19 - 25 July 2001
Issue No.543
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 19 - 25 July 2001 Issue No.543 |
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No easy task for Essy
The newly-elected OAU Secretary-General Amara Essy tells Africa that he is determined to break the mould of the continent's politics and end its many raging and draining conflicts, writes Gamal Nkrumah
Former Ivorian Foreign Minister Amara Essy, a career diplomat and seasoned international conflict management negotiator, is fluent in French, English and Portuguese, the three main European languages spoken in Africa. As a devout Muslim, he has a smattering of Arabic to boot. "At least I can say my prayers in Arabic," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. This is a modest admission: Essy has been on the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, no less than seven times. Yet he is, like his predecessor Salim Ahmed Salim, strongly opposed to religious fundamentalism in any form.
Essy is endowed with a convivial and unassuming nature, prerequisites for a skillful negotiator. Most recently, he was dispatched as a peace-broker to the strife-torn Central African Republic by United Nations Secretary- General Kofi Annan -- the two men speak the same Twi language of the Akan people of West Africa. Figuratively, they speak the same pragmatic political language as well.
Essy stated that the focus of his tenure would be conflict resolution and the facilitation of the African Union (AU). "My first priority is to facilitate the means towards designing and implementing mechanisms for the prevention and resolution of the conflicts which drain the continent," he said.
A protégé of the late Ivorian first president Felix Houphouet-Boigney, Essy made his mark at a time when the ageing grand old master of African moderation was ailing and needed a close and trusted collaborator. Essy quickly won the old man's favour and was given a free hand to shape Ivorian foreign policy.
The Africa seen through the lens of Salim is not radically different from the one viewed through Essy's eyes. Salim is renowned for his frank and straight talk. Critics of the incumbent OAU secretary- general often say he tends to throw his weight about. Essy, on the other hand, is often seen as sly and manipulative. Whatever the case may be, even Essy's detractors admit he has a winning personality. Delving beneath the surface of superficial differences in style and character, the outgoing and incoming OAU secretary-generals share far more in common than what first meets the eye. Both are establishment men. Both were hand-picked by their respective national first presidents. More to the point, the strength and credibility of the two men stems from their well-tried and tested capacity to work closely with African leaders of diverse ideological backgrounds and political leanings. They are both essentially pragmatists and consensus builders who are well-versed in the tenets of realpolitik.
"The OAU should work in accordance with the UN Charter, which considers the possibility of regional co-operation, or even integration, on issues regarding conflict management. It is the price Africa must pay to secure once again its proper place and credibility in the international arena."
The post-Cold War international order necessitates that the head of a large and unwieldy continental organisation be in the good books of Western powers. At the same time, too close an association with the West would incur the hostility of more militant leaders who still command a large following in the poor, hungry and angry continent.
The OAU Secretary General walks a tightrope: one slip would mean political disintegration and the destruction of continental cohesiveness.
Essy, snatching a walloping 42 votes, was elected as a compromise after he beat his only contender, Namibian Foreign Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, who mustered a mere 18 votes. A third contender, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) executive secretary Lansana Kouyate, pulled out of the race to avoid a split vote with Essy. The voting pattern reflected the traditional linguistic split between the francophones, who overwhelmingly voted for Essy, and the anglophones and lusophones (Portuguese speaking), especially of southern Africa, who backed Ben Gurirab.
The election of Essy angered some southern African delegates who felt that, since its inception, the OAU had never had a Secretary-General from southern Africa. Moreover, with the exception of Salim, most of the former OAU Secretary Generals were, like Essy, West Africans. The southern Africans were not raring for a showdown, though. In the end, they capitulated and the portly Ben Gurirab publicly embraced the diminutive Essy, congratulating him profusely.
Essy's main strength is that he is not only well-versed in African political lore and has a long experience with conflict management in Africa, but that he is also well-acquainted with Western ways, having been based in Western capitals for much of his high-ranking diplomatic career. He felt especially at home in Geneva and New York, where the UN headquarters are located.
The UN connection is particularly crucial, one of which Essy is well aware. "Today Africa is ripped apart by conflicts. Unprecedentedly, as many as seven national armies are embroiled in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is sad that Africa continues to be powerless in the face of the many conflicts that beset the continent," he noted in Lusaka. More to the point, he explained that: "The OAU should work in accordance with the UN Charter, which considers the possibility of regional co- operation, or even integration, on issues regarding conflict management. It is the price Africa must pay to secure once again its proper place and credibility in the international arena."
Essy was born in Bouake, Ivory Coast's second largest city, into a traditional family of the Agny Bonan ethnic group who form part of the majority Akan people in Ivory Coast. After early education at home he went abroad for higher studies. Thereafter, he quickly rose the ranks in the diplomatic arena, both in his country and abroad. After being posted as his country's first counsellor to Brazil in the early 1970s, he was appointed ambassador to Switzerland by the end of the decade. In 1977-78 Essy presided over the G-77 group of developing nations, where he defended Third World trade interests at UN and other international forums.
In the 1980s, Essy left Europe for America, where he was his country's ambassador to the UN, was nominated Vice-President of the 40th UN session, and presided over the UN Security Council in January 1990. A year later Houphouet-Boigny appointed him as head of the Ivory Coast Department of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until the overthrow of Houphouet-Boigny's successor Konan Bedie in a bloody coup d'etat on Christmas Eve in 1999. The fact that the new OAU Secretary General hails from one of the few countries in the continent to have experienced a recent military takeover and whose current civilian government is not accepted as legitimate by a large segment of the population, and especially the politically marginalised northern half of the country, mars Essy's otherwise unblemished credentials.
Essy is big on conflict prevention, management and resolution. "The question of security is fundamental because it lays the grounds for stability and trust -- the two most important factors in development," stressed Essy in Lusaka last week. Essy's diplomacy was instrumental in resolving a number of serious conflicts in Africa including the border dispute between two of Ivory Coast's West African neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, the civil wars in Liberia to the west of Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Chad. Further away from West Africa, Essy was among those who worked to resolve the conflicts in Angola and Somalia. In Sierra Leone, Essy distinguished himself by personally leading a search for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader, discovering his whereabouts and persuading him to come out of his jungle hideout.
On the personal side Essy, in spite of his Muslim background, is married to a Roman Catholic and insists that his six children are free to chose the religion they prefer. A refreshingly liberal outlook for a man whose country is sadly being swept by a wave of religious bigotry that has pitted the predominantly Christian and animist south against the Muslim north.
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