Africa Is a Country

Gbagbo's Elections

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Gbagbo's Elections

By
Sean Jacobs

It’s been 10 years since Cote d’Ivoire’s presidential elections; “… a whole lost generation since the days when Côte d’Ivoire was West Africa’s most prosperous and promising nation.” The last election cycle was postponed indefinitely by the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo (of the Front Populaire Ivorian) when his term ended in 2005. In the meantime he plunged the country into civil war (in 2002). The election will hopefully unify the country’s north and south–divided since the civil war. Expectations are that Gbagbo–who is in a three-way contest with former president Henri Konan Bedie and Alassane Ouattara, a former prime minister–will be re-elected. Quite a cast of characters: Bedie invented of “Ivorite,” a xenophobic policy aimed at excluding immigrants or those from mixed backgrounds (with parents from Burkina Faso, Mali, etc) from political life. Gbagbo never denounced the policy (its cited as a contributing factor to the 2002 northern rebellion against his regime). Only “real Ivorians” were allowed to vote. Ouattara was excluded from running for president in 2000 because he was not considered a “real Ivorian.”

* Don’t expect too much in-depth reporting in English language media about the Ivorian elections. (The latter care more about the US midterms, later this week, and the second round of Brazil’s presidential elections, also today.) Best to regularly check sites like Global Voices or AllAfrica.com. Follow the African Elections Project’s Cote d’Ivoire elections updates on Twitter. There’s also the English services of French language media like Radio France International. Finally a group of local web activists has set up a citizen reporting platform to monitor elections using the Ushahidi platform.

Credit: Cartoon by Le Monde’s Telex.

Further Reading

Kenya’s vibe shift

From aesthetic cool to political confusion, a new generation in Kenya is navigating broken promises, borrowed styles, and the blurred lines between irony and ideology.

Africa and the AI race

At summits and in speeches, African leaders promise to harness AI for development. But without investment in power, connectivity, and people, the continent risks replaying old failures in new code.

After the uprising

Years into Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict, the rebellion faces internal fractures, waning support, and military pressure—raising the question of what future, if any, lies ahead for Ambazonian aspirations.

In search of Saadia

Who was Saadia, and why has she been forgotten? A search for one woman’s story opens up bigger questions about race, migration, belonging, and the gaps history leaves behind.

Binti, revisited

More than two decades after its release, Lady Jaydee’s debut album still resonates—offering a window into Tanzanian pop, gender politics, and the sound of a generation coming into its own.

The bones beneath our feet

A powerful new documentary follows Evelyn Wanjugu Kimathi’s personal and political journey to recover her father’s remains—and to reckon with Kenya’s unfinished struggle for land, justice, and historical memory.

What comes after liberation?

In this wide-ranging conversation, the freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court justice Albie Sachs reflects on law, liberation, and the unfinished work of building a just South Africa.

The cost of care

In Africa’s migration economy, women’s labor fuels households abroad while their own needs are sidelined at home. What does freedom look like when care itself becomes a form of exile?

The memory keepers

A new documentary follows two women’s mission to decolonize Nairobi’s libraries, revealing how good intentions collide with bureaucracy, donor politics, and the ghosts of colonialism.

Making films against amnesia

The director of the Oscar-nominated film ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’ reflects on imperial violence, corporate warfare, and how cinema can disrupt the official record—and help us remember differently.