Monday, February 28, 2011

The Revolution and the Madness of Gbagbo

In the coverage of the revolutions that have swept the Middle East and North Africa there has been very little talk about the implications for Africa south of the Sahara. It seems people forget that Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are very much in Africa. Egypt's Abdel Nasser was one of the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism.

What happens in these nations do not only send reverberations throughout the Arab world but through the African world as well. There is no clear division between Arab and African at least as it relates to Arab nations on the African continent. Our minds like to categorize, and catalog into neat, clean, little boxes. It's difficult for us to handle messy, complicated shades of gray, but so few things are clear cut in the world.

I'd ask you to think about the language Arabic. I would argue and am in agreement with linguists in classifying it as an Afro-Asiatic language. This is not in contradiction of its evolution from Aramaic, and its classification as a Semitic language. After all, Amharic and Tegreni, both Semitic languages that have evolved from Aramaic are also Afro-Asiatic languages spoken in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

But I digress, I want to tell you another story. Our story begins like so many after an election. It takes place in the beautiful nation of Cote D'Ivoire, where it is quite possible similar scenes witnessed in Libya may soon play out there. Cote D'Ivoire or Ivory Coast as us Anglophones know it, is a Francophone nation in west Africa. It is the main producer of cocoa. Once an economic powerhouse, its capital Abidjan was known as "little Paris", and it was once the headquarters of the African Development Bank.

In November, Outtara a Muslim from the north of the country, was declared victor of the presidential elections. Unfortunately the incumbent, Gbagbo, a Christian from the south of the country, refused to cede power despite being visited by a number of influential African leaders, and guaranteed by the Economic Consortium of West African States (ECOWAS) that he would be granted amnesty, and could leave the nation with his wealth intact (ill-begotten no doubt). Now the international community has refused to recognize him as president, and he faces economic blockades, and military embargoes. It is a mystery to me how he continues to pay government employees, the most important group for an illegitimate leader is of course the army.

Both men have now set up parallel governments, although Ouattara is restricted to his hotel, and is guarded by UN forces. These elections were supposed to help the country move on from the bloody, disastrous civil war that engulfed it in recent years and pitted north vs south, Muslim vs Christian.

I cringe to categorize, and pit one against the other but unfortunately it very much reflects the reality on the ground. Muslims in Cote D'Ivoire are mainly from the north, are less educated and poorer than their Christian counterparts and.... represent a big chunk of the population, in fact they have a slight majority. There majority has not been reflected in government or positions of leadership. Inequality does not just happen, it is deliberate, manufactured and controlled.The rebellion in the north was the result of decades of frustration at the obvious discrimination and inequality faced by the Muslim population.

Now the rebels in the north have once again taken up arms. Many have called for peaceful demonstrations but troops loyal to Gbago have responded with force killing several. If the situation continues to deteriorate then I have no doubt the country will be engulfed in another bloody civil war....The hope is that Gbagbo proves to be saner than Gaddafi, and will quit the field before countless die.

There are talks of Egypto-Tunisian like revolutions in Zimbabwe, Djibouti, Sudan to name a few. What is happening is not occurring in a bubble or in isolation, the whole world feels the reverberation, just think how much more money we will pay at the pump as conflict continues in Libya....

Contrary to the mantra of our foreign policy, time and time again history has proven that it is in the best interest of the world that everyone is guaranteed a life of freedom to live in peace and dignity.

2 comments:

Seb said...

Thank you for making this world of grays a little clearer!

Anonymous said...

Hum hum interesting blog. Is it allowed to critic your point of view? (I wouldn't be the mean froggy again...)