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| When a ‘power black-out’ saved President Boigny |
| Andrew M. Mwenda |
| It
is 1975 and the Non Aligned states are holding a conference
in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. Among the leading statesmen
to attend the summit is Uganda's Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada
of Uganda, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Felix Houphouet Boigny of
Ivory Coast. It is clear that Castro intends to make a rousing speech where he plans to denounce Boigny as an "imperialist stooge." However, the host president, Houari Boumedienne, is determined to protect Boigny, a respected elder from the bearded sage of Havana. It is a conference where, as Amin would later tell a French television crew, "I gave very good speech including Castro broke off relations with Israel." Castro is to speak on the fourth day of the conference. On the first and second day of the conference, the organisers begin cutting off electricity briefly at selected moments. The repetition of this practice makes all speakers to grow accustomed to the spasmodic breaks in power inside the conference hall, each speaker waiting patiently for the microphone to come back on before continuing with their speeches. Thus, when Castro mounts the rostrum to deliver his long awaited speech, the microphones go off. Thinking it is the usual power cuts that had plagued the conference, Castro waits patiently for the electricity to come back. It does not. Frustrated, he cancels his speech. This way, Boumedienne saves the respected elder statesman of French West Africa from the embarrassment the Cuban leader wanted to bring. As Robert Calderisi puts it in his exciting book The Trouble with Africa, "It was an amusing but heartfelt tribute to an African elder at the expense of a Latin American upstart." But Boigny remained a man of many experiences. And here is a story he told Calderisi, then a World Bank representative for western Africa. It is 1983, and the Ivorian president has just concluded dinner with British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher at Plot 10 Dawning Street. Mrs. Thatcher asks Boigny condescendingly: "Why aren't English speaking African heads of state mature and far-sighted like you?" Boigny answers, "Madame, it is because of your mistakes in running your colonies. The French let us sit in their National Assembly and in my case, serve in five successive cabinets in the 1950s. My Anglophone brothers never had the chance to learn the trade before independence." Staring at the Iron Lady's sparkling jewelry, he added: "So, when the necklace started to choke them, they tore it off." What an exciting way to conclude a dinner between a British iron lady, and an African presidential monarch! - Monitor, July 12, 2006 - |