This post’s title is quoted verbatim from an interaction with a coworker earlier this week. If you do not get the absurdity of this statement, great! You are part of the demographic that I am targeting. I use the word “target” cautiously because I do not aim to reprimand, ridicule or guilt anyone for their lack of knowledge of African geography, history or politics. It is, after all, human nature to be more interested in matters which are directly related or applicable to us. Hence, if you asked me to identify The Philippines on a world map, my answer would probably amuse or offend most people who are from that region. Human or physical geography were never my strong suit. Therefore I state it again, I am not trying to embarrass anyone here; I’m just trying to educate. Please read on.
Now, let’s ask: What exactly is funny (or offensive to some) in the above statement? Is it the fact that my coworker assumed that West Africa was a country in its own right? Did she think that Ghana was not a part of Africa? Did she perhaps presume that Africa was a big federal republic of which Ghana and West Africa were member states? It actually seems quite logical that West Africa would be a country if there is already one called South Africa – Right? Maybe she simply confused Ghana and Guyana? I will never know because I never attempted to correct her, and this makes me a part of the problem. Indeed, countless African immigrants have felt indignation when “Westerners” misappropriate, confuse or otherwise insult their origins. Again, I use the word “Westerner” in a general sense to mean people living in this imaginary “Western World” and not to specifically target a particular ethnicity (i.e white people). In fact, I’ve been approached by countless Caribbean people of African descent who were, despite their enthusiasm in hearing that I was from the “Motherland”, clueless about African geography, history and/or politics. Hence, if we as Africans make no attempt to educate the people we interact with, we cannot possibly expect to better the situation. This is what this post – and to a larger extent this project – is all about.
What/Where is Africa? What/Where is Ivory Coast?
Most people I have encountered remember their Grade 5 geography and can easily point the African continent on a map (if you can't, it’s the one that looks like it used to fit into South America before God decided to shuffle the puzzle pieces.). Note the use of the word “continent”, because believe it or not African is huge and covers an area of approximately 30.2 million km2 (11.6 million square miles). Here is a picture that helps put things into perspective: http://flowingdata.com/2010/10/18/true-size-of-africa/. You could fit the USA, Europe, India, Japan and China in that area, making Africa the second largest continent in the world after Asia. Africa is big – in fact, Africa is huge – but Africa is not a country. It is a continent that currently hosts about 54 sovereign countries and is home to about 1.1 billion people (all facts taken from Wikipedia.)If you were involved in any form of World Cup activity this summer, you probably remember some African teams doing some pretty memorable things on the field. The player who elbowed another player as his team was losing was from Cameroon. Ghana was the team that gave Germany some of its fiercest opposition during the tournament (Germany vs .Ghana: 2 – 2; Germany vs. Brazil: 7 – 1. Just sayin’). Ivory Coast is that team whose flag is extremely similar to Ireland’s (they also had a disappointing loss against Greece, but thinking about that just gets me upset). Algeria and Nigeria are the two teams that made it out of the group stages. So far we’ve covered 4 countries, we have about 50 more to go. Ok, you get the gist.
Ivory Coast is a country on the West Coast of Africa (no, West Africa is not a country). It is bordered on the South by the Atlantic Ocean; on the North by Burkina Faso and Mali; on the West by Liberia and Guinea (where the current Ebola epidemic is believed to emanated from – more on that later); and on the East by Ghana. Ivory Coast used to be a French colony from 1893 until it got its independence in 1960. Prior to this, several Kingdoms (Baoule, Senouffo, Kong etc.) prospered in this area (Sources: Grade 6 History classes and Wikipedia…mostly Wikipedia). After 1960, Ivory Coast had a single leader, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who ruled the country until his death in 1993. Despite being a dictator by most standards, he was (and continues to be) highly respected in Ivory Coast due to Ivory Coast’s economic prosperity during his reign. In those days, Ivory Coast rose to be the world’s top exporter of cocoa and one of the top exporters of coffee. The strong Ivorian economy was reflected in the country’s grandiose infrastructure projects and overall development status, far ahead of most of its French speaking West African counterparts. As a young boy, my friends and I would often refer to Abidjan (the capital of Ivory Coast) as “Petit Paris” (Little Paris). The picture below can hopefully explain why.
Compare Adidjan, Ivory Coast (Above) to Cotonou, Benin where I'm from (below)
Unfortunately after Félix Houphouët-Boigny’s death, scrambles over his succession quickly arose. Political alliances and rivalries quickly formed and tensions grew. These tensions culminated in a Coup D’etat on Christmas Eve of 1999 when a group of disgruntled army members took over the state and established General Robert Guei (a retired officer) as their military leader.
My family and I were living in Ivory Coast when this happened (1999- 2000) and an air of political instability lingered over the course of that year. I still have vivid memories of deserted streets, gunshots and my mom yelling at me for standing too close to the windows. Yet, I remember my year in Abidjan as one of the best in my life. We lived in a beautiful apartment in the Abidjan’s Plateau (downtown) district. Everything was so close that we barely needed a car (somewhat unthinkable in an African capital). I would walk about 10 minutes to school and was able to come back and have lunch with the family. There were often long dinner lectures where my dad would teach us a thing or two about his experience in the West, and why the English were so much better than the French. Weekends were mostly spent cruising the Ivorian countryside in my dad’s tiny Renault Clio; Grand Bassam was one of my favorite destinations. It was one of the last (few) years that my family truly spent together (i.e. all of us in one place at all times). It was also the year when I was due to write my CEPE (secondary school entrance examination – yes, the whole country took a standardized test at the end of elementary school). How could a country that had seemed so stable and perfect a few months earlier descend into such chaos? Perhaps I was unable to perceive the political tensions that were present at the time due to my young age?
On est où là? (Where are we now?)
Irrespective of all the instability, I was also indelibly marked by the striking humor Ivoirians managed to find in every situation. It is not to say that everything was a joke to them, but there was definitely a funnier side to every situation. This attitude is partially reflected in the music that emerged from Ivory Coast in the early 2000s. Zouglou lyrics made fun of serious social and political issues, while Coupe Decale produced a movement that seemed to approach the conflict with a certain lightheartedness (these two musical styles will be further discussed in a later post).Today, I can see the same attitude depicted in some of the cartoons coming from Cote D’Ivoire regarding the Ebola hemorrhagic fever. While there are currently no cases of Ebola in Ivory Coast, its proximity to Guinea and Liberia has fuelled some paranoia amongst government officials and populations alike. Recent disagreements between the Ivoirian government and the Confederation of African Football over an African Cup qualification match between Cote D’Ivoire and Sierra Leone (also heavily affected by the epidemic) taking place in Abidjan resulted in the hilarious image below.
The caption reads: “Cote D’Ivoire vs Sierra Leone – Anti-Ebola Soccer Kit”. I predict that the “Ebola” dance will be the next big thing coming out of the minds of Ivorian DJs and artists. Believe it or not, there already exists a “Bird Flu” dance…
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