The Fate of Africa by Martin Meredith

Author:Martin Meredith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2011-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

When Houphouët-Boigny’s rule was challenged in February 1990 by strikes and demonstrations in protest against austerity measures, he instinctively reacted with repression. Police were used to break up meetings and marches with truncheons, tear gas and stun grenades. A group of 140 students were bludgeoned for trying to hold a meeting in Abidjan’s Catholic cathedral, then branded by Houphouët as ‘thugs and drug addicts’.

The protests, however, soon took on a political dimension. Demonstrators brandished placards denouncing Houphouët’s autocratic rule and his lavish spending on a vast basilica at Yamoussoukro and demanding multi-party elections. Houphouët’s most persistent critic, Laurent Gbagbo, entered the fray, proposing a national conference similar to the one held in Benin.

Houphouët’s initial response was to reject calls for a multi-party system, but the level of discontent was too great for him to resist. In April 1990 he announced that opposition parties would be officially recognised, then moved swiftly to hold elections before they could organise a united front against him. In presidential elections in November 1990, Houphouët, at the age of eighty-five, won a seventh term in office with 82 per cent of the vote, defeating Gbagbo, who was half his age. His party won 163 of 175 seats. The outcome was more Big Man rule, but with a parliamentary opposition for the first time in the country’s history. When Houphouët died in December 1993, he had held office as president for thirty-three years.

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