July 23, 2002
Stuck in Abidjan – The Taxi Strike
Here I am stuck in Abidjan. Literally. The taxi drivers are on strike, and the bus companies are supporting the strike, so there is no transportation into Abidjan, out of Abidjan, or within Abidjan. The city busses are running, and boy are they crowded!! This is about the fourth or fifth day of the strike, and the rumor is it will end today.
Without the usual traffic and traffic noise, it’s kind of quiet and eerie around here. I don’t even feel like I’m taking my life into my hands when I cross the street! Fortunately, I can walk about everywhere I need to go to make my life in Abidjan comfortable…to the Peace Corps office, to the grocery store, to the internet place, and to a variety of restaurants.
The rumors as to the cause of the strike vary, but the common theme is that a taxi driver was killed by a police officer at a random license checkpoint. Regardless of the explanation, I cannot imagine why the officer shot to kill the driver, and not to simply disable the car. This society is so non-violent that it is almost unthinkable that the driver was armed or a threat to the officer.
Let me tell you more about these random drivers license checkpoints. They are a fact of life here. I call them "bribe collection points." Even though the government and the police officers will tell you they randomly stop drivers to ensure they are properly licensed, and therefore, "safe" drivers, I rarely see anyone except taxi drivers being stopped at the roadblocks. And each time I am in a taxi that is stopped, I see the driver tuck 500 cfa (about a dollar) into his license before he hands it over to the police. The police officer removes the 500 cfa, says the license is OK, and you go on your merry way.
(You also have to remind the driver to stop the meter while this is going on, or you will pay for the privilege of having your taxi stopped at a roadblock.)
If the driver does not pay, there will be some minor, technical problem with his license. And the problem will take all day to straighten out. So the drivers have a choice – pay the bribe, or lose a day’s fares while the police investigate a "problem" with his license. I would estimate that each taxi driver is stopped at least several times a week, maybe even once a day.
I have noticed that there have been no random license checks on the streets since the taxi strike started. I can’t figure out if the police just aren’t stopping drivers in my neighborhood this week, or whether since there no taxis on the roads, it is not financially beneficial to set up the check points. I’ll probably never know. Regardless, I support the taxi strike, and while I would rather be in Taabo this week, I hope that some positive change comes out of this week-long strike. This country cannot develop without reducing its corruption.