Ivory Coast: An African Success Story

A tall, thin man stands at the lake’s edge, a brown ski cap on his head, red plastic thongs on his feet and a squawking white chicken in each hand. In the water, a semicircle of seemingly lifeless eyes bob to the surface.

The crocodiles, the Sacred Caymans of Yamoussoukro, are hungry.

The feeder begins to swing his arms. The first chicken goes up. A squawk. Gone. The second one lasts longer, clucking to itself as it picks its way along the rocks. But the crocodiles are persistent. They will win. Time is on their side.

Welcome to the estate of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the 80-year-old president of the Ivory Coast, known respectfully and fondly as “Le Vieux ,” the old man.

Houphouet-Boigny (pronounced oof-WET BWAN-yee ) is a rare pillar of political durability in sub-Saharan Africa. His practical approach and West-leaning politics--not to mention his homburg hats--have made him an uncommon figure indeed on this continent.

So long has Le Vieux been a voice of calm in Africa, and a sign of stability for the Ivory Coast, that people here have begun to worry lately about who will replace him and what will happen to this “African miracle,” as they still call it here, when its shepherd is no longer around.

Houphouet-Boigny seems to be in no hurry. He has refused to name or even hint at a successor. He won his sixth five-year term of office a year ago, and he celebrated his 81st birthday on Oct. 18. Some say he is older, but time has always been on his side.

Many African countries, endowed with beautiful landscapes, rich resources and nationalistic fervor at the time of independence, have not yet fulfilled their promise. The Ivory Coast was less developed than most of its neighbors when it became independent from France in 1960.

Pragmatic President

But Houphouet-Boigny, the Ivory Coast’s first and only president, set a pragmatic course. He encouraged foreign investment and welcomed foreign expertise. He poured money into education rather than arms, and sought to develop agriculture rather than industry.

It wasn’t long before the Ivory Coast, a West African country about the size of New Mexico, had become one of the wealthiest, most modern countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The port city of Abidjan has high-rise offices, an intricate network of freeways and haute cuisine. It has been called “the Paris of Africa.”

With the help of France, Houphouet-Boigny turned the Ivory Coast into a success story. More than 40% of the people here are literate and 75% of the children attend school--figures unmatched elsewhere in developing Africa.

This economy has grown faster, and for more years, than any non-oil exporting country in black Africa. Foreign investment continues to be important, but there are indications that Ivorians are playing an increasing role in their economy, a sure sign of long-term economic health.

An Emerald City

The inland city of Yamoussoukro, 150 miles by a smooth four-lane highway from Abidjan, is perhaps the most dramatic symbol of Houphouet-Boigny’s sway in the Ivory Coast. It is an emerald city with wide streets, new buildings, an 18-hole golf course and an opulent 284-room hotel with a revolving restaurant on top. Traffic in the streets, in the hotel and on the golf course is invariably light.

Houphouet-Boigny built Yamoussoukro virtually from scratch. It is situated on the land where he was born and is named for his mother, Yamoussou. In 1983, it became the official political and administrative capital of the Ivory Coast.

The centerpiece of Yamoussoukro is Houphouet-Boigny’s home, not the grass hut he grew up in but the presidential palace--a square, four-story concrete structure. The man-made body of water in front, the Lake of the Sacred Caymans, is surrounded by thousands of palm trees.

Each afternoon at 4 o’clock, the crocodiles are fed. A small group of tourists are usually on hand, leaning against the fence, cameras cocked. The feeder, wearing a long, threadbare black cape, steps over the short steel fence, swings the live chickens a few times and sends them to their fate. Then he steps back over the fence and trudges away.

No Ordinary Leader

The presence of caymans, which are not native to the Ivory Coast, is hard to figure. But then, Yamoussoukro is an unusual place and Houphouet-Boigny is no ordinary leader.

He is the son of a wealthy tribal chief, a descendant of a line of tribal chiefs originating in the old Ashanti Kingdom. Houphouet-Boigny went away to school, studying medicine in Dakar, Senegal. He was a public health official and plantation owner in the Ivory Coast when he founded the country’s first agricultural union in 1944. It later became a forum for planters demanding minimum prices denied them by the French colonial regime.

Then he went into politics, representing the Ivory Coast in France’s National Assembly from 1945 until 1959, during which he sponsored legislation that abolished forced labor in the French territories of Africa. He also held ministerial posts in the French government--the first African to do so.

