October Revolution
When General Robert Gueï and his military took control in
Côte d'Ivoire last Christmas, he told the world that he wasn't interested
in power but that he was just going to "sweep the house" and return control
to an elected civilian government. Many Ivorians were pleased that he had
deposed President Henri Konan Bedié. But as the year wore on, Gueï decided
that he would like to be the elected president.
Through the state-run media, many were persuaded to vote
for a new constitution with very stringent nationality requirements for
the president. A few weeks before the elections the Supreme Court ruled
fourteen of the other candidates as ineligible to stand, including all candidates
of two major parties. Many Ivorians, particularly the predominantly Muslim
northerners felt disenfranchised. Despite international pressure to allow
more candidates to stand, the elections went ahead on October 22 with just
five candidates.
The polling proceeded peacefully despite a boycott
called by the one of the excluded parties. By the following morning the
electoral commission had announced about 8% of the results. Long-standing
socialist opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo was slightly leading General
Gueï, when the announcement of results stopped abruptly. Finally at midday
on October 24, we heard that General Gueï had disbanded the electoral commission
for 'incompetence and fraud', and was saying he had won the election with
52% of the votes cast!
What followed was quite amazing. Inspired perhaps
by what had happened in Yugoslavia, thousands and thousands of unarmed civilians
began walking towards the centre of the city. They met some military opposition
but other armed forces joined with them as they converged on the presidential
palace and the national TV studios. Several were killed and injured, but
by the middle of the next day the TV studios were under civilian control.
Laurent Gbagbo announced that he believed he had won the election, but he
asked the electoral commission to resume announcing the results from each
region.
The results showed that he had indeed beaten General Gueï quite convincingly
so he was quickly sworn in as president. However, some countries were slow
in recognising the new president, which encouraged northerner Alassane Ouattara
- the most prominent of the excluded candidates – to call his militants
onto the streets again, demanding another election. Widespread inter-ethnic
and inter-religious violence followed in which more people were killed than
in the overthrow of the junta. To everyone's great relief the fighting stopped
when party leaders finally agreed to accept Gbagbo as the de facto president
and made joint appeals for calm.
Crisis Management
In the run up to the elections, the exclusion of so
many candidates gave us considerable concern that the situation might
descend into violent confrontation. I (Paul) lead SIL's crisis management
committee. We met together each day for several weeks as we worked on
implementing plans to protect SIL personnel and assets and prepared
for the possibility of evacuation. I was interviewed on the telephone
by a journalist and found myself quoted in several major US newspapers
and news web-sites such as the New York Times and CNN.com!
I am also a volunteer warden for the British embassy, which meant
keeping in radio contact with the embassy and passing on advice to the
twenty or so British households in the area of Abidjan where we live.
{mosimage}As the situation developed in the days following the
election, crisis management became a full-time job and most of my other
directorial duties were set aside for a while. With the children home
from school and me very busy in the office Margo too had a lot to cope
with. Although there was no violence near to us, we did hear a lot of
gunfire and were following events closely on my warden's radio and in
up-to-the-minute reports on the Internet. We are thankful that we did
not in the end have to evacuate, but it was 'a close run thing'. When
the United States ordered the departure of non-essential embassy staff,
one missionary boarding school closed and some other missionaries left
the country. The US changed their decision the following day. It was a
stressful period for everyone, but we were conscious of the Lord's
sovereignty in protecting us and answering the fervent prayers of the
Ivorian church that war would be avoided. Interestingly, President
Gbagbo is a Bhete of Gagnoa! We met him a few years ago at a political
rally in one of the villages near Gagnoa. When we told him about the
work on his language, he was very interested and encouraging. He seems
to be a man of principle who has stood firm in opposition for many
years, despite imprisonment and many attempts to corrupt him. We are
told that he was recently converted to Christ. Note Tuesday's "Prayer
Pointer" in our last newsletter! Let's pray that this will prove to be
a true work of God that will show in righteous and just leadership.
{mosimage}Christopher I like to play grenade wars when there is no school. We don't really play with real grenades, but we use a kind of hard fruit off the trees to throw at each other. My friends who I play it with are the Leidenfrosts and the Hales. We used to play with the Arthurs but they live in England now.
At school I like maths, swimming, sport, science and music, but all the others I don't like much! I have started learning how to play Djembe, a kind of drum. I now have an orange and yellow belt in Judo and hope to get my full orange belt soon.
Emma I like to play Barbies with my friends Nicole and Tali. I got a new bamboo Barbie house from Abigail Hacker because she's moved back to England. It's very big and it's got lots of rooms.
I told Daddy to write that school is going good but Christopher says I should say it's 'going well' because 'going good' is American. I just started doing Judo this term – it's fun and I like it.
Grandma Mary and Grandpa Allan are coming on the 11th of December, they are coming for Christmas. Gbagbo Laurent is the new president of Côte d'Ivoire and I hope he is going to be a good president so that there is no more fighting.
See you soon?
As we come to the end of this eventful year, it is a surprise to realise that next summer it will again be time for us to return to the UK for about a year of home assignment. Please begin praying with us that we will know where we should live and what work we should do for Wycliffe during that period. A major factor influencing where we will live is the need for Christopher and Emma to maintain their level within the French schooling system.
-A "Zo "De : Let's Communicate
{mosimage}Membership of -A "Zo "De the Bhete language association continues to grow. We are wondering if President Gbagbo can be persuaded to join! During this last year political events have led to some difficulties in organising association meetings. Please pray that members in Abidjan and Gagnoa would be able to meet together more regularly in the coming year. Carlos and his wife Mariam flew to Kenya in August to begin studies at the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology. Carlos has made a good start on the two-year Master's degree in Bible Translation as preparation for leading the Bhete Scripture translation effort. Mariam has made such good progress in English classes that she is being allowed to begin studying the college courses next term – something she didn't expect to be able to do until next academic year. They have asked me to thank all those who have been praying for them. They are expecting a baby in the New Year. If you would like to encourage them personally you could send an e-mail to them at carlos_goprou@sil.org – of course you can write to them in English! Meanwhile in this country, Eliézer, Léonard and Joseph have worked hard to complete the publication of the new Bhete reading course. Two literacy classes have been started – one in Gagnoa town and another in the village of Kpapekou. The course book and classes are for people who already read and write French. There are a number of enthusiastic and intelligent people at the classes. We hope some will volunteer to be literacy teachers in the future! Another new development is that Léonard is moving to Yamoussoukro to attend his denominational Bible school for two years. This will leave a gap in the team in Gagnoa since he is our most fluent writer of Bhete, but we hope it will give him a better grounding in Scripture that will enable him to contribute to the future translation effort.