Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Gbagbo captured

Ken, I don't know that there was a better way to get Gbagbo out. We didn't have good options. We had bad, and less bad. I favored tightening the sanctions, giving them more time to bite fiscally harder, and waiting for them to force Gbagbo to negotiate an exit. I believe you also expressed this position. But even this is/was an imperfect solution, since it would have unduly punish innocent Ivorians. Plus, there is no certainty that Gbagbo would not have ridden the sanctions out while his people suffered. Look at Zimbabwe. So, yes, I agree with you that other options may not have been better and may have caused more bloodshed. But we don't know for sure. I can express my fears for the future but as a historian, i hate to engage in counterfactual speculation. What we do know for sure, and others closer to the situation on the ground have echoed it, is that the NATURE and DETAILS of this endgame intervention complicates Mr. Ouattara's task and legitimacy. Visuals and perceptions matter. Whether he can overcome this and how long it will take, I don't know. I just don't see people, especially the victim communities and regions, glossing over the war crimes on both sides, or the bitter regional and ethnic hatred stoked by the long stalemate and by the events of the last few weeks. And yes, the French military role in the confrontations in Abidjan in the last few weeks makes me cringe. Looks too similar to the US unseating of Noriega, intervention in Greneda, etc. And the reality of a permanent French military presence in Ivory Coast and other African countries--a presence that it can leverage as needed to boost or protect its interests--which may not always align with the interests of the citizens, or the little people of these countries--worries me. You can't talk about this incident without talking about neocolonialism and the dramatization of the erosion of sovereignty that it represents. The intervention itself may have been inevitable and necessary under the humanitarian and political circumstances; it's the implication that worries me, and the need to prevent a situation that gives the French an excuse to unleash their military might to achieve political outcomes they favor across French Africa. What if they use it tomorrow in support of a ruler who loses an election or refuses to even organize one?  

Gloria, your toxic language and insinuation discredits your response. Who said anything about Hitler or even about leaving Gbagbo in power? How is a carefully stated disagreement on the strategy and visuals of intervention an endorsement of the Gbagbo status quo? How does expressing a fear for the near future of IC after the fact of Gbagbo's capture amount to a desire to have left Gbagbo "on the loose"? Clean up your discursive style and stop throwing unfounded, far-fatched insinuations. You're usually more careful than this.

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 11:27 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

moses, where could there have been legitimacy here. below you write the french and un support undermined outtara's legitimacy, as did the killings of his forces en route to the south. agreed. but what did that weigh against? a continuation of the military campaign in the city, with god knows how many more who might have been killed?
legitimacy should begin with the expression of the population's opinion through voting.
after that is swept away--and zimbabwe, kenya, as well as cote d'ivoire come to mind--what is left for legitimate action?
i agree, i agree, we don't want europeans against imposing solutions on african problems. but we also don't want african dictators imposing hegemonical autocractic rule on their populations, on top of which, and i repeat, on top of which, they and their families or supporters in the govt and military pillage their countries.
ben ali apparently was a champion at that, and mubarak not too far behind
legitimacy comes from only one place, the people. and when the people are being shot down by the dictator's forces of order, there is no clear place left for us to support an action that is legitimate.
we are caught between two exigencies. that is the real truth about libya, and all those postings that pretend there is only one side are either blind to this fact or disingenuous.
ken

On 4/11/11 10:47 AM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:

Good for Gbagbo. This could have all ended peacefully several months ago. That said, am I the only one who fear that, despite Gbagbo's capture by French special forces (they did the job and handed Gbagbo over to Ouattara's forces to erase the odor of French neocolonialism and the negative PR from the capture) or because of it, Ivory Coast will not know peace and stability in the near future? Many of Gbagbo's supporters are still armed, are fuming with rage, and have vowed never to accept Ouattara as a legitimate president. The 46 percent of the population that voted for Gbagbo may have been radicalized by the perceived French-UN-New Forces military gang up on Gbagbo and by the war crimes committed by Ouattara's forces. I am not sure this was an ideal solution. The final French (and UN) assault on Gbagbo's forces (they basically won the war for Ouattara) has further complicated matters. Other rulers in French-colonized Africa will take notice and move towards curtailing or outright revoking the military pacts that allow the French to maintain a military presence and to intervene in their countries. In the long term, I am not sure that this template is a good instrument for democratic reclamation on the continent. Shooting your way to power with French and UN military support and firepower support and committing genocidal war crimes along the way even if you've won an election saddles you with a bitterly divided, infrastructure-impoverished, and tumultuous country. It also undermines your legitimacy. Ouattara's ascendance in the last few weeks have looked more like a coup than a democratic transition. The visuals and perceptions are not good and have helped to deepen the divisions and animosities in Ivorian society. Even as we insist rightly that African rulers who signed up for the winner-takes-all electoral model should abide by its rules when they lose, we should acknowledge the human, economic, and societal toll of this model. It is destroying many African countries. In the long run, therefore, we must rethink this model and move towards a more inclusive, consensus-building, and less zero-sum models of democracy.

On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:

The Associated Press

Date: Monday Apr. 11, 2011 9:50 AM ET

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The French Embassy in Ivory Coast says strongman Laurent Gbagbo has been captured by forces of democratically elected leader Alassane Ouattara. The move came after an attack by French forces earlier Monday.

An embassy official confirmed the detention by phone to an Associated Press reporter in Paris, speaking on condition of anonymity because of government policy.


Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History & African Studies
History Department
Central Connecticut State University
New Britain
CT 06050
www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali<http://www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali>

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