I thought I might try getting a few people interested in African matters.
I'm not sure how many of you heard of this, but there were elections in the west African country of Côte d'Ivorie (you know it, it's been in several World Cups lately) recently. The two main contestants were Laurent Gbagbo, who has been president of the country since 2000 and stood through a brief civil war in 2002/03, and his rival, Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara won, the elections were rigged and Gbagbo clinches on his office.
Rigged elections in Africa? Colour me surprised. I didn't really follow the news, because I certainly have better things to spend my life with than getting worked up about every negative political development in Africa. But then I read a commentary in the papers that caught my interest.
There is an organisation called the "African Union", which is a successor to the "Organization of African States". It was initiated by my favourite nutcase, Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi, who I have to admit is at least somehow concerned with African matters. The Union was founded in 2002, and I never thought of it as anything but a gentleman's club which professed to strive for an African equivalent of the European Union, but was a toothless tiger. It was founded by over 50 states, and the signing of the charter was not even attended by all heads of government.
Now what is happening is that the governments of a few neighbouring countries of Côte d'Ivorie have called for Gbagbo to step down and accept his defeat- including Nigeria, which is as close a geopolitical heavyweight that Africa has to offer. The sensation is that the president of Nigeria will be facing closely observed elections himself next year, so his pledge for democracy does have some sort of meaning, apparently. I'm not sure which countries have joined together, but I know Nigeria and Benin are among them. They have an interest in preventing a civil war, which Ouattara's followers have threatened with. And what is more, they have an interest in resolving matters as soon as possible, because they want to use the brief attention the general public is paying to their part of the world before the people of southern Sudan vote on their independence in mid-January.
So what is so noteable about this is that there are actually a few neighbouring African countries striving for a common goal. Such developments could be the core for a greater union, as it happened in Europe.
Some background information (BBC). Unfortunately, it seems like the Ivorian government has no interest in settling matters.
I'm not sure how many of you heard of this, but there were elections in the west African country of Côte d'Ivorie (you know it, it's been in several World Cups lately) recently. The two main contestants were Laurent Gbagbo, who has been president of the country since 2000 and stood through a brief civil war in 2002/03, and his rival, Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara won, the elections were rigged and Gbagbo clinches on his office.
Rigged elections in Africa? Colour me surprised. I didn't really follow the news, because I certainly have better things to spend my life with than getting worked up about every negative political development in Africa. But then I read a commentary in the papers that caught my interest.
There is an organisation called the "African Union", which is a successor to the "Organization of African States". It was initiated by my favourite nutcase, Mu'ammar al-Qaddafi, who I have to admit is at least somehow concerned with African matters. The Union was founded in 2002, and I never thought of it as anything but a gentleman's club which professed to strive for an African equivalent of the European Union, but was a toothless tiger. It was founded by over 50 states, and the signing of the charter was not even attended by all heads of government.
Now what is happening is that the governments of a few neighbouring countries of Côte d'Ivorie have called for Gbagbo to step down and accept his defeat- including Nigeria, which is as close a geopolitical heavyweight that Africa has to offer. The sensation is that the president of Nigeria will be facing closely observed elections himself next year, so his pledge for democracy does have some sort of meaning, apparently. I'm not sure which countries have joined together, but I know Nigeria and Benin are among them. They have an interest in preventing a civil war, which Ouattara's followers have threatened with. And what is more, they have an interest in resolving matters as soon as possible, because they want to use the brief attention the general public is paying to their part of the world before the people of southern Sudan vote on their independence in mid-January.
So what is so noteable about this is that there are actually a few neighbouring African countries striving for a common goal. Such developments could be the core for a greater union, as it happened in Europe.
Some background information (BBC). Unfortunately, it seems like the Ivorian government has no interest in settling matters.
