1. Thabo Mbeki: “What the world got wrong in Cote d’Ivoire”
2. How to write a grant proposal for industry
3. The economic outlook for Africa
4. “He has no courage, has never climbed out on a limb. He has never used a word where the reader might check his usage by a dictionary.” (William Faulkner on Ernest Hemingway)
4 Responses
Mbeki has a point when he says that western involvement in Africa is self-interested. But I take issue with his suggestions on how to deal with this “problem.” He seems to be of the opinion that the West should keep off or only get involved in a disinterested manner.
Both prescriptions are wanting. The former assumes that Africa would be a calm utopia without foreign involvement – with its Bokassas and Amins and Mugabes. The latter call for isolationism is also out of place. Isolationism has failed Africa in the past. If anything Africa needs greater economic and political integration within the global system.
Notice that calls for African sovereignty and letting Africa solve its own problems have mostly come from the likes of Mugabe, Museveni and Gaddafi. African sovereignty means sovereignty for the dictator.
But inept and murderous dictators should not have internal affairs. Given their repressive bend against local opposition (see what Museveni is doing to Besigye) a bit of the potential for foreign-led regime change might help to keep these dictators on their toes.
And on Ouattara: Yes, French involvement in the Ivorian crisis was questionable. I must admit that as an African I was embarrassed by the fact 50 years after independence the French can still waltz into Abidjan and storm the presidential palace or take over the main airport. But unlike Mbeki and co., my frustration is not at the French (being self-interested is not a crime) but rather at Ivorian leaders who over the years have run their country aground. For over 10 years Gbagbo was the Ivorian face of this total failure and programmatic bankruptcy of African leadership.
But Hemmingway had a great response: “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.”
Mbeki may make some interesting points, but he got his facts wrong. Ouattara was not born in Burkina Faso, his father was. Like Obama’s birth certificate in the US, Ouattara’s has been an issue for many xenophobic Ivorians.
Ouattara’s birthplace does not really matter that much. In fact when he was born, both Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faspo as we know them today did not even exist really.
Second, the Gbagbo camp may have benefited from that concept of nationality, but it is Mr. Bedie, now Ouattara’s ally, who brought this concept up. But I guess nowadays Gbagbo is an easy target for all the ill of Cote d’Ivoire. But that will fly only for those who lazy to educate themselves on the origines and the depth of the problems in RCI. The law was not even about the birthplace. It was that you must be Ivoirian and both your parents must also be Ivoirian, and Gbagbo never initiated such absurdity, it is Mr. Bedie. Bedie brought it up because when President Boigny died in 1993, the law yield power the speaker of the assembly who was then Bedie. But the prime ministry also claim the power illegally on the gound that he was almost a acting president before president Boigny died. That prime minister was…. Mr. Ouattara!
I think some of the other points that many made was that he studied in the US as a Burkinabe. He may have also served under international organizations not as Ivoirian, but as from Burkina Faso. Those claims appears to be factual. For example, it is well know that the the head of the West African Central Bank is always from Cote d’Ivoire and the Vice president from Burkina Faso. Ouattara has served for both position.
In any case, I believe that the man is bi-national and if I am Ivoirian, I would want the country to benefit from his experience. But laws are laws just like the stupid “birth” law in the US.