Félix Houphouët-Boigny
(1905-1993)

1st President of Côte d'Ivoire
"The Sage of Africa"
"The Grand Old Man of Africa"

Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

birthdate: October 18
birthplace:
Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire

QUOTES

"Our combat is not over, it will never be over. The real combat, the combat for peace, is still going on."

We have always preferred negotiation in all circumstances, because we are convinced that a compromise acceptable to everybody can emerge from a confrontation of the ideas and interests in question.”

“It is a mistake to think that there is no alternative but war to get rid of apartheid: if peace is to be brought to Africa we can and must engage in dialogue. In any event, dialogue will be essential one day, whether it comes before war or after war. It is infinitely preferable to engage in dialogue as early as possible in order to avoid war, which, and I cannot repeat this often enough, can never settle anything in our day and age.”

Nothing will change as long as statesmen do not make the quest for peace something more than the mere window-dressing of their policy. Everything will change when this quest for peace has become the main and real goal of their concerns and second nature to them. The interests they defended up to that time will then seem to them to have been very mean and perverse. Peace is not an empty word but a form of behaviour.”

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