 defeat challenger Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivoirian Popular Front (FPI) in a presidential election that was unsuccessfully appealed to the Supreme Court. Upon his death in 1993, Houphouët-Boigny was succeeded by the president of the National Assembly, Henri Konan Bédié, who was, like his predecessor, a member of the Baule ethnic group and the PDCI.
People of Cote D’Ivoire
There are more than 60 ethnic groups in Côte d’Ivoire. Traditionally, the groups were independent from each other, but, over time, internal migration and extensive intermarriage greatly reduced group identity with a particular cultural tradition in any given locality. Each of these groups has ethnic affiliations with larger groups living outside the borders of the country. Thus, the Baule, as well as other peoples living east of the Bandama River, are affiliated with the Akan in Ghana, as are the lagoon fishermen farther south. The forest people west of the Bandama are connected to the Kru peoples of Liberia. In the interior the Kru group is subdivided into small groupings scattered over large areas of the forest.
The savanna peoples may be divided into two main groups. The Mande group, which is particularly strong in Mali, is represented by the Malinke farmers and by the Dyula traders. The Gur group, represented by the Senufo, Lobi, and Bobo, are widely scattered over the northeastern region and also live in neighbouring states.
All African languages represented in Côte d’Ivoire belong to one of three subgroups of the Niger-Congo family: Kwa in the south, Mande in the northwest, and Gur in the northeast. A trade language, known as Dyula-Taboussi and akin to the Mande Bambara, is spoken throughout the country by Muslim traders, and français de Moussa is a pidgin French widely spoken in Abidjan. The official language is French.
Islam is followed by about two-fifths of the population, found primarily in the northwest and in Abidjan. About two-fifths of the population is Christian, mostly Roman Catholic or Evangelical. Also present in the country are followers of the Harrist faith, a syncretic religion indigenous to Côte d’Ivoire. Founded by William Wade Harris during World War I, it claims an estimated 100,000 adherents in the country.
Art & Culture of Cote D’Ivoire
Ivoirian literature in French was born in colonial times at the Ponty High School in Dakar, Senegal. One of its graduates, Bernard B. Dadié, became world-famous for autobiographical reminiscences in novel form. His schoolmates Coffi Gadeau and Amon d’Aby won a large local audience and many followers through their plays for the national theatre. A younger playwright, Zadi Zaourou, launched a chair in African literature at an Ivoirian university, and Ahmadou Kourouma, a Muslim, inaugurated a new era of the Ivoirian novel with Les Soleils des indépendances (1968; “The Suns of Independence”), first published in Canada. Ake Loba is another well-known writer from the country.
Music is a vital part of Ivoirian culture. There is a strong tradition of griots who use music to help tell historical stories. The Senufo use marimbas and tuned iron gongs, among other instruments, to make their music. Music that combines both African and European traditions also exists. Alpha Blondy, who is strongly influenced by reggae, is Côte d’Ivoire’s most internationally known musician.
The cultural milieu has remained split, rather more completely than in other African countries, between a maze of ethnic-based cultures and a foreign intrusion that is almost exclusively French. Traditional arts flourish. The Senufo carve masks, decorate doors with esoteric symbols, and dance to the slow, majestic rhythms of drums supported by xylophones. The mountaineers of the Man forest wear masks showing horrifying faces, and they dance to a pace governed by the sound of drums and led by stilt-walkers. Versatile Baule artists make fine gold jewelry and wooden sculptures.
Located not far from the Jacqueville bridge, in the commune of Songon about 34 km from Abidjan, SONGON PARK is a hotel complex bordering the lagoon that offers an exce