Word: houphouet
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...meeting of African political leaders, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah chided the Ivory Coast's Felix Houphouet-Boigny for being "pro-colonialist." Retorted Houphouet-Boigny: "We will meet again in ten years, and then we will see which of us has done better for his country." They did not need to wait a decade to know the answer. Today, Nkrumah is in exile, Ghana is practically bankrupt-and the Ivory Coast is Black Africa's most flourishing young country...
French Advice. The former colony did not achieve full independence from France until 1960. Even after that, the pocket-sized nation (pop. 3,800,000) welcomed French investment, and Houphouet-Boigny relied heavily on French aid and advisers. Chief among these was Economist Raphaël Saller, who executed for the Ivory Coast an economic program inspired by France's own le Plan. Blessed with nine feet of annual rainfall and a sunny six-month growing season, the Ivory Coast ranks third among the world's coffee producers, fourth in cocoa. But aware of the dangers...
...Houphouet-Boigny shunned the showy industrial schemes dear to many other leaders of underdeveloped countries. But the government invested heavily in light industry, with new factories built to manufacture everything from bicycles to bed frames. The Ivory Coast has also achieved a tidy trade balance, with imports of $236 million and exports of $277 million last year. Per capita income for Ivorians is $200 a year, the highest in Black Africa...
There are several notable examples of good government. In the Ivory Coast, President Felix Houphouet-Boigny-who before independence served as French Minister of Overseas Territories -is building a booming economy that has raised the living standards of his people enormously. Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere has managed to absorb Communist-minded Zanzibar without falling prey to the Reds, last year promoted a unique experiment in one-party elections: his Tanzania Africa National Union put up two candidates for each post, with the result that several of his own Cabinet ministers were defeated. Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta...
There are men in Hendrik Verwoerd's government who lack the statesmanship of Houphouet-Boigny, Nyerere, or Kenyatta. But had these African leaders grown up in South Africa, their abilities would never have been known. They would have been bank clerks, messengers-or in jail...