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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Reconfiguring Nationhood in Côte d'Ivoire
| Panel |
24. Trust and the Reconstruction of Society
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| Paper ID | 738 |
| Author(s) |
Yere, Henri-Michel Nieplet
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Assuming that diverging interpretations of the past within a community of people living together on the same territory may become a source of conflict among them, this paper looks at how history can also contribute to the process of reconstruction in a post-conflict society. In the case of Côte d'Ivoire, opposing views over the process of naturalisation have been hotly debated during the 1990s, to the extent that this confrontation was taken up as one of the reasons for the war that erupted in September 2002 by one of the belligerent parties. The most controversial episode in this debate was certainly the 1994 restriction of the access to the presidency of the Republic to ivoiriens nés de père et de mère eux-mêmes ivoiriens de naissance (Ivorians born of a father and a mother themselves Ivorian-born). This restriction reflected a concern that the supreme function in the State must be reserved to a newly defined category of citizens, known as Ivoiriens de souche (Ivorians who claim that the ethnic group to which they belong was present within the borders of today's Côte d'Ivoire at the time of the creation of the colony by the French), as opposed to so-called Ivoiriens de circonstance. This legal disposition was felt by many as the confirmation of a suspicion over their loyalty to the country, a suspicion expressed at the highest level of the State. The amount of insecurities generated by this particular view has done much to shatter the sense that all shall be treated equally and fairly by the State.
Drawing from different case-studies in Africa and beyond, this paper will look at the crucial role that the interpretation of history can play in the process of post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation. It will explore the idea that a historical inquiry on the theme of citizenship and nationhood in the Ivorian Twentieth Century can help reconfigure understandings of nationhood in a more consensual manner, with the ultimate view to rebuild the lost institutional trust in the fact that the State shall treat everyone fairly, irrespective of how they became citizens of Côte d'Ivoire. |
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