Hell No, Gbagbo Must Not Go

Many people in the English speaking world unfortunately do not understand the crisis unfolding in the Ivory coast because Western propaganda has perpetuated the myth that the problem is firstly ethnic and secondly, a question of democracy. That is a joke. Where in Africa, especially French Africa, has the West ever supported democracatic regimes? Recently, elections were held in Gabon and the Gabonese rejected Bongo's son, but he was chosen nonetheless..Did you hear France or the international community insisting that the will of the Gabonese people should be respected? So, why all this hullabaloo over the Ivory Coast?

The Ivory Coast is in fact a test case in the war between Africa and the West. The Ivorians for the first time in their history DO want to choose their own president, but France has rejected this because since independence, France has chosen the leaders that run the French African countries. These « passive leaders « (Bongo, Biya, Eyedema, etc) have given the West carte blanche to pillage Africa's ressources in return for personal wealth, while ordinary African people go hungry. Gbagbo has simply refused to be a 'passive leader' and that is why France does not like him and is determined to remove him from power. This is why the Ivory Coast has suddenly become front page news in the western media.

From the moment he took office, Gbagbo has wanted to change the status quo and that has brought him into direct conflict with France. I remember reading a book written by one of his ministers exposing some of the illegal contracts that the previous Ivorian government had been forced to enter into with the French government which he wanted to change, but which the French would never accept. This is the problem behind the crisis. It is not ethnic. It is about the sovereignty of the Ivory Coast. Who is going to make the decisions in Africa? The West or African people.? That is the question. Since independence it has been the west but today Ivorians are saying no.

The young people in the Ivory coast (they call themselves patriots) support Gbagbo. Patriotism is something that most African people have forgotten. Ivorians have brought it back and that is probably another reason why the West is so determined to crush Gbagbo because they are afraid of Africans who love Africa.

They want Ouattara , »a passive leader » in power so that they can continue to behave as they have always done, but what they do not realize is that a page is being turned in Africa. Their hostility towards Gbagbo has made young Ivorians more politically aware and even if they do succeed in removing him, the Ivory coast will not return to politics as usual.

I am neither a supporter of Gbabgo nor Ouattara ,(they should both be removed and new candidates chosen) however I do believe that TRUE INDEPENDENCE IN AFRICA begins with the Ivory Coast .The west must no longer be allowed to impose who they want in the Ivory Coast or anywhere else in Africa and that is why I say a HELL NO, GBABO MUST NOT GO,

Hort

Paris, Friday December 24, 2010

Letter to ECOWAS

Urgent: decision regarding Ivory Coast

Dear Sirs,

Regarding the situation in Côte d'Ivoire the decision you are about to take will have a huge and significant impact on the future not only of the West African States but of the whole African Continent. You will be held more accountable if the decision you take leads to more bloodshed between Africans.

What is at stake is not to support or rebuke Laurent Gbagbo or Alassane Ouattara. Because we all know by experience that whoever we choose to back, Gbagbo or Ouattara, if he happens to serve the interests of his own people and that these very interests do not serve the interests of the [former] colonial powers, then he will be vilified and turned into an enemy of democracy. We must all bear in mind the example of Chad where the [former] colonial power has repeatedly back or rebuke one side or the other.

We must concentrate on getting rid of those firefighter arsonists who set Africa ablaze through mastered tribal or ethnic wars and then offer to help when in fact they control our resources. Because if we do not get rid of this firefighter-arsonist-system, we will not be able to extinguish this long lasting fire that kills our people but keeps intact our resources for the benefits of the settlers.

We MUST put all our efforts to bring our people together and really build the African Unity for the interests of the African people.
France and Germany, France and England, England and the US, after centuries of wars they [apparently] decided to put aside their differences and build a United Europe that they even try to enlarge to East Europe.

An Organization of African States CANNOT and MUST NOT obey to the [former] colonial powers whose interests lay in our resources and jeopardize our chances to re-unite.
Let us learn to bring our leaders to the same table no matter their differences; this will have a positive and significant impact on our children self-confidence and as a consequence on our leaders of tomorrow.
Let us help our leaders to revoke all the secrets agreements imposed upon our independent states by the [former] colonial powers.

Let us give life back to Africa and to the Africans!

Gilbert Léonard

AFROCENTRICITY INTERNATIONAL CALLS FOR CESSATION OF INTERVENTIONIST ACTIONS IN IVORY COAST

The situation in Ivory Coast demands our immediate attention as representatives of the African world. The time has long come for us to speak out against the machinations of the French and American governments in the affairs of the African continent. Clearly the interests of the French and the Americans are not the interests of the people of Ivory Coast and all claims of moral uprightness made by Western interests must be questioned. We realize that their interests, if history is our guide, are for material advantage, minerals, political puppets, and strategic positions for global control.

