the FPI obtained two more ministries than the RDR. 

During this period, many people from the west of the country started considering Guei as their champion.  Many barons of the PDCI joined him, starting with all the barons from the west.  Guei went from head of the state to president of the republic.  His relationship with Palenfo and Coulibaly began to sour, as they did not want him to stay in power.  They just wanted him to organize open elections.  A commission including all major political parties elaborated a new constitution, which only authorized Ivorians with Ivorian parents to be candidate at the presidential election.  It rejected any candidate having assumed another nationality in the course of his life.  In May 18^th there was a clear split between the CNSP and RDR when the RDR lost all its ministries. 

As the elections were approaching, presidents Kerekou of Benin and Eyadema of Togo, representing the Organization of African Unity (OUA) came to Yamoussoukro on August 10^th 2000.  They met with Guei, but also with Ouattara, Gbagbo, Wodie, and the secretary general of the PDCI, Laurent Dona Fologo[58].  The two presidents did not obtain from Guei the assurance that he would not present himself, but they obtained from all the parties to agree to form a government of national unity.  On September 18^th 2000, members of Guei’s personal guard attacked his home.  This attack was called the White Horse plot, because his animal was killed.  Many soldiers fled to Burkina Faso.  Palenfo and Coulibaly were accused of treason and arrested. 

On October 6^th, only five candidates were retained.  All the PDCI candidates were rejected for one reason or another, and Ouattara was disqualified for “suspicious nationality”.  The candidates were Robert Guei, Laurent Gbagbo, Francis Wodie, Mel Theodore[59] and Nicolas Dioulo[60].  The PDCI headed by Bedie decided to boycott the elections, so did the RDR.  Gbagbo won with 56 percent of the votes followed by Guei with 32 percent and Wodie with 5.7 percent. 

XIII.    Gbagbo’s rise to power

The same night Guei still proclaimed his win.  FPI militants took to the streets and helped by the gendarmes and part of the army ousted Guei from power.  Gbagbo was proclaimed president.  On October 26^th Alassane Ouattara called on his supporters to protest and ask for new elections.  The result would be the first ethnic and religious afrontments in the Ivory Coast history.  Hundreds were killed, churches and mosques were burned.  Two days later, Gbagbo and Ouattara met and called on their militants to return home.  Gbagbo formed a government of national unity with the PDCI, the UDPCI and the PIT.  The RDR refused to participate. 

On the night of January 6^th 2001, armed soldiers attacked the state radio and television, the gendarmerie camp and the house of the president.  At the same time an unidentified armed column with a black Mercedes in the middle was coming toward Abidjan from the North.  During the day the radio and the television were liberated.  The armed column was bombarded by the air forces.  In January of 2002, after the forum of national reconciliation[61], Guei, Gbagbo, Bedie and Ouattara met in Yamoussoukro with Seydou Diarra[62] to comment on the results.  The main recommendation of the forum was to give Ouattara, his certificate of nationality.  By August nothing had been done yet, but the RDR accepted to enter the government.  Around the same time a judge gave his certificate to Ouattara.  The interior ministry immediately claimed that it was a fake.  On September 13^th Guei retrieved his party from the government because Gbagbo was still refusing to give him the status of former head of state.  At the same time reports started to surface that most of the soldiers, who had to leave the country after the White Horse and the Black Mercedes plots, were training in a military camp in Burkina Faso. 

