Pledging to work for world peace is something that trips easily off the tongue of a Miss World contestant. But it is a less common refrain for an international footballer.
Image: Ivory Coast and Chelsea footballer Didier Drogba (2nd L) attends a press conference with former prime minister of Ivory Coast Charles Konan Banny (L) in central London
Even more unusual, perhaps, is that Didier Drogba is actually rolling up his sleeves and getting involved in the fraught legal process of post-conflict resolution.
The Ivory Coast star has been asked to join his country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, trying to bring together both sides of a bloody five-month conflict that left over 3,000 people dead.
It is a deeply personal project.
Although the footballer left the country aged five and his mother and two brothers now live in France, his father still lives there, and Drogba was in constant contact with his relatives throughout the terrifying clashes from November to April.
Members of his family were killed in the tribal bloodletting, as forces loyal to former President Laurent Gbagbo challenged Alassane Ouattara over the results of the election, which Mr Ouattara was declared to have won.
"I lost several aunts and uncles," he told The Sunday Telegraph, his softly-spoken demeanour in sharp contrast to his brusing presence on the pitch.
"It was really frightening. My father's village was attacked, and several houses were burned. I don't think it was because of me, but it's just that it was in a contested area. We lived in the same region that Gbagbo came from, and so it was intense between his supporters and President Ouattara's.
"It was very difficult to think of them going through that and I wasn't well at the time. I talked a lot to my Chelsea team-mate Salomon Kalou, because he's from the Ivory Coast too. But everyone was suffering – it wasn't just me."
The 11-man commission, which will be launched in the capital Yamoussoukro on Wednesday, will see religious and regional leaders work to heal some of the divisions in the West African nation. For two years, the commission will listen to victims and perpetrators, trying to help the country turn the page.
Image: Didier Drogba parties with children in Abidjan, Ivory Coast
And despite being 3,000 miles from his homeland, Drogba is taking his role as diaspora representative very seriously.
"I believe in this, I really do. Otherwise I'd just be sitting at home with my wife and children.
"When I was asked to take part, I didn't think twice. It's a big responsibility, it's difficult, and I have a lot to read up on. My family was nervous about me getting involved. But I couldn't say no."
Yet it is not the first time the 33-year-old has moved to help his country.
He has, with his own money, bought a patch of land in Abidjan on which he hopes to build a hospital. His staff said that Drogba, with a degree in business and finance, personally oversees every detail of his project.
And he may have arrived at our meeting in a central London hotel in a sleek black Ferrari, expensively dressed in dark denim jeans and a crisp white shirt. But when he greets his fellow commissioners, who have travelled from the Ivory Coast for on a whistle-stop tour for an initial meeting, he talks of his honour and humility at being asked to join, and pledges his dedication to the cause.
"I might not be there on Wednesday, for the official launch," he said, speaking in French at the press conference after the session. "But that is no reflection on my commitment. I would love to be there, but whether I am or not, that doesn't limit the important work we will do."
They were dark days for the Ivory Coast. Running street battles between rival groups turned Abidjan, the largest city, into a war zone. The conflict ended on April 11 with the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo, but the full extent of the massacres only became apparent after Mr Ouattara took power.
In April UN investigators found at least 200 bodies in a mass grave in the western Ivorian town of Duekoue. A month later the UN's human rights chief Guillaume Ngefa said that two mass graves had been found in the Abidjan suburb of Yopougon – where Drogba himself grew up. More than 50 male bodies were found in the graves, one of which was dug under a football pitch.
"When I was young, Ivory Coast was a peaceful place. It was paradise. I used to run around, playing football barefoot in my neighbourhood. I want my three children to have the same feelings for their country – peace, not war. When I saw what was happening I was devastated – people were turning on each other, hiding from their friends.
"And I want to use the commission to make every Ivorian think about peace and development. We're late in this. We have a lot of assets, but they are not being developed."
It is a huge task. Mr Gbagbo is under house arrest, charged with economic crimes and with further humanitarian charges looming, yet he still has strong pockets of support. His party last week pulled out of an independent electoral commission, which had been preparing for parliamentary elections in December.
On Thursday Mr Ouattara ordered police and paramilitary forces to the troubled border with Liberia, after recent attacks killed 23 people. Half a million people were displaced in the violence, and hundreds of thousands are still living in refugee camps.
But Drogba has played a pivotal role before. In October 2005, five years into a vicious civil war, he captained his country to win a place in the 2006 World Cup – for the first time in Ivorian history.
But instead of using the post-match press conference to celebrate, Drogba, surrounded by his team-mates, sank to his knees and pleaded with the warring factions to lay down their arms. Within a week, a ceasefire was announced.
"It was just something I did instinctively," he explained at the time. "All the players hated what was happening to our country and reaching the World Cup was the perfect emotional wave on which to ride."
Worshipped in his own country, he was, he said, under huge pressure to speak out during the recent violence and again call for a halt – something he didn't do in public, although he was in telephone contact with both sides, urging their leaders to seek a solution.
"I was talking to them in private, telling them we need to stop this," he said. "Many people have interpreted my silence during the conflict. But the best response I can give is by joining this commission."
He sounds, I tell him, more like a diplomat than a footballer. And he is often seen as a future president – taking on a political career like fellow Chelsea striker George Weah, who ran for president in neighbouring Liberia.
"George has done great things, but it's not for me," he said.
"I'm just here to shine a spotlight on the situation and try and make people sit down to talk, to stop this happening ever again.
"I'm not superman. But I think I can make a difference."
| Posted: at | |
chicco77
dickman2
TRENDING GISTS 
THROWBACK: Zenith Bank’s Management Team Pay A Visit To Allegedly Apologies To Fayose - Photos+Video
See Tuition Fee Receipts Yahaya Bello Paid American School From 2025 Session Through 2031
SuperComputer Predicts EPL Title Winners After Victories For Both Arsenal And Man City
‘One Chance’ Robbery Gang Escape Lynching In Umuahia
Man Shoots His Friend Dead For Taking a Bite Out of His Girlfriend's Burger
Come Out And Confess Why You Kill Mohbad - Ghanaian Prophet Who Prophesied Junior Pope’s Death Calls Sam Larry