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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Houphouët-Boigny inherited the political apparatus of
the
nation-state but by 1988 had not yet forged bonds uniting
citizens
of diverse ethnicity to one another or to their leaders.
Houphouët-Boigny had dealt with ethnic conflict by
denouncing
ethnocentrism as a legitimate issue and by the time-tested
strategy
of co-opting the leadership of potentially dissident
ethnic groups
by incorporating them in the party or governmental
bureaucracy.
Thus, for example, from the mid-1970s the Sénoufo in the
north were
overrepresented in the army, and southern peoples were
overrepresented in the police and National Gendarmerie
(Gendarmerie
Nationale). Meanwhile, Houphouët-Boigny invariably
appointed as his
minister of defense a member of the Baoulé, who were also
overrepresented in the National Security Police (Sûreté
Nationale),
and appointed a Bété chief of staff of the army.
Data as of November 1988
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