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 When
we arrived in the capital, the Basilica could be seen off to the
left looming large and expansive in the distance. The city had such
a different feel to it from that of Abidjan. The streets alone,
which feel so crowded and teaming with activity in Abidjan, are
wide and less active in Yamoussoukro.
The entrance to the city was designed to resemble the Champs-Elysee
in Paris. The wide boulevards suggest a grand entrance to this new
capitol.
We climbed from the cramped bus and stretched our legs in front
of the gates to the Basilica. The white dome towered above us as
we walked to the front entrance. Inside the cathedral there are
24 floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows and a large metal canopy
over the alter. The entire Basilica, big enough to seat 18,000,
stood empty of all but our group of 26.
The Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix (Basilica of Peace) -- a replica
of Saint Peter's in Rome -- is perhaps the tallest basilica in Christendom.
It was finished in 1993 in just three years at an estimated cost
of more than $65 million. The stained glass windows were hand-blown
in France.
After visiting the University of Yamoussoukro, we watched 20
some crocodiles sun bathe and snack in the "moat" outside the home
of Houphouït-Boigny. As I waited to get back on the bus my eyes
wandered to the ground. I was somewhat startled when my eyes fell
upon a man disfigured by disease standing on his knees with one
hand outstretched and the other supporting his thin body. If I had
looked up I might have seen the Basilica towering on the horizon
and if I had turned around I would have seen the gates of the former
president's home standing white and austere behind me. But I couldn't
keep from staring at this man so humbled by a disease that left
him begging within sight of such opulent buildings.
Several students wondered about the appropriateness of such monuments.
Similar juxtapositions of homelessness within sight of the Washington
Monument might be found in the U.S. A guide had quoted the former
president's justification: "It cost less to build this whole
Basilica for Peace than to wage war for one day." As I write
this, the United States is engaged in an air war in the Balkans...
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