I have been writing a lot about my experience and feelings ever since moving back, but I have omitted, whether consciously or unconsciously, to set up the scene I live in now. I always tell you how my country is beautiful, but yet as issues. Those issues are deep and rooted in a volatile political climate. I am not a political analyst, but I will try my best to paint for you the most accurate political tableau of my country.
Back in 1999, my country had its very first coup d’État. It was during Christmas time, and was to be the first troubles of that sorts of one too many, to come. I remember it well, just as in anyone around my age does. The president Bedie was ousted by an Army General, General Guei, because the president was not serving properly his country as he should. Everything about this coup is such a cliché and classic African coup: one, they take over the state funded radios and TV channel, two they take over the presidential palace and the business area, three they implement a curfew to “protect the citizens”, four, they negotiate the president’s escape, five, he escapes with his family, six,we have a military government. It goes something like this,more or less but the schema stays the same. Our first coup ended within days, and we transition into an even more chaotic situation.
You see, politics in Africa is a business, a dangerous yet very lucrative business if you can master it. In the US, you have the American dream, here we have political dreams. People joke that you can be successful here by two means:doing business or playing in politics. Politics is where the money is, and that’s just the way it works here, unfortunately. With this optic in place, one must find the way to secure and control all this power when you reach the top position one could attain while playing politics, as in becoming president. You control others better when you create confusion around them by playing into their weaknesses. Here in Cote d’ Ivoire, one of our weaknesses is tribalism.
My country has more than 60 ethnic groups, spread out throughout the entire land, with the bigger groups being the Akan, the Voltaiques ( Gur), the Northern Mandes, the Southern Mandes and the Krou people. Each tribe or ethnic group has its own traditions, languages, rules and customs, and this is the diversity and those differences that make this country so original. Unfortunately, it is those same differences that have been dividing us, to this very day. Since before the coup of 1999, a concept of “Ivoirité” was introduced to determine who are the real Ivorian. In our mind, we were a model of melting pot for societies where different people from different backgrounds can live in harmony. But to rule better, one has to divide and conquer. From the coup in 1999, to the civil wars between 2002 and 2007, 2010 and 2011, there is an underlying current of pointing out the otherness in your fellow citizens. The first thing people ask you here is what is your ethnic background, where is your village, why does your name sound foreign. As it has, unfortunately always been, when a ruling party is in power, a certain sub-ethnic group rises above the others, or at least gives the impression, and imposes itself as the majority. Each government, no matter what glorious promises are being given, always reverts back to simplistic views of confining their powers within one ethnic sub-group. This creates jealousy, frustration, and fuels the fire of political instability and discordance. A destructive pattern of that sips in society’s core will always breed dissatisfaction, especially when a wealthy minority rules the ever poor majority. It’s a story as old as past world civilizations, but we never seem to learn from our mistakes. Frustration gives place to anger, leading to population rising and partly setting the stage for civil wars. There are so many issues that plague our country, such as corruption, lack of education, that the more problems we keep adding to our already problem filled plates, the less we will progress towards a flourishing, harmonious and forward thinking society.
I love my country because wherever you travel, you can hear so many dialects, spoken with eloquence and beauty, that even if you don’t understand what they say, it is like a melody to my ears. We share the same land, the same struggles, the same victories. Politics tend to divide us, for personal gains, never for the betterment of our daily lives, the future of our nation. Too often we fall in the trap of ethnic division and sectarianism because it is easy to hate what you don’t understand and when you feel like the cards are stacked against you to block your success. Following the road of social cohesion, accepting our differences is full of obstacles and detours, but I believe in the future of my country. At the moment, there is pain, anger still lingering in our hearts but it will not always be this way. It is up to each one of us, to see past the hurt, to achieve the unity and peace our rich country deserves. We are a young nation, which future is still being paved. Let us put ourselves in the best position by building on what could divide us, and seek understanding and calmness when all around us is noise and chaos. United we stand, divided we will fall, crash and burn.
L'Arbre de La Voyageuse 