A dull sadness envelops the streets of Daoukro like a fog. The city, located in the center of Côte d’Ivoire, mourns its “baobab”: Henri Konan Bédié, the former Ivorian president, who died at 89 on the evening of August 1. Despite his old age, he still led the Democratic Party of Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI) and it was in his stronghold that he was when a “slight malaise” seized him. Evacuated by helicopter to the international polyclinic Sainte-Anne-Marie, in Abidjan, he died at the beginning of the evening.

Immediately, supporters and activists of his party gathered at his home in Cocody to offer “yako” (condolences) to his family. A national mourning period of ten days has been decreed until Friday August 11, during which the flags will be everywhere at half mast. A contemplation that seems to crush Daoukro entirely.

“It was our old father, we are upset, hardly articulates Jeannette Sella, a bread seller in the city market, on the verge of tears. I am baoulé, it was my president. But everyone loves it here, the Malinké too. On a nearby stand, another inhabitant abounds: “Here there is no business of Dioula, Bété, Baoulé… There is not that. He’s our dad to all. It is our dad to all who died. »

“He was a mentor, he was everything to us”

Henri Konan Bédié was the child of the country. Born in 1934 in Dadiékro, the “sphinx” should be buried in Pepressou, his family village, located just outside the city. It was in Daoukro, where he owned a thousand hectares of plantations, that he escaped to flee the tumult of Abidjan. Here too he received PDCI executives and journalists for major party events. Here, again, he made the so-called “Daoukro” call, in September 2014, to announce his support for Alassane Dramane Ouattara in the first round of the presidential election the following year.

The town’s main square bears his name. On its blue and white walls, the municipal painter chose to alternately represent “HKB” and his illustrious predecessor, Félix Houphouët-Boigny. “A common vision for the peace and happiness of Ivorians,” the caption states. “I would like the whole nation to rise as one to mourn him,” exclaims Olivier Kassy, ??a passerby, looking at the fresco. He was a mentor, a guide for Côte d’Ivoire, for the Iffou region and for his village. He was everything to us. To the point of being irreplaceable? The elder smiled, “As we say back home, you can’t stay in magnan to take magnan away.” In other words, everything in its own time: to get rid of biting ants, you have to start by getting out of the anthill.

Even if the question of succession arises and the disappearance of Henri Konan Bédié comes one month before the local elections, in September, the time is still for tributes. On Wednesday, the Head of State, Alassane Ouattara, his wife, Dominique, the President of the National Assembly, Adama Bictogo, as well as former President Laurent Gbagbo paraded in the residence of the family in Cocody, a central district of Abidjan, to lend their support to the widow, Henriette Konan Bédié.

“Sadness” of Ouattara, “stunned” of Gbagbo

At midday, Alassane Ouattara expressed his “great sadness” in a press release read live on social networks by Abdourahmane Cissé, the secretary general of the presidency. “ADO” and “HKB” went through everything together: Félix Houphouët-Boigny’s war of succession in the early 1990s, the rapprochement during the crisis years, then the alliance in the 2010s, and finally the separation in 2018. Since then, the two men had remained political adversaries, but the Ivorian president hailed a “great statesman” who served the country “with dedication” and a “deep love for Côte d’Ivoire”.

Laurent Gbagbo, also a rival and then ally of the man who was president of the PDCI for twenty-nine years, expressed his “stunned” in a press release. Like the others, he spoke of “the unexpected nature of this sad news” and announced that his Party of African Peoples-Côte d’Ivoire (PPA-CI) would observe three days of mourning.

The training of Henri Konan Bédié is of course not to be outdone. The ambitious Jean-Louis Billon, PDCI deputy for Dabakala who has often opposed the great chief, shared a few words on Facebook. Another member of the party’s new guard, former minister Tidjane Thiam, split a post on Instagram. For the time being, as stipulated by the texts, it is Philippe Cowppli-Bony, the dean of the vice-presidents of the party, who is in charge of the interim management, the time to organize a new election.