Small Grants Spotlight: Amadou Ouattara Adou

Dr. Amadou Ouattara Adou

Author: Amnis Vigan

Theme: Democracy, Conflict, and Polarization

In this Small Grants Spotlight, we feature Dr. Amadou Ouattara Adou, a specialist in discourse analysis, pragmatics and argumentation. As a young Ivorian interested in the political life of his country (and continent), he decided to study it through the speeches produced by the politicians of his country. He has devoted several research projects to this subject.

Dr. Amadou Ouattara Adou is a recipient of EGAP’s West Africa Regional Hub Small Grants Fund. The project led under this grant is entitled: “From verbal violence to physical violence in the Ivorian political field.” The project seeks to understand the public’s perception of political violence and the strategies they suggest for its prevention. Specifically, the study examines whether the population recognizes that verbal violence, which incites or escalates physical violence, stems from partisan animosity and political dehumanization, posing a threat to the Ivorian nation. To achieve this, they surveyed 561 individuals from various socio-professional backgrounds in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and planned to analyze the data using Modalisa software and the theory of linguistic politeness.

An abbreviated conversation is below. Read the full spotlight here.

Can you define political violence in the Ivorian context?

Adou: Political violence can be understood as the use of an act or set of acts, a word or a set of words that infringe on the physical, moral or psychological integrity of the person who suffers or receives it, in a political context and for political ends. In other words, political violence occurs whenever a speaking subject, a political actor or a supporter of an ideology, a party or a politician performs physical or linguistic acts that hurt, kill, discredit, denigrate, threaten, etc. one or more persons, or destroy public and/or private property, with the aim of achieving one or more objectives related to the quest, management or preservation of state power.

What speeches or practices in the Ivorian political field tend to exacerbate verbal or physical violence?

Adou: According to the results of the study, there are several reasons for the various manifestations of political violence in Côte d’Ivoire. Among these reasons, discourses and practices exacerbate violence in its verbal or physical forms in the Ivorian political field.
They are:

  • Bad governance;
  • Disagreement between politicians and between populations;
  • Lack of respect for the law and democracy;
  • Denigrating the opponent;
  • Insulting and insulting speeches for the opponent and his supporters;
  • The promotion of tribalism and ethnocentrism;
  • Threatening the opponent and his supporters; and
  • Discourses that marginalize and frustrate categories of citizens.

What are your recommendations for peace in Côte d’Ivoire?

Adou: This study has shown that the population is aware of the existence of violence in its verbal and physical forms in the Ivorian political field. Some citizens believe that violence is normal and cannot be eradicated; while others (the vast majority) find it abnormal and believe that measures must be taken to eradicate, contain or prevent it. To do this, they made proposals for solutions, from which we made a set of recommendations:

Socio-economic recommendations
The socio-economic situation of the populations living in Côte d’Ivoire is not always good. For example, the poverty rate is more than 35% according to International Monetary Fund reports in 2022, while the non-employment rate hovers around 26%. To this could be added all the disparities and inequalities observed in the development of the country’s cities. This situation of socio-economic precariousness of the populations makes them fragile, especially the youngest, who represent more than 75% of the population, according to the RGPH of 2021. Their fragility can be a risk that can be exploited by politicians, especially in electoral contexts.

  • Implement projects that significantly reduce unemployment and poverty rates;
  • Implement civic education programs;
  • Implement training and awareness-raising programs on verbal violence and hate speech;
  • Update, publish and implement the resolutions of the Commission for Truth and National Reconciliation set up after the post-electoral crisis of 2010; and
  • Promote values essential to a nation (cohesion, peace, harmony, tolerance, inclusion, etc.).

Legal recommendations
The life of the state is framed by regulatory mechanisms, generally organized into rights and duties for citizens and leaders. The State of Côte d’Ivoire has put in place several mechanisms (laws, decrees, orders, codes, etc.) to regulate life in society and the sound practice of politics and communication. Unfortunately, it is clear that the provisions provided for are not always respected, thus giving rise to manifestations of violence in the political environment, among other things. For this reason, we recommend:

  • Governments reinforce the system reprimanding verbal violence, calls for violence in the context of political activities;
  • Awareness-raising campaigns on laws organizing the production and dissemination of hate speech, false information, denigrating messages;
  • Integrate teaching modules related to the Constitution, legal principles, and laws applicable in Côte d’Ivoire into the curricula of the Education-Training sector;
  • Establish public awareness programs on the respect of the Constitution and the laws in force in Côte d’Ivoire, specifically those governing political activities; and
  • A vote on a law sanctioning non-compliance with the results of an election, outside the framework provided for by the law and the electoral code.

Policy recommendations
The Ivorian political environment appears today, due to the numerous political crises with consequences that are still current, as a space for the natural and/or normal manifestation of violence. It can legitimately be argued that political education is lacking or insufficient in Côte d’Ivoire. However, to the extent that politics is the management of public affairs, political leaders will always have recourse to the population. If this population has no political education, the practice of violence will become a permanent part of its habits. For this reason, we recommend:

  • All political structures establish schools for the political training of their activists: these schools will be able to address all issues related to political activity (the rights and duties of the activist, democracy, political ideologies, the organization of political activities, etc.) and equip activists, future leaders, with good political practice;
  • The government organizes a political dialogue open to all Ivorian political actors to clear all the political disputes accumulated since the crises of 1999, 2002, 2010 and 2020: this dialogue will be an opportunity for the various leaders to talk to each other and agree on a code of good conduct that could have the force of law, in political practice;
  • Leaders apply the principles of good governance to allow the entire population to benefit equitably from the fruits of the country’s economic growth and thus avoid frustration and marginalization; and
  • Politicians and the public apply the principles of democracy: Democracy is not only based on the principles of freedom of expression and association, but it is also based on respect for the rights of others;
  • Establish a mechanism to ensure political change in a peaceful manner: a law and a code governing elections and a body responsible for organizing them exist in Côte d’Ivoire. However, the various elections since 1995 have regularly generated unrest, conflicts, and crises involving various actors. The mechanism put in place must therefore be revisited by political actors, civil society actors, religious and traditional leaders, in order to arrive at a consensual formula that allows for a peaceful alternation in Côte d’Ivoire.

What are your recommendations for related studies in Côte d’Ivoire? What are the research prospects for further study?

Adou: The issue of violence in the political field remains a topical issue, especially in a context of constant political changes such as that of Côte d’Ivoire. This is why similar studies must continue to be carried out and even deepened with a view to proposing mechanisms for detecting the signs of violence, preventing and curbing violence and its consequences in terms of crises. The history of Côte d’Ivoire is punctuated by crises that have prevented its development and the flourishing of the populations who live there. This is why, for in-depth research perspectives, we recommend:

  • Conduct a more extensive survey in the areas identified as most affected by violence to determine the root causes and propose solutions;
  • Conduct a study on the digital social networks (DSNs) currently used by young people, who constitute the vast majority of the Ivorian population (about 70%), to identify the terms, expressions and establish a nomenclature of words or expressions that trigger violence and to offer users of DSNs alternatives; and make them public during awareness-raising campaigns;
  • Conduct a study on the manifestations of verbal violence in the speeches of Ivorian political actors in order to detect the triggers and to propose a code of linguistic politeness to the various actors, on the eve of the 2025 presidential election and others to come; and
  • Publish the results of the various studies and make them accessible to the general public through awareness-raising campaigns, or in collaboration with institutions or NGOs working on the same issues.