Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University The Ivorian Crisis Political and Historical Contextualisation

Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University

The Ivorian Crisis

Political and Historical Contextualisation


Introduction



The Ivorian Crisis

“This war, it’s a war of identification … [I]n the new formula of identification, when you go to get your card, you have to tell them the name of your village, so they can go and find out if you’re really from that region. Because if I take the case of our Dioula brothers, when they arrive, as soon as they find a city like Yamoussouko and they settle there, have children there, do everything there, they don’t return to their country of origin. And then they say they are Ivoirians. We saw that it isn’t right, that we have to be able to tell who is Ivoirian, who isn’t Ivoirian. That’s why they’re making war on us” (Interview in Banégas & Marshall-Fratani 2006, quoted in Marshall-Fratani 2006:26)


Introduction

The Ivorian exception

Wars in the region (Mano River Union countries)Economic success of plantation economy



Introduction

From political rhetoric to armed struggle

Ivoirité thetoricPolitics of scale (Thomas Bassett)


Introduction

Between war and peace (?)

”Allons aux éléctions – vite, vite, vite…”



Introduction

Preparing for elections

Voter registrationIdentity papersPopulation censusIdentity politics…?


Introduction

The War of Who is WhoHistorical parallels

“For the political leaders of the Forces Nouvelles, longstanding collaborators of Laurent Gbagbo throughout the 1990s, the turning point was not principally the question of xenophobia, or Ouattara’s nationality, or the victimization of northerners by state security forces … but the FPI’s program of national identification” (Marshall-Fratani 2006:26).


The Ivorian Crisis

Lecture I:

”The Recent Political History of Côte d’Ivoire – an

overview”


A Recent Political History

The firm leadership of Félix Houphouët-Boigny



The Houphouët-Boigny Compromise

Export economyEconomic policies open towards the WestEncouraging labour migration (mainly Burkina Faso)BUT: Akan favouritism; divide & rule



Succession struggles



Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI)



Alassane Dramane Ouattara (RDR)



President Laurent Gbagbo (FPI)



December 1999 Coup d’étatGeneral Robert Guéï in power2000 electionsLaurent Gbagbo President



The Ivorian Crisis


The Ivorian Crisis

19 September 2002


The Ivorian Crisis

Guillaume Soro

Secretary General of the Forces Nouvelles


The Ivorian Crisis

The Role of France:

Peace keeper… war maker …?


The Ivorian Crisis

The Ouagadougou Political Accords

President Blaise Compaoré (Burkina Faso) as mediator


The Ivorian Crisis

Guillaume Soro

Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire


The Ivorian Crisis

The Administrative Identification Process:

Pending transition


The Ivorian Crisis

The War of Who is Who: Categorical clarity

dead certainty (Appadurai 1998)’good guys’ and ’bad guys’ (Hagberg & Bjarnesen)On sait qui est qui (Förster, forthcoming)


Conclusion

Familiar faces on the Political Scene


Familiar Faces

Henri Konan Bédié (PDCI)


Familiar Faces

Alassane Dramane Ouattara (RDR)


Familiar Faces

President Laurent Gbagbo (FPI)


Familiar Faces

Guillaume Soro

Secretary General of the Forces Nouvelles

Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire


Next Thursday: Contemporary Ivorian Identifications seen from Korhogo Town

“Il faut des changements!”


The Ivorian Crisis

Lecture II:

”The Sociopolitical Context of the Ivorian Crisis – an

introduction”


Chauveau & Richards (2008)

”West African Insurgencies in Agrarian Perspective”



”… current economic and political crises feed on a particular historical trajectory … and it is here that the effects of these crises have surfaced in intra-familial, intergenerational and intercommunity tensions” (2008:533)



”By linking intra-familial and intergenerational tensions on one side and intercommunity tensions on the other side, an answer seems to lie in purified tradition, leading to the victimization of the strangers. A political discourse of ’autochtony’ ensues, seized upon by various political interests for their own purposes” (2008:534)



”Culture by itself causes nothing. Ethnic identity claims (and other cultural epiphenomena) are always products of organization, and competition among organization” (2008:546)



”Addressing the complexity and intensity of struggles over agrarian resources is (we believe) basic to the attainment of peace” (2008:547)


Carolyn Nordstrom (2004)

”Shadows of War”



”… ethnography is an excellent way to study the invisibilities of power – invisibility that is in part constructed by convincing people not to study the shadows … Ethnography gives substance and site to all human endeavour, merely by caring about the day to day of human existence” (2004:15)



”… we live in a world of refined movement. In studying war, and especially in studying the shadows, I direct my research not at a set place, but at fluid targets. The shadows as I define them in this book are, at core, about movement … This is part of the way in which they are rendered invisible …” (2008:37)


The Ivorian Crisis

Discussion

Documents

Jesper Bjarnesen, Ph.D Candidate in Cultural Anthropology, Uppsala University The Ivorian Crisis Political and Historical Contextualisation