The President’s Memorial to His Glorious Self
by If you think you might be forgotten when you have died then build yourself a memorial just to make sure.
In 1986 President Félix Houphouet-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa decided to build a Basilica (not a cathedral as people often think). This was to be no ordinary Basilica, but the world’s largest. It was completed in 1989 on a site in Yamoussoukro, and cost an estimated $300 million. Nice if you can afford such a garden folly, but the Ivory Coast was in dire financial straits at the time and the people were not best pleased. Even the Pope was slightly dubious about the whole affair.
The basilica however was not just to be a place of worship, but was to be the last resting place of the bones of the president himself. (A touch of the Taj Mahals perhaps?)
The Pope, after some hesitation, consecrated the edifice in 1990 but only on condition that a hospital should be built alongside. This was agreed on, the Pope laid the foundation stone, and there it stands to this day in its lonely glory, with no hospital.
In case anyone should ever forget the dear president, he had a stained glass window commissioned in which he appears as one of three magi who came to visit the baby Jesus!
President Felix Houphouet-Boigny
This act of self-memorialisation took place against a background of economic collapse, insurmountable debt, and widespread poverty.
Houphouet-Boigny died in office, managing to hang onto power for 33 years – surely he must have had some good points?
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Post CommentEric Mendoza
On September 28, 2008 at 10:44 am
That’s something I won’t ever understand. How people like Houphouet-Boigny stay in power for so long. Similarly I can’t understand how George W. Bush got reelected for a second term. Maybe the people of West Africa and the people of America aren’t so different after all. The people of both countries do nothing about their egotistical and selfish leaders. I liked this article, very educational.
Lost in Arizona
On September 28, 2008 at 4:11 pm
$300 million blipping dollars? It’s a wonder how people of power can ride on the debt and suffering of others without so much of a blink of an eye. It’s insufferable and disgusting.
David
On January 22, 2009 at 3:40 am
@Eric Mendoza.
People seem either eager to believe in someone to follow or are aphatetic, which the US has seen quite a bit of.
It should be a universal warning that people like Houphouet-Boigny, and many many others of his ilk, like power but they hate responsibility. It is a personality type that should not, under any circumstance, be allowed to have power.
Anyone who needs an edifice to be remembered by should be forgotten as soon as possible.
William L Domme
On January 22, 2009 at 4:25 am
Capital WOW.