Cocoa time bomb
2004-09-10 07:44
Pauline Bax
Abidjan - Fengolo, a town with about 1 600 residents 300km west of the capital Yamoussoukrou, is divided by an asphalt road that leads to the next big town.
The autochtone, the indigenous tribes, live on the western side of this road. The allogene, or immigrants, live on the eastern side.
The difference between the two communities is easy to spot. The natives live in stone houses, the immigrants in houses of clay.
However, the differences between the autochtone and allogene run deeper than architechture - in fact, they hate each other.
The feud started with Cocoa farming.
Cote d'Ivoire is the biggest producer of Cocoa in the world. Most plantations are small, but there are many of them.
The immigrants - who everyone agree are hard workers - settled in Fengolo about 25 years ago and started planting Cocoa trees on land they bought from local residents.
The plantations are on the western side of the town and they have to walk through the local population's territory to get there.
The autochtone are exploiting this and charge a toll fee when anyone who wants to use the dirt road to the plantations.
'Enough is enough'
Recently, trouble broke out when a group of young people were prevented from using the road to the plantations.
Angry immigrants dragged the mayor of Fengolo to a mango tree in the eastern part of town and assaulted him. His hands were tied and one of the young people slapped him in the face - a terrible insult to the head of the town who is traditionally treated with a great deal of respect.
French peace-keeping forces had to intervene to establish order. But the autochtone are still angry.
They claim that there are many strangers in the area and that local residents are merely trying to protect themselves by checking the identity of those using the plantation road.
However, the allogene have no remorse. "Enough is enough," says spokesperson Dieka Ouattara. "Eventually we are free to go to our plantations."
A shortage of arable land has always been a source of ethnic and political tension in Cote d'Ivoire.
In the past, town elders used to diffuse the situation, but the civil has fuelled distrust between the immigrants and locals.
Since rebels launched a failed coup attempt two years ago, the country has been split in two.
The situation is now threatening the future of the immigrants.
The agricultural policy of former president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who came into power just after the country won its independence in 1960 and governed for 30 years, was simple but effective: whoever farms the land owns it. With this policy, he drew many farmers from his the northern neighbours who created wealth in the Cocoa-producing Cote d'Ivoire.
At the same time, people from the north of Cote d'Ivoire moved to the fertile south where they bought land from local tribes through verbal contracts.
Even though these people were born in Cote d'Ivoire, they were still seen as immigrants in the south. There are close ties between them and immigrants from other countries who speak the same dialect and are used to hard work.
Towards the end of the eighties, the Cocoa market crumbled and the economy of Cote d'Ivoire slumped with it.
By the mid-nineties, it became clear that available agricultural land was limited and this brought further tension to rural areas. Opportunistic politicians were quick to blame "the foreigners" for all the trouble.
Relationships between locals and immigrants deteriorated and conflict broke out in several towns. In some places, immigrants were even sent packing.
After the northern rebels' failed coup attempt in September 2002, the hatred of strangers intensified and hostilities between the two groups increased. The most recent bloodbath occurred in Broudoume in March. Eleven people died when Immigrants, who were chased from their plantations just after the Cocoa harvest, came back to avenge themselves on local townspeople who took over their houses and sold their Cocoa.
No teeth, but muscle
Fengolo does not look like a town at war. It looks like any other peaceful rural town with children and goats roaming about.
It looks as if there is room for everyone.
However, the locals feel the immigrants are taking over and that they are colluding with the rebels.
A down-at-heel Victor Diegai, secretary of the mayor, says he does not trust anyone anymore. "We don't even greet them any more," he says about the farmers on the other side of the road.
The immigrants seem more confident.
"I have planted 100ha of Cocoa. To put is differently: I am not leaving," Ouattara says.
"I do not go over the tarred road unless I have to. When we go to our plantations, we leave 20 men behind to protect our woman and children.
"But scared? No. You know, we people from the north are not afraid."
Cote d'Ivoire has experienced a great deal of turmoil over the past five years.
For a detailed timeline of this turmoil, click here:
- Media24 Africa