For your reading pleasure.
Cheers,
Madiba.
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Ivory Coast's First Military Coup
By A. B. Bodomo
A majority of African intellectuals hate military coups and interventions
in the politics of Africa and world-wide. But, paradoxically enough, many
of them see the upheavals in the Ivory Coast as ushering in a new era of
real self determination for what may be described as the last colony on the
West African sub-continent.
In the aftermath of the December 1999 military take-over, a most disturbing
cliché that was perpetually on the screens and airwaves of the
international media was that this is the most stable country in West
Africa. The territory was also frequently described as one of the few
countries that had not experienced a coup d'etat until December 1999. We
ought to ask why Ivory Coast is so different? Even Ivorians have been made
to believe and be proud of this state of affairs.
The fact of the matter is that coup d'etats don't take place in colonies.
It is sad to note that, by most criteria, Ivory Coast can still be
described as a colony. The country is said to have gained independence
from
France in 1960. But in reality, the territory never gained genuine
political independence from France. 1960 was a year of cosmetics, and the
French are good at that, as anybody with a sharp sense of smell will
testify. France may have relinquished most of its colonies in West Africa
but it found it hard to relinquish the Ivory Tusk. And so it entered into
one of the longest standing pseudo-independence arrangements with
Houphouet-Boigny. This was an administration tainted with all the
administrative vices that are so common in contemporary politics in the
region - coercion, intimidation, bribery, corruption, and the naked bending
of rules to exclude opponents from taking part in the political game.
Ousted President Henri Konan Bedie's stewardship was a continuation of the
Boigny-France colonial era administration. He had a chance to rectify that
but he did not. He continued all the above-mentioned vices. And added his
own. He began a campaign of bigotry against foreigners, who make up a good
percentage of the work force in that French colony and encouraged a good
number of Ivorians to be really xenophobic and very wicked to foreigners.
Baring former PM Ouattara from taking part in presidential elections on the
grounds that he is non-Ivorian was an extension of this wicked, backward,
exclusionist behaviour of the ousted president.
Some countries and individuals have condemned the coup on the grounds that
a democratic process has been hijacked. However, I ask the question: Can
democracy obtain in a colony?
I ask this question because I am currently living it day in day out. Here
in Hong Kong, one often hears very disconcerting claims that Hong Kong
under British colonial rule was more democratic than Hong Kong as an
integral part of China. How can a country invade, colonize, and rule a
territory with oppressive military presence and then turn around and talk
of democracy in that colony? Can real democracy ever obtain in a colony?
Ivory Coast is a colony that now has a real chance to gain independence,
starting with the current political upheaval. This should begin with
demonstrations against the presence of French military in that country.
The French must go!
As a Ghanaian neighbour to the colony of Ivory Coast, I see French military
presence as a security threat to the sovereignty of my country and that of
other West African countries. I this connection, I see it as a positive
development that the coup leader, General Guei, is telling France not to
bring in more troops to man its infamous military airbase near Abidjan, the
largest city in the country. He should go further and negotiate an end to
the French military presence in the Ivory Coast within one year.
Once French influence is gone and the country becomes genuinely independent
in the year 2000 or 2001, real democracy based on multiparty politics can
then obtain.
Only then can the world be justified to cry out against military coups in
that country. Military coups are bad in independent, democratic countries.
The political upheaval in the Ivory Coast is probably best seen as a
struggle for real independence and political self-determination. Ivory
Coast, as a stable colony of France until December 1999, never went through
this. Coups don't take place in colonies, ceteris paribus. The military
operation in the Ivory Coast at century's turn is the best chance for the
territory to turn a new leaf, a new leaf of military and political
independence.
----------------
Dr. A. B. Bodomo is a Hong Kong-based African academic. He teaches
Linguistics and Literacy Studies at the University of Hong Kong. His
research interests include comparative African and Asian studies.
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