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 19th 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, which was dependent of the Sanwi Kingdom, one of the two Agni Kingdoms, and Grand-Bassam, an Aboure 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. 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. 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 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 from which other foreign powers were to be excluded. Moreover, the concepts of France-Afrique or Eurafrique symbolized the intensity of France’s belief that its links with Africa were indissoluble. This is the reason why at the conference held in Brazzaville in 1944, any possibility of decolonizing the French empire was shelved. The crucial 1956 loi-cadre 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). 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 7th 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. France signed military assistance and defense agreements and set up a base, the 43rd 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’, 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. 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. 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. 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. The goal was to break the Nigerian Federation. In 1970 the Biafrans lost the war. According to personal interviews with Mrs Victorine Wodie, 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.
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. 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. On the night of October 27th 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. 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.
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. 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. On the other hand, northern citizens immediately adopted him, because they knew his family name 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. 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. Worse, Doe had killed Houphouet’s “son in law”. 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.
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.
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. Taylor’s forces entered Liberia through Nimba country, rallying Gio and Mano 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. 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 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. 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.
VIII. 1990
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 17th 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 18th 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 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. At the end of 1993, Yace 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 7th 1993, and on December 9th, 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 11th, 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, 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. 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. Finally the loosening of ties with France ultimately led the CFA to being devalued by 50 percent. 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. 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.
XII. The 1999 Coup and the CNSP
On December 23rd 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 because it had become clear that there would be no political improvement with him. On the 25th Guei made other declarations to reassure the population. At his sides were Generals Palenfo and Coulibaly. 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 43rd 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 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 4th 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 18th 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 10th 2000. They met with Guei, but also with Ouattara, Gbagbo, Wodie, and the secretary general of the PDCI, Laurent Dona Fologo. 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 18th 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 6th, 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 and Nicolas Dioulo. 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 26th 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 6th 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, Guei, Gbagbo, Bedie and Ouattara met in Yamoussoukro with Seydou Diarra 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 13th 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 19th 2002 or the crisis
On September 19th 2002, armed soldiers attacked the cities of Abidjan, Bouake, and Korhogo, 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 7th Tuo Fozie, one of the exilee in Burkina Faso, presented himself as the spoke person for the Patriotic Movement of Ivory Coast (MPCI). 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 28th, 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 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. 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 1st of this year, dangers are all still present. The cease-fire is monitored by both French soldiers and soldiers of the ECOMOG. The first attempt to test the applicability of regional peacekeeping approaches in Africa occurred in Liberia in 1990 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
Bibliography:
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Abidjan, 1978.
This book presents the reader with the history of the Aboure people and explains the way their society and institutions work.
Ackah, W.B. Pan-Africanism: Exploring The Contradictions. Politics, Identity and
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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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Additional sources:
http://www.atlapedia.com/online/countries/ivorycoa.htm
This web site gives a chronology of what happened in the early 1990s in Ivory Coast.
www.gbagbo.com
The site includes a biography of Laurent Gbagbo.
www.ado.ci
The site includes a biography of Alassane Ouattara.
www.abidjan.net/election2000/candidats/wodie.asp
The site is a biography of Francis Wodie.
www.lesiteivoirien.com/
The site provides link to local newspapers web sites (including the site for Fraternite Matin), to Ivorian Embassies and institutions.
Fraternite Matin numbers:
10736- August 11th, 2000
10774- September 27th, 2000
11364- September 21st, 2002
11370- September 28th, 2002
11377- October 7th, 2002
11450- January 8th, 2003
11462- January 22nd, 2003
Fraternite Matin is the state journal of the Ivory Coast.
http://abidjan.net/actualites/
This site provides news on the Ivory Coast and also present articles from different newspapers.
http://www.reconciliationnationale.org
The site is the official one for the forum of national reconciliation.
Biographies:
Felix Houphouët Boigny:
Officially born in October 1905 in a royal Baoule (Akan people of the center of Ivory Coast) family, Houphouet was the heir of a fortune based essentially on plantations. Being of a royal family and as it was the custom at the time, the French administration forced his family to let him go to school. He will be sent to Bingerville and later to the William Ponty Institute in Dakar, where he comes out an “african” physician. Back to the Ivory Coast after exercing a few years his medical profession he created the PDCI-RDA in 1947. In 1960, he became the first president of this country and remained until his death in December 1993.
Henri Konan Bedie:
Born on May 5, 1934 at Dadiekro, in the country of Daoukro, Center of the Ivory Coast, Henry Konan Bedie graduated from the University of Poiters, France, earning a master degree in law and political economy. He later completed his doctoral degree. Mr. Bedie was appointed deputy director of the Social Security Fund in 1958. In 1960, he was entrusted the responsibility of setting up the Embassy of the Ivory Coast in Washington, DC and was asked to represent the country at the United Nations in New York. In 1966, he became the first minister of economy and finance of the Ivory Coast. From 1977 to 1980, Henry Konan Bedie held the position of special advisor to the president of the World Bank, in charge of African affairs. In 1980, he was elected member of the national parliament, mayor of his native Daoukro and speaker of the national assembly. After President Houphouet Bogny died in 1993 and in accordance with article 11 of the Ivorian constitution, Henry Konan Bedie became president of the Republic of the Ivory Coast. He won the presidential elections of October 21, 1995. In December 1999, President Bedie was ousted by a military junta led by General Robert Guei.
Laurent Gbagbo:
Born on May 31, 1945 at Gagnoa, Center-West of the Ivory Coast, he graduated from the University of Abidjan, with a license in history. He became a high school teacher of history and geography in 1970 and joined the underground opposition to the PDCI-RDA. He was arrested and incarcerated from 1971 to 1973. In 1979, he earned a doctorate at the University of Paris VII, his thesis being: “The social and economic consequences of the Ivorian politic from 1940-1960”. In 1982, he created a clandestine organization that would become the FPI. Accused of illegal instigations, he left the country and went to France to organize the fight against the “dictatorship of the PDCI”. In 1988, he became the general secretary of the socialist party FPI. Being the only candidate opposing President Houphouet Boigny at the presidential elections of 1990, he became a leading figure of the opposition. In October 22, 2000, after the political unstability, he was elected president of the Republic of the Ivory Coast.
Alasane Dramane Ouattara :
Robert Guei :
Born in 1941 at Kabacouma, in the West of the Ivory Coast, Robert Guei graduated from the military school St Cyr in France. He was appointed minister of civic services by Houphouet Boigny and in 1990 became head of staff. In 1995 he was dismissed from his position by President Henri Konan Bedie. The same year, he entered the political arena by opposing the use of the army to settle civilian manifestations. In 1996, he was accused of treason and was fired from the army. In 1999, he led a military coup, and stayed in power until October 2000. He was killed on September 19th 2001.