Other African leaders frequently consult him, but Houphouet-Boigny’s opinions are not widely shared in black Africa. For one thing, he has engaged in secret talks with South Africa’s white minority government for years.

Still in Good Health

He recently told Le Figaro, the French weekly, that sanctions against South Africa would only make the situation there worse. He said the problem of apartheid would already have been solved if it were not for the Communist influence in the country.

Houphouet-Boigny does not travel much any more, although he keeps an apartment in Paris and has an estate in Geneva. The Ivory Coast’s ties with France remain strong, in no small part because of Houphouet-Boigny’s own fondness for France. He insists, for example, that the country be called Cote d’Ivoire.

By most accounts, the president is in good health. A short, stocky man, he does not smoke or drink. Ivorians marveled at his stamina last year when he held a five-hour news conference, jousting with journalists until there were no more questions to be asked.

The position of vice president was written into the constitution to allow Houphouet-Boigny to designate a successor. But the president would not be pressured. The post, never filled, was abolished last year. In changing the constitution, a party congress declared Houphouet-Boigny the Ivory Coast’s leader for “yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

No Thoughts of Resigning

Houphouet-Boigny has since sought to put down rumors that he might resign. “As long as the country has confidence in me, and if my health permits me to do so, I will stay in my post,” the daily newspaper Fraternite Matin quoted him as saying recently.

The constitution now makes the president of the National Assembly interim head of state until a permanent successor can be elected.

Political analysts here speculate that Houphouet-Boigny’s reluctance to choose a successor is the result of his upbringing. “He’s a tribal chief, and in that environment the chief does not pick a successor,” a Western analyst said.

But Houphouet-Boigny was sensitive to critics who say that his government, dominated by aging ministers, is not prepared for the future. So he shuffled his cabinet over the summer, adding many ministers between the ages of 40 and 55 and appointing his first women ministers.

Defused Opponents

“He’s looking beyond the succession issue,” the Western analyst said. “He’s saying, ‘When I go, enough of you are together, I want you to work it out. You don’t have to struggle to get into the government. You’re already in.’ ”

Houphouet-Boigny does have opponents, the most vocal of whom live outside the country. Their main goal is the establishment of a multi-party system in the Ivory Coast, currently a one-party republic.

Yet Houphouet-Boigny, virtually alone among leaders in sub-Saharan Africa, has managed over the years to defuse his opposition by bringing his enemies, even some who have plotted to kill him, into the government and making them a part of the process.

Some African leaders play tribal favorites in government and business, but Houphouet-Boigny has sought to include many of the more than 60 ethnic groups here in the country’s affairs.

‘Like a Crocodile’

“No one questions that Houphouet is an extremely astute politician,” said an analyst who has followed the political workings of this country for a decade. “He knows African politics inside and out. He doesn’t have any political lessons to learn from anybody.”

As Houphouet-Boigny himself is said to have observed: “I am like a crocodile. I sleep with one eye open.”

Houphouet-Boigny’s ideology is a mix of socialism and capitalism, but he is decidedly pro-West. His views on South Africa follow those of President Reagan and Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He used Israeli architects to design his new capital.

His political philosophy may be in the mold of French socialism, but “his business philosophy is about as close to Reagan’s as they come,” an American businessman here said. “He’s very much in favor of foreign investment--as long as we play by the rules.”

Economic Prosperity

The rules are French. But while there are still French advisers in many Ivorian ministries, the French share of the economy has dwindled in recent years. The 35,000 French here account for about 20% of the country’s total investment, half of what it was just a decade ago. This has been the trend here for all expatriates.

The Ivory Coast emerged last year from a recession to post its first year of economic expansion since 1980. Falling prices for robusta coffee and cocoa, of which the Ivory Coast is the world’s leading producer, were blamed for the downturn. The situation has been described as “a healthy climate of uneasy prosperity.”

Although there is concern about what lies ahead for the Ivory Coast when Houphouet-Boigny is gone, many believe that the Ivory Coast has come too far to fall back.

“It might not work as well as it has before, but there are too many people in the system who have seen it do well for so long not to try to make it work,” a Western businessman said recently. “Besides, it’s time they had some debate and discussion here, maybe even a bit of disagreement.”