Well, I decided to once again do the country blogs so today, here Cote d'loire or better known as the Ivory Coast.
What should be first stated about the Ivory Coast is that at one time it was considered the model of stability that all African countries should strive to be. If you don't know much about Africa, much of the country was pioneered, colonized, and subsequently exhorted for their imports. Countries such as Britain, Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and Oman (Middle Eastern country that colonized parts of Kenya). Belgium is considered one of the worst because of the imperial rule they set down in Congo, followed close by the Brits with the Zulu Wars.
Now Ivory Coast was colonized by the French and actually never suffered much to slave trade, which they believe to be because they are a coastal country and therefore a prime location for imports and exports with Europeans. In 1960, they received their independence and were considered fairly stable until 1999 and then again in 2002. This was when the country had their very own civil war and then there was a military coup that separated the country into two part: the rebels controlled the North, while the government controlled the South.
What is current in the country, is that they recently had an election that caused some upheaval. You can read more at the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post or CS Monitor. Most of the problems arise from the fact that the Coast's first president died in 1993 and the coast had to deal with democracy, most people opposed the idea of the government of the people. They are also worried about ethnic and religious discrimination as almost a third of the country are actually from neighboring Burkina Faso. And then you have worries about exploitation of migrant workers in the fields, as Ivory Coast is one of the world's largest exporters of cocoa.
Current president, Laurent Gbagbo has some skeletons in his closet as he is very discriminatory of citizens who are not pure Ivorian and has gone as far as to inhibit the ability of immigrants to vote. Oh, and most of his support, is from the Christian part of the country, very nice.
This is a country with conflict that stems from brushing issues under the rug. There is a substantial need for a move of God to happen.
