First guilt, then pain, then disgust. First tears, then sleeplessness, then defiance. This has been the inner turmoil of Aya Virginie Toure, principal organizer of a peaceful demonstration by 15,000 women that ended in unthinkable, horrifying carnage.
Like millions of people in Ivory Coast and all over the world, Toure was sickened last week when soldiers loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo trained machine guns on protesters and opened fire. Six were killed on the spot, a seventh died in hospital and about 100 were wounded as the streets of Abidjan ran with blood.
But resolute and unbowed, women young and old were back out in force this week brandishing placards that said, “Don’t shoot us” — a gesture that won the admiration of US President Barack Obama and testified to a rich heritage of female activism in west Africa that could yet prove Gbagbo’s undoing.
Toure is president of a women’s group allied to the party of Alassane Ouattara, the man regarded by the international community as the winner of November’s disputed election. She called the March 3 demonstration to intensify pressure on Gbagbo to step down. “They said that, as women, they had to play their part now,” she recalled. “Gbagbo’s forces have shot at men but we never thought they would shoot at women.”
Toure estimated that about 500 of the demonstrators were either naked or wearing black. “In Africa, and Ivory Coast, this is like a curse,” she explained. “That’s why the soldiers were afraid and shot at them.
“The women were whistling and singing and chanting and dancing to encourage Mr Gbagbo to leave. Tanks and Humvees showed up — the women started to applaud them because they thought they were there to support them. But suddenly they started shooting at them. One woman had a baby on her back. She died but the baby survived.”
The massacre was an appalling test of Toure’s self-belief and resilience. “The first feeling I had was guilt. I had called all the mothers and sisters into the street and I felt guilty for what happened. I spent all the day crying, wondering what are we going to do now?
“My second feeling was great pain for those who lost their lives. But then I told the women that if we stop here it will be like our friends died for nothing. We have to continue the struggle to honor their memory.”
Asked about her feelings towards Gbagbo, she replied: “Disgust. Pity. He is mad. Nobody can do what he did against women. I can’t say I hate him because I’m a Christian, but he has to step down. Gbagbo doesn’t love Ivorians; the only thing he loves is the presidential seat.”
Ivory Coast has a long tradition of women’s activism since before independence in 1960 but some feel the world’s response has been inadequate.
Kandia Camara, a member of Ouattara’s government-in-waiting, said: “It seems that no one wants to help us. They are looking at us being killed without doing anything. All the women of Ivory Coast plead with the international community to come and help us to stop this mass killing of our women, our children, our men, our country. Ivory Coast is dying because of this man. Mr Gbagbo is not a normal man. He is crazy.”
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