Tryst with Ivory Coast

Isn’t it a strange quirk of fate to have landed me here at Ferkessoudougou, even in my dreams, one could not have heard such a tongue twister for a name. But this is what providence is all about, no? I was destined to come here, probably in my last birth, there was something that I had left here which I had to pay back, or may be to claim now! Ivory Coast, the name strikes a bell in our minds, as my brother pointed out, Phantom! Yes, those of us who grew up reading Phantom comics, remember Ivory Coast was the place where, Phantom, the ghost who walks, the man who never dies and whose forefathers have fought injustice for last four hundred years lived. When I was reminded about it immediately the mind raced back to those days and the stories of Bandar tribesmen, who had poisoned arrows and a skull cave and his horse and the German shepherd, whom he referred to as a wolf. 

Well, it was but fiction! Not the truth at all, Ivory Coast was supposed to be the miracle of Africa, the Dark Continent, yes a miracle child, amidst all the anarchy all around this piece of heaven was surviving, no not just surviving but thriving. A bit of Europe in this quagmire called Africa, where no one wanted to be there except the power brokers, the super powers for their own vested interests to supervise their fiefdom, some American, French, and at times the erstwhile Soviet were always at stake, and their games were replayed in one after another of these African countries, Angola, Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and not to forget South Africa and now the latest to join the bandwagon Zimbabwe! But Cote D’Ivoire which is the proper name for what we know as Ivory Coast, was a shining example of how a country can be with the natural resources it has, provided, of course it has leaders with a vision who are self-less and with a little backing from its past colonial masters the French. Yes the miracle just went bust, the bubble burst but it did not happen all of a sudden, the writing was on the wall, but like the proverbial ostrich everyone just buried its face in sand which was nowhere to be found, just imagined. The storm would just blow over, so they thought and so petty politicking and power at any and every cost, as is the case with the politicians the world over. But the irony is that “Kare koi bhare koi” as they say in Hindi, i.e. to say, the sufferers are not the ones who committed the crime in the first place. The masses end up being the losers, who were just learning to breathe in the freshness of the new morn of independence. The politicians play games and the masses are the pawns that end up being sacrificed at the altar, well so what is new?

I don’t think I have learnt or seen enough of the country to become an authority on the issues, but the little that I have seen confirms what my first impressions were, i.e. the core problem is the former colonial masters. They would however like to believe that they are the ones looking for a solution. That is the bitter truth and the earlier they realize their folly the better it will be for them and for the Francophone countries. Colonialism unfortunately did not die with the Second world war, but thrived in the minds of the rulers and they would not let go, little realizing that they were not only ruining their erstwhile subjects but also their own countrymen also as they did not get over the colonial hangover. So they continued meddling what they should have left for the new nascent nation states to sort out for themselves. As it is the concept of nation states, an imitation of the European model, is most unsuitable for Africa as also Asia. The tribal and ethnic loyalties are far stronger in Africa than the artificially created national ones, and naturally so, these ties are centuries old and have been strengthened by common customs, traditions, dress and just about everything under the sun.