By Tim Tanton*
July 22, 2009 | ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire (UMNS)

Vengeance filled Philippe Mangou’s heart as he knocked on the door of a man who had invaded his home and terrorized his family.

Mangou’s life had been shattered following the overthrow of the Ivoirian government in December 1999. An officer in the army, he had been arrested, tortured and imprisoned for several months. While he languished in prison, a group of soldiers ransacked his home and harassed his family.

Now, restored to a high rank after another change in government, Mangou had found the home of one of the soldiers—a man who had stolen his car.

When the man’s wife answered the door, Mangou told her why he was there.

“I have come to kill your husband.”

Forgiveness is not easy in a country divided by a civil war that saw brutality on both sides. Though peace agreements have held sway for the past two years, violence and mutiny have flared intermittently, and human rights organizations have criticized the military as well as non-governmental forces for treatment of prisoners and civilians.

Like many citizens, Mangou has struggled with forgiveness. Now 56, he has risen to the head of Côte d’Ivoire’s defense forces and is widely referred to as simply “the general.” In an interview in his office, he emphasizes the importance of faith and prayer in his life.

Religious images – a cross, a Bible, a picture of Mary – are on the shelves and walls.

“God,” he says, “is ahead of everything I undertake.”

Crises

Tall, lean and attired in a crisp, dark green uniform, the general welcomes visitors warmly into his office. His gaze is frank and direct, and he tells his story in an even but emphatic tone.

Growing up, Mangou was active in his church, leading the choir as a student and occasionally preaching. His love for the church came naturally, as the son of the late Rev. Francois Koutouan Mangou and Sophie Nsou Yepi. At one time, people thought he might follow his father and become a United Methodist pastor. Instead, he chose to serve his country through his other love, the military.

It has been a challenging career, punctuated by crises in which he says he has felt God’s presence. On one occasion, he was to meet with the commander of the French forces in Côte d’Ivoire. The meeting was occurring at a tense time: French forces had destroyed the Ivoirian military’s helicopters after a flare-up in which Ivoirian forces fired – accidentally, officials said – on French troops.

Mangou approached the meeting with apprehension, but the French commander surprised him by inviting him to pray and read Scripture. During the discussion, the commander agreed to Mangou’s request that the French tanks around Abidjan be returned to camp.

On another occasion, last fall, Mangou had to send forces to confront mutineers in the city of Aukro. He spent a night praying. The next day, he received a message from a woman who told him she had learned, during prayer, that she knew a general who had a problem. She was told that the general must go to the Catholic cathedral and kneel before the statue of Mary.

Mangou replied that he was Protestant and that kneeling before Mary wasn’t part of his tradition. Instead, he sat before the picture of Mary that he keeps in his office, and he prayed God would protect his people and bring them back safely. Looking at the picture, he says he saw the smile on Mary’s face getting bigger. Later in the evening, he learned that his soldiers had accomplished their mission in Aukro without a shot fired. The mutineers had dropped their revolt.

Arrested

Mangou’s third and most harrowing crisis occurred in 1999, when the government was toppled and Gen. Robert Guei became the country’s leader. Guei had been named chief of the army in 1990 by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, but had disagreements with Boigny’s successor, Henri Konan Bédié, and in 1997 was forced out of the military. Critics said Bédié’s administration was corrupt and Guei was forced out of the army for stirring rebellion, according to news reports.

With the coup d’etat, Mangou and other officers loyal to the deposed government were imprisoned. He ministered to his fellow prisoners by example. “I already knew how to pray all night,” he says. Someone had a Bible, and the officers prayed God would support their families and lead them to freedom.

Soon after his arrest, he says, he was taken to an arsenal and tortured. His tormentors shaved his head and poured hot soup over him. They wrapped barbed wire around his body and walked on him, pressing the wire into his flesh, he says.

Along with another officer, Mangou was beaten throughout the day. Their captors, some of whom he had shared meals with in peaceful times, were “killing us slowly,” he says. “At a certain point, the pain was really intense. While they were torturing us, they were singing or celebrating.”

The arrival of another group of prisoners probably saved Mangou and his comrade. Covered with blood, he and the other officer were carried out of the arsenal and put into vehicles. He thought this was the end. “I started praying: ‘If it’s your time and your will, and my time to die today, then your will be done,’” he says.

He was taken to another military camp and put inside a small cell. Tired, thirsty, and deprived of food and medical care, he passed out. He was in the cell for three days, and at one point heard people outside his jail door discussing killing him.