This means that there are so many Europeans and Americans vying for the right to take the spoils of this African country into their own bosom that the African people are without protection. We are their protection as they will always be our protection. Our position has always been critical location of all actions, proposals, and attitudes against the masses of African people, whether they come from the United Nations, ECOWAS, or the French government. The lessons of Haiti are quite clear and we have not yet digested the numerous ways the West subverted the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti.

Afrocentricity International calls for Africans everywhere to write letters, protest in demonstrations, seek political intervention, and appeal to the United Nations to cease and desist in supporting the undermining of the country. In addition, we believe that the governments of the United States and France should keep their hands off the Ivory Coast. The strategy of divide-and-conquer must not be allowed to succeed in this case.

The United Nations observer, on the day after the election, announced that Alassane Ouattara had won without having read the reports about violence and abuse in the northern part of the country. The Supreme Court of Ivory Coast investigated the situation and said there was fraud in the north and therefore the voting in the north was challenged. Given all the evidence of abuse and manipulation in the north, the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast made the decision that Laurent Gbagbo was the winner.

President Gbagbo has renounced violence and asked Mr. Ouattara to come to the table for dialogue about the future of the nation given the fact that whatever the facts that will be revealed each one of these leaders carried a significant part of the electorate. Afrocentricity International believes that the talk of “genocide” is premature and probably racist. No one claimed that there would be “genocide” during the American presidency crisis that brought Mr. Bush to the office during his first term. Why would any credible person raise the ethnic genocide argument so quickly if it is not to create a pretext invade Ivory Coast?

The reason that Mr. Gbagbo remains in power and should remain in power is because the Supreme Court of the land has declared that there were abuses, fraud, and intimidations in the northern part of the country. The United Nations’ observers did not take these reports into consideration before declaring a Alassane Ouattara the winner. In any nation this would be considered arrogant and manipulative. Rather than allowing the legitimate processes of justice to work out in Ivory Coast the international interventionists jumped to a conclusion that Mr. Gbagbo did not win.

Afrocentricity International believes that the political interests of the West are driving the contentious situation in Ivory Coast. We know that the French and American governments cannot simply bestow winners; the political office in a democratic state must be won legitimately. Political winners are not knighted by any outside body; their people elect them and when there are disputes they must be settled by the institutions in the country. This is what was done in the United States in the case of Bush v. Gore when people believed that there were compelling national reasons for the Supreme Court to act. Some even claimed, as was their right to claim, that the court was partisan in its support of the Republican candidate. The United States Supreme Court made the decision to rule in favor of George Bush; someone could have said that the Court was packed with the supporters of the Republicans and therefore we should not have accepted the decision of the court in favor of George Bush. In the end, however, the prestige of the Court was on the line as was the idea of democracy. Why should those principles not adhere in the case of an African country?

The international community must look to the Supreme Court of Ivory Coast as the final arbiter. Afrocentricity International believes that it is in the best interest of the African people that all evidence presented by the Supreme Court be examined before any declaration is made by any outside body. The evidence must be examined before any outside interest can declare a winner. Perhaps the suggestion that former President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa intercedes is a good one if he begins with the issue of law in Ivory Coast. The real culprits in this situation are the interventionists who are trying to unseat Mr. Gbagbo probably because of his strong Afrocentric, Pan African stand in the interest of Africa. Afrocentricity International protests against any intervention that would subvert the legitimate role of the country’s own Supreme Court.

The independent electoral commission pronounced Mr. Ouattara the winner without considering the reports of the Supreme Court. This is what threw the election into a crisis. It was reported that the electoral commission would not allow the European Union observers to visit polling places in the north of the country. This same independent electoral commission went ahead and declared a winner and the United Nations’ observer agreed with it without looking at the protests against the fraudulent situations in the north. One region reported votes totally more than the registered voters, for instance, l59,788 votes from a list of 48, 400 registered voters. And this is just one situation where the Gbagbo administration believes the votes in the north were manipulated to steal the election.

Afrocentricity International calls for a peaceful conclusion to this situation and agrees with former President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana that the two contenders have indicated their willingness to see a recount or further verification by neutral observers. What we must do at all costs is to avoid violent interventionism by French or American troops. We already know that rebels from the north have infiltrated the south with weapons.

Afrocentricity International

Dr. Ama Mazama, Per-aa

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, International Representative

P. O. Box 30004

Elkins Park, Pa. 19027

MKASANTE@GMAIL.COM