Before the teargas canisters and burnt tires had all been cleared away, government supporters were embracing their opponents on the streets of Abidjan. For one afternoon at least, a passion even stronger than politics had taken over: football.
On Tuesday, fans of the Elephants filled the tiny maquis, or street bars, to cheer the national team to victory in the African Nations Cup. Flimsy plastic chairs were hurled in the air after Didier Drogba, who grew up in France, scored.
But after the Libyans equalised, fans began to miss the presence of striker Aruna Dindane, a Burkinabe born in Côte d’Ivoire to foreign parents. Although successive Ivorian presidents have tried to disqualify those without Ivorian parentage from elections, they have no such qualms when it comes to football.
‘Dindane is not playing this game, we really feel his absence,†said Gbei Aristide, a 41-year-old health worker. Although he has so far resisted pressure to join the militants — ‘I have a job to hold down†— he supports laws that would strip people such as opposition leader Alassane Ouattara, or Dindane, of the vote. But with Libya closing in, Aristide wants the striker back on the field.
But all politics were forgotten when Yaya Touré netted Côte d’Ivoire’s second and winning goal. Flag-draped southerners and northerners bought each other rounds of beer and toasted French coach Henri Michel.
‘It’s great having a French coach, he’s above all the politics so he just picks the best players regardless of where they come from,†said Aristide.
As fans celebrated, the two foreigners in the bar were showered with beers. ‘You see, we are a friendly nation,†shouted Aristide. ‘You just must not provoke us.†It was the only reference to the charges of French imperialism and international meddling that marked last week’s protests.
‘That really blew me away. Most of our players play in European clubs, I have lots of friends in Europe. He even lives in Italy,†said 17-year-old Kassoum Hema, motioning to another fan in a white shirt.
A northerner who went down to ‘have a look†at the thousands of angry protesters outside the United Nations headquarters in Abidjan, Hema thinks the UN should be left alone.
But, like many Ivorians, he is reluctant to compare the egalitarian — and successful — spirit of the national team with the divisions that have frozen the country into a suspended civil war since 2002. ‘This is football, not politics.â€
Yet, in an increasingly beleaguered country looking for some good news, it is becoming harder to separate the two.
President Laurent Gbagbo gave each player a villa upon their qualifier to the World Cup; most pundits agree that a good performance by the Elephants will give him a popularity boost. And pressure is reportedly growing on the team’s stars to start making political statements.
In an interview with the French magazine L’Equipe last week, Drogba, who hails from near the president’s hometown, criticised French ‘paternal†and ‘colonial†attitudes but deplored violence against them.
As for Hema and Aristide, once the beers are drunk, each will go home to their separate neighbourhoods. Hema is hoping that there will not be any roadblocks on the bridge to his house. Aristide will call on his friend, who used to be a minister under the opposition, to congratulate him on his victory.