'Mandela's tailor' in business but worried over I Coast xenophobia by Bryan Pearson ABIDJAN, Jan 30 (AFP) - Pathe Ouedraogo, better known as "Nelson Mandela's tailor", has continued to make a living in Ivory Coast despite the rising tide of anger against Burkina Faso nationals, but says he is worried about his compatriots being hounded out of town. Ouedraogo believes his fame at being one of the supppliers to the South African former president of his trademark "Mandela shirts" is one of the reasons Ivorians have not attacked his businesses in Abidjan. Many other Burkinabe, however, have not been as lucky and have had their shops burnt or been physically or verbally abused by youths marching through the streets chanting "Ivory Coast for Ivorians." "If they touch my countrymen, they touch me," Ouedraogo told AFP in his busy factory in the heart of Abidjan's sprawling Treichville suburb. "In fact if they touch any foreigner, they touch me." Among the many workers who bustle around his factory from morning till night, seven days a week turning out his latest creations, are Burkinabe, Ghanaians, Nigerians, Malians and -- importantly -- Ivorians. "If they drive me out, it will be their loss," he said. "The Ivorians I employ will be out of work. But I have businesses all over Africa. I can start again anywhere." A Burkinabe who has lived in Abidjan since 1969, Ouedraogo believes he is well regarded by the authorities because his business brings in foreign currency and his links with Mandela a measure of prestige. He travels to fashion shows representing Ivory Coast rather than Burkina Faso, where he was born in the tiny village of Guibare, 87 kilometres (54 miles) from the capital Ouagadougou, 47 years ago. He is optimistic the xenophobia which has swept Ivory Coast since an abortive coup on the night of January 7, which government aides have blamed on foreigners, will subside and the flight of Burkinabe back home -- some reports put the figure at 10,000 a week -- will slow. "There are too many of us," he said. "It's impossible to chase us all out." According to the latest census -- in 1998 -- 26 percent of Ivory Coast's population of 15.4 million are foreigners. Around two million are Burkinabe. "My business is important to Ivory Coast," Ouedraogo said. "Even President (Laurent) Gbagbo has begun to wear my shirts," he added, fishing out recent newspaper clippings which show the Ivorian leader sporting the flowing, multi-coloured shirts that Mandela popularised. Pride of place in the factory is a large picture on the wall which shows Ouedraogo shaking hands with a beaming Mandela, who is wearing one of the tailor's creations. "Since Mandela -- I call him my father -- started wearing my shirts, everyone wants them, even President (Olusegun) Obasanjo of Nigeria," he said. Another plaque on the wall boasts a picture of a smiling United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan alongside a letter signed by the UN chief thanking Ouedraogo for his shirts. Like many other Burkinabe, poverty forced Ouedraogo in 1969, at the age of 16, to head for Ivory Coast -- then the economic powerhouse of west Africa -- in search of work. Arriving in Abidjan penniless, he offered to work in a tailor's shop in return only for a meal and to be allowed to sleep on the factory floor at night. Riches, inevitably, grew out of the rags. Today he has boutiques across Ivory Coast, in Gabon, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal and the Pathe'O trademark is known throughout Africa and even further afield. His shrewdest move was to send some of his shirts to Mandela with South African singer Miriam Makeba in the early 1990s soon after the South African anti-apartheid leader was freed from jail. The gesture was meant, he said, purely to thank Mandela for his stand against apartheid. "We used to learn about him when I was at school. He was always my hero. "The next thing, I saw him on television wearing my shirt. I couldn't believe it." bp/jlr ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------