Family terrorized

During her husband’s confinement, Julienne Mangou had gone to the Red Cross and other places for help, resulting in Mangou being transferred to a military jail, where he received better treatment. Still, he received no medical care, and the little finger on his left hand remains damaged from the torture.

“In the prison, we kept praying,” Mangou says. He and his fellow prisoners prayed for the Christians, Muslims and unchurched people of the country. Mangou was the choir leader of the group.

“It was a difficult period” for him, says the Rev. Isaac Bodje, a longtime friend and former pastor of Mangou’s. Church members visited Mangou in prison and also had prayer visits with his wife, Bodje says.

Without her husband at home – and pregnant with their sixth child -- Julienne faced problems of her own. About 30 rebel soldiers appeared at the family’s home early one morning and destroyed or stole many of the Mangous’ possessions. Most of the couple’s children at the time were elsewhere, but she says one of the soldiers took baby Philippe Jr. from her arms and threatened to kill him.

Given 24 hours to move, Julienne packed some family belongings and fled to her uncle’s house.

Meanwhile, as the months passed, her husband and the other men in prison awaited judgment. The first prisoners tried were sentenced to terms ranging from five years to life.

Mangou, however, never stood trial. One day in October, he heard loud sounds outside the prison, and the next day the clear sound of gunfire. The regime was collapsing under public anger at a perceived attempt by Guei to steal the presidential election. As Guei’s government was deposed, Mangou and his fellow prisoners fled the prison, wary of being shot.

God’s hand

The general points to his survival as “proof of God’s hand in my life.” After Guei’s overthrow, Mangou was eventually promoted to head of the country’s military and led the campaign against the rebels.

As head of the military spouses, Julienne Mangou hosts a weekly prayer group at the family’s home, where about 30 or 40 people gather to pray for those in harm’s way and to share in worship. The services are driven by passionate preaching and prayer, and a praise band leads the high-energy music.

She speaks softly as she reflects on her family’s journey.

“Considering all that we have gone through under the reign of Gen. Guei, we have realized that without God, we should not have been in this place,” she says. Her father-in-law “told us to rely on God, and that is what we put into practice in our lives.”

Today, the country is divided between the north, held by the Forces Nouvelles – New Forces – rebels, and the south, ruled by the government of President Laurent Gbagbo. While the 2002 rebellion was sparked by soldiers opposed to being demobilized, the flames were also fanned by the treatment of northern Muslims, who have complained about being excluded from the political system.

The general is involved in talks with the rebels, in addition to ensuring the security of the country and the elections. The task is daunting, but he says the peace process is moving forward. “We have realized that God has His hand on Côte d’Ivoire.”

Last fall’s U.S. presidential election represents a model for Côte d’Ivoire, the general says. He was impressed that the United States elected a black person as president, but also with how the loser conceded and promised to support the winner. That peaceful process is something Mangou would like to see in his own country.

Julienne Mangou notes that the crisis will not be over until elections are held and the army is united. “My wish is to have peace in Côte d’Ivoire as soon as possible. Without peace, we can’t do anything.”

‘We must forgive’

The United Methodist Church has an important role in leading the reconciliation, he says. During the war, brothers killed each other, children saw their parents and relatives die, women were raped. Everyone now is asked to forget the past, to shake hands and offer forgiveness, he says.

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For Mangou himself, that has been a struggle. When he appeared at the home of the man who had stolen his car, he was bent on vengeance. The man’s wife answered the door, and Mangou told her that he had come to kill her husband.

“Sir,” she asked, “what have we done?”

She told him her husband wasn’t at home, so Mangou left word for the man to report to military headquarters with the car.

When the man came to his office, Mangou invited him to sit down. However, upon learning that his visitor was the car thief, the general’s demeanor changed. “Get up!” he ordered. “Where is my car?”

The man took him to a garage where they found the car, minus the engine. Mangou had the man arrested and jailed.

“When I saw the guy who stole my car, I was about to kill him,” Mangou recalls. “But I did not because when we forgive we become more and more strong.”

Proud of how he had handled the situation, he went home and told his wife. But she said there was no need to keep the man in jail, so Mangou went to the prison, freed the car thief and gave him 5,000 central African francs – about US$10.

Mangou says forgiveness is necessary if his country is going to have peace. During a ceremony at the army headquarters, he embraced some of his former captors and those who had harassed his family.

“We must forgive,” he says, “even when we face the worst suffering.”

*Tanton is director of the Media Group at United Methodist Communications.

News media contact: Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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