The African Intellectual in Times of Crisis: A Study on the Ivorian Intellectuals and Their Responsibility in the Civil War

This paper attempts to review the responsibility of Ivorian intelligentsia in the military and political crisis in the country against the backdrop of definitions of the intellectual, such as those provided by thinkers like the American of Palestinian extraction, Edward E. Said, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o from Kenya, among others. The paper firstly attempts to answer the question as to who is an intellectual and secondly addresses how Ivorian intellectuals comported during the crisis. Thirdly, the study shows how the intellectual in Côte d’Ivoire came to be involved in politics, and lastly, it shows the self-critique that some high-caliber intellectuals engaged in because they felt their class were straying from the path of its responsibility.