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Chocolate Soldiers

By KALUNDI SERUMAGA

The best indication of the depth of the crisis in the Ivory Coast lies in its very name.

Much as it is now known as perhaps the primary global supplier to the cocoa industry, it started life as a place where ivory was found.

This was of course right next to a coast where gold was found and in the general coastal area where slaves could also be obtained. Only commodities. Never people.

Today there is optimism that the county will go back to being the region’s economic powerhouse.

However, the realities of the country’s history indicate that Allassane Ouattara’s entry into State House there will no more prove a cure than Laurent Gbagbo’s presidency ever was.

If it is indeed true that some 54 per cent of the electorate voted for Ouattara, then it means that nearly half the electorate — the 46 per cent who voted for Gbagbo — voted against.

Talking glibly to impoverished citizens about winners and losers in these circumstances can therefore actually become counterproductive, especially when they feel that the outcome puts their livelihoods at stake.

The current crisis seems to carry the old historical resonance: That the economic goods of the region have always held more importance to the world than the people actually living there. http://counterpunch.org/serumaga04122011.html

I had great pity for Africa when I saw Gbagbo’s arrest on CNN. 

Why must the Africans allow the international press and colonialists to influence their thought pattern?  Is it legal for foreign military to arrest a sitting president without a UN resolution or international warrant that is enforceable?  Under what law will Gbagbo be tried?  Clearly, what has happened in Ivory Coast is a military coup that has been sponsored and clearly executed by France and their allies.  The UN mandate in Ivory Coast is very clear – PEACE KEEPING !!!  It has nothing to do with regime change.  In fact, it is believed by many Ivoriens that Ouattara has killed a lot more people than Gbagbo did.  The reason that the Ivory Coast case did not quickly become a civil war was because Gbagbo hesitated with the use of force.

Please do not get me wrong – I believe Gbagbo was a stubborn leader that also did not want to leave power, but this man’s problem actually started because he fell out with the French, after they found him uncontrollable.  I believe we all know that the French remain very powerful and in control in most francophone African countries – unlike what is in Anglophone.  Gbagbo survived a coup and in his bid to retaliate, he ‘mistakenly’ killed some French soldiers.  What did the French do in return? They destroyed the whole of Ivory Coast air force.  The global press did not blow this out then, did they??

Before now, the north had been controlled by the rebels.  And Gbagbo says that the north rigged the election for Ouattara with good help from the French military (this is believable, based on rebel and French antecedents in the country).  He called on the international community to come for a re-count but everybody said NO.  I really wondered why nobody was ready for re-counting.  A lot of Gbagbo’s people left him eventually because they knew he couldn’t muster enough support to stay in power.  But nobody bothered to really find out what the Ivorien people wanted.  From my own ‘little’ investigation, more than 50% of ‘real’ Ivoriens prefer Gbagbo to Ouattara.  They say that Ouattara’s family is unknown and he is actually a migrant from Burkina Faso.  Aside this, Ouattara is like an alien to the land, he lived abroad a lot and is a typical IMF ‘boy’ (a stooge to France).  He was once a Prime Minister and all he had were western ideas (according to Ivoriens).  Ivoriens preferred a nationalist that would liberate them and give them greater voice.  They would prefer someone different from the two but many felt Gbagbo was still a better option than Ouattara.  One thing that puzzled me was that none of the articles I read about Gbagbo case bothered to talk extensively on who was really a preferred candidate by the Ivoriens.  Nobody acknowledged that it was indeed possible for the elections to have been rigged at the rebel-controlled north by Ouattara boys and the French colonialists who were desperate to oust Ouattara?  Why did many people vote for Gbagbo across the country?  The French captured Gbagbo and handed him over to Ouattara, but now they are telling lies that they just aided the capture.  Which UN resolution gave them the right to effect a regime change????  Even Nigeria (the power house of Ecowas) had not given a go-ahead for using force to oust Gbagbo.

As for me, I feel serious pity for the average Ivoriens that are grossly unhappy with the turn of events in their country – foreigners dictating to them who should lead them.

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