As the mess in Côte d'Ivoire becomes messier, it pays to know what the leaders are saying. Below is a translation of the back of Blé Goudé's book: My Part of the Truth. Blé Goudé reportedly receives a salary from President Gbagbo and has personal bodyguards and a suite at the Hotel Ivoire.
I have translated this because it is important to see events from as many sides as you can. The Gbagbo camp maintain that Ouattara stole the election. Part of their reasoning is that the French and the UN are manipulating the price of cocoa by provoking civil war. I have heard this line over and over since my first visit in 2004. But I still do not understand it.
Nevertheless, Blé Goudé is a smart politician. He knows that the young Bété are frustrated with unemployment. It's easy to blame someone outside the country, especially given France's indubitable colonial history of appropriating resources and encouraging Ivorians to genuflect before the Great White Master.
According to Charles Blé Goudé...
I am neither anti French, anti American, anti Senegalese nor anti-Gabonese.
Having said that, I would appreciate if people would refrain from explaining everything according to France, which is just another country, even if France's behavior is detestable. I have a problem with any country that thinks it can manipulate another, that it can dominate another country. I find it detestable that the UN and France have a monopoly on resolutions about the Ivorian Crisis (that is, the last civil war in 2002-3). Would France like it if the Congo, Chad, or Benin spoke in its name. I'm sure they would not.
This is why we fight: that France respect our sovereignty. I have nothing against the French. I simply disapprove of the neo-colonialist methods and those who use them. I refuse to be a puppet of the French régime. I find the Franco-African summits intolerable; they are a supreme insult against all Africans. How can so many African countries humiliate themselves in such masquerades run by the White Master? Nigeria itself has participated in this charade, and they are not even francophone! The whole continent throws itself onto its knees for the French Masters! It's finished, the colonial times. The leaders of France must learn that tomorrow is neither yesterday nor today. The 21st century must not be based on the past. We refuse today and tomorrow to genuflect before France.
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