XIV.    September 19^th 2002 or the crisis

On September 19^th 2002, armed soldiers attacked the cities of Abidjan, Bouake[63], and Korhogo[64], while Gbagbo was on an official trip in Italy.  The same day, they were driven out of Abidjan.  The interior minister, Boga Doudou was killed, so were Robert Guei and his wife.  Alassane Ouattara had to hide at the German Embassy.  His house was burned to the ground.  Gbagbo tried to activate the defense accord that the country had with France, but the socialists had lost the elections a few months earlier and were no longer in power.  At first it seemed that soldiers hired by Guei during the military transition and who were about to be fired had decided to attack, but the quality of the weapons they were using did not make this hypothesis really plausible.  France provided the loyalists with weapons and technical support.  Gbagbo who had come back meanwhile, pressured by France, and in order to protect the foreign citizens, ordered the army not to attack Bouake anymore.  Meanwhile the rebels were occupying other cities in the north.  On October 7^th Tuo Fozie, one of the exilee in Burkina Faso, presented himself as the spoke person for the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI)[65].  He asked Gbagbo to resign or else face a descent on Abidjan.  More French troops were immediately sent to the Ivory Coast.  The official reason was the evacuation and protection of their countrymen.  They based themselves in Yamoussoukro, and blocked the rebels. Later, negociations in Lome lead to a cease fire.  The requests of the rebels were identical to those of the RDR, mainly stating that everybody should be allowed to present themmselves and there should be no difference between Ivorian citizens and foreign citizens in the acquisition of land.  On the 28^th, two new rebel groups appeared in the west claiming to fight to avenge Guei’s death. One of their leaders, Felix Doe, was trained by Charles Taylor, who would lend him troops. 

In January 2003 the French government decided to obtain peace by calling on the MPCI and the other rebel movements, as well as all the main political parties, to come to Paris for negociations.  Assembled in Linas-Marcoussis, the negociators ended up with proposals, which they believed could end the crisis.  People who had used another nationality would be allowed to be candidates, a government open to the rebels would be formed, and the government would engage itself to fight impunity and xenophobia.  Later at Kleber[66] France “imposed” a government in which the rebels obtained nine ministries including the defense and interior ministries to ensure disarment.  Back in Abidjan, the news led to riots.  French schools, embassy and military base were attacked by protesters.  In Paris, the name of a new prime minister with increased power was announced; it was Seydou Diarra.  Later this year, new negotiations were held in Accra, Ghana and the government of national reconciliation was finally announced. 

            In conclusion, I will stress out that it is not yet the end of the war[67].  Even though a cease-fire has been signed, rebel ministers are able to work in Abidjan and there are talks of disarming the rebels starting august 1^st of this year, dangers are all still present.  The cease-fire is monitored by both French soldiers and soldiers of the ECOMOG[68].  The first attempt to test the applicability of regional peacekeeping approaches in Africa occurred in Liberia in 1990[69] but it was a failure.  The recommendations of Marcoussis are only recommendations.  Nothing guarantees that they will be transformed into laws by the National Assembly.  It is a good thing the army and the rebels conjointly fought to expel Liberian mercenaries from the west.  However, with the situation worsening in Monrovia, nobody knows what the consequences could be for the Ivory Coast. 

Although the relations between the Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast are better, it is clear that the feud between Gbagbo and Compaore is not over.  Another danger is the young patriots in Abidjan.  They tried to kill Guillaume Soro in the state television building, in June 2003 and could be a reason the war resumes.  The last concern is the Ouattara problem.   In October 2005, if the constitution remains the same, will the RDR accept it?  Worse will the MPCI use this as an excuse to take its weapons and fight again? 

A lot of question remains unanswered, and only time will tell us what is in stores for the Ivorian citizens.  It is my sincere hope that the leaders of this country, which has the potential to rise up to its past level, will learn to exceed themselves, and leave aside their personal ambitions to think about the welfare of the people they want to represent.  It is also on us Africans, by collaborating among ourselves and with others, but also by focusing on not depending so much on the exterior, to find ways to become independent of the neo colonialism

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Adebajo, A.  Building Peace in West Africa: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea-

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Ashcroft, B.  The Boundaries of the State: Africa and Modernity.  African Identities:

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Callaghy, T.M.  Africa and the World Political Economy: Still Caught Between a

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Johnson, V.D.  The Structural Origins of Revolution in Africa.  African Studies, vol

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Khalid, M.  AFRICA Through the Eyes of a Patriot: A Tribute to General Olusegun

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Mazrui, A.A. and Ostergard R.L. Jr.  From Pax Europa to Pax Africana.  The Causes

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Ravenhill, J.  Dependent by Default:  Africa’s Relations with European Union. 

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