Costa do Marfim

Stretches of the interview of Jean Arsène Yao 41, Doutor em História e professor da Universidade de Abidjan - El Pais, 03. 

         1. It all starts in 1993, the death of the first president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny. His prime minister, Alassane Ouattara, and the parliament speaker, Henri Konan Bédié (the successor under the Constitution), vie for the presidency. Earn Bédié and a year later, inspired by a group of Ivorian intellectuals, created the concept of ivoirité (Ivory Coast), which was distorted to become a weapon against part of the population, especially from the north (Malinke and Senufo), area Ouattara source. In this region Ouattara won between 70% and 90% of the vote.
         2. Before 1960, when Ivory Coast was a colony, the French brought a lot of manpower to the cocoa plantations. A third of the population are foreigners. Come from Niger, Mali, Senegal and Guinea-Conakry, but mostly from Burkina Faso.The immigrants came from countries much poorer and predominantly Muslim attracted by the "Ivorian miracle" of the seventies, and identified more with the people of the north. Ouattara, in their struggle to become president, became a symbol for them.The problem with Ouattara was the source of his father, who, although he lived in Ivory Coast, was buried in Burkina.
         3. Cocoa accounts for 40% of the country's export earnings. Served to finance large projects and war.Whoever controls the controls cocoa war, politics and economy, hence the interest Ouattara forces to take the port of San Pedro, where cocoa is exported. Trade and transport are controlled by the Malinke, ethnicity Ouattara. Economically strong, only they lacked political power, and Ouattara embodied this option. There are also the interests of multinationals. Ivory Coast is an important market that is always controlled France. With the arrival of Gbagbo things began to change. China, Russia, South Africa and Brazil have gained market share and subtracted power France, which sees Ouattara who could defend their interests.