West Africa: Rawlings And Ouattara, About the Eco

Africa has lost one of its greatest sons with the passing of J. J. Rawlings, the former President of Ghana, a pan Africanist of the first order. He is on the scale of Patrice Lumumba, Nelson Mandela, Thomas Sankara, Amilcar Cabral, among others, those whose action gave a face and a new foundation to their countries, on the path of emancipation.

I met him on several occasions, during the long Liberian peace negotiations which took us into Ghana at least a dozen of times. I wanted to write something about the role he played during those years. How he skillfully maintained the balance between the two sides that weighed on our peace talks, Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso on the one hand and supporters of Charles Taylor and Guinea/Nigeria on the other, determined to force Taylor out. Or how, although he was a close ally of Libya who provided aid to both Ghana and to Charles Taylor, the Ghanaian troops in ECOMOG always maintained their peacekeeping standing. Or how he always put all Liberian delegations together in secluded areas to force us to talk to each other. Or his belief that peace could only be achieved if warlords begin to trust each other and if Liberians were ready to trade power for peace.

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