by Isabelle Ligner

   ABIDJAN, Jan 29 (AFP) - Bamba Sekou owns a small shop in the working-
class
neighborhood of Adjame in Abidjan, and is a part-time poet.
   A Malian born in Ivory Coast 36 years ago, he now sees his country of
adoption as a "mosaic in danger."
   "In the past," he said, "foreigners helped add life and joy to the
country,
but now we are all paralysed ... by fear."
   Ivory Coast, long considered an economic and political success story, is
now awash in anti-foreign sentiment nurtured by the political
establishment.
   Bamba is proud of "his Abidjan" -- a cosmopolitan city peopled with
Malians, who because they speak the Dioula language are difficult to
distinguish from Ivorians from the north; Burkinabe traders and domestic
workers; Guinean food stall holders; Senegalese craftsmen, Togolese
restaurateurs; and Nigerian traders.
   "At the same time the Ghanaian toutous (prostitutes) have brought a lot
to
the country," he said with a grin, referring to Ghanaian women who frequent
the city's Treichville and Yopougon quarters.
   More seriously, Bamba says the situation "has deteriorated to the point
where foreigners don't dare go out."
   The Malian finds it ironic that state television daily runs
advertisements
aimed at promoting reconciliation, with a message proclaiming: "in Ivory
Coast
we vibrate together."
   It should rather proclaim, he said: "We tremble, each one on our own."
   According to the latest census -- in 1998 -- 26 percent of Ivory Coast's
population of 15.4 million are foreigners.
   The percentage is believed to be in fact higher, due to illegal
immigration, against which President Laurent Gbagbo has declared war.
   Foreigners, who became a driving force behind Ivory Coast's economic
growth
in the 1970s and 1980s, have, however, become the scapegoats of successive
governments since the economy started sliding in the early 1990s.
   Following an abortive coup in Abidjan on the night of January 7, the
government pointed fingers at foreigners, unleashing a wave of violent
xenophobia that has sent thousands of foreigners -- mainly Burkinabe --
fleeing the country.
   Tidiane Diouf is a Senegalese craftsman. His small shop situated at the
entrance to Abobo was destroyed by youths after the attempted coup, and
last
week he was threatened in the streets by youths angry at statements made by
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.
   Wade said a week ago that "a Burkinabe in Ivory Coast is being treated
in a
way that a black person would not be treated in Europe" -- a statement that
provoked furious protests against Senegalese nationals living in Ivory
Coast.
   "We are blamed for everything," said Tidiane. "If we breathe the same
air
as the Ivorians, it's already a problem for them."
   He said he was ready to leave at the next sign of trouble. Thousands of
Burkinabe have already packed up and gone home in the past few weeks.
   The same complaint is heard from foreign agricultural workers in the
vast
coffee and cocoa plantations in the west of the country.
   Hundreds have fled or are getting ready to flee after being attacked or
threatened by Ivorians.
   Even Ghanaian fishermen, with their heavy but colourful fishing boats
which
have become a tourist attraction at the west coast town of Sassandra, have
been told to "go find fish somewhere else."
   According to the 1998 census, however, 47.3 percent of foreigners were
born
in Ivory Coast and know no other home.
   Ivorian writer Maurice Bandaman says that "in searching to make
foreigners
responsible for their troubles, the people of Ivory Coast are sinking to
bestiality -- just because a generation of leaders are incapable of
analysing
the situation critically and realising that they are driving the country to
destruction."
   il/bp/jlr

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