Tribal Rituals
"We escaped into the bush, but when we returned there were women lying dead in the courtyards. The mercenaries were going from compound to compound rooting out Gbagbo supporters." Teacher, Ricard Glazai Ouloho, Ivory CoastThis, resulting from a most uncivil dispute after a November vote for the presidency of the country. Where Alassane Ouattara garnered 54% of the vote, and the incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo won 46%. And like many other African countries before this vote, and many yet to be fully accounted for, the incumbent had no wish to vacate the position that he felt was a perfect fit for him personally. His militias, the foreign mercenaries he hired and his clan members all appeared to agree with him.
During Ivory Coast's dispute between the incumbent President, Laurent Gbagbo and his political opponent, leader-elect Alassane Ouattara, the world was witness yet again to yet another African country 'misunderstanding' what a democratic vote represents, and the obligation to respect the majority opinion of its voting public. Of course this is a game played by many African countries wishing to declare themselves democratic while in reality comfortably opting to retain the status quo.
The status quo is as it has been since time immemorial; the tribe that happens to deploy the most determined warriors against an oppositional tribe is the winner. This is a representative of African democracy; numbers are indeed involved, but it is the numbers of the most bloodthirsty, avenging and vengeful determined to re-enact and on occasion correct history that gains the upper hand. Violent tribal and clan antipathies groomed to murderous slaughter tips the balance.
But when each side indulges in the heritage custom of mutual slaughter there are no straightforward issues until the United Nations or a former European imperialist power that once held sway in that country exerts its influence. As has France done, in sending in its warplanes to bomb the presidential compound where President Gbagbo had ensconced himself defiantly.
It is not correct to maintain that African states do not support the work of the United Nations, for mercenaries from Liberia, from Burkina Faso and Guinea who call themselves the Kofi Annan Boys - as they indulge in ritual murders, scraping machetes on the ground, blowing whistles as they advance, ritually slaughter those they find cowering in their homes - offer arcane evidence of that recognition.
"We were marched to a compound in the town. When we arrived, there were 150 people in the hall. At the front they were dragging people out, men and women, in fives, five after five after five. Each time they were taken out we heard gunfire." One who escaped the slaughter describing the systematic butchery: "It was extermination".
A report issued by Human rights Watch was descriptive of the barbarity of Alassane Ouattara's forces, of the disembowelling of living people, how Gbagbo supporters were executed, while the women were gang-raped in their homes. This describes the followers and paid mercenaries of the man who celebrates the absolute backing of the United Nations as the winner of the disputed presidential election.
One million desperate Ivorians fled their homes to escape the butchery, a hundred thousand to the presumed sanctuary of Liberia. Supporters of the winning candidate, supporters of the president who has finally been removed, clan and tribal members, living out the history of African ethnicities and the ancient rituals of survival, irremediably blemishing the humanity and civility of modern Africa.
Labels: Africa, Heritage, Human Fallibility
posted by Pieface @ Monday, April 11, 2011
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