Ivory Coast or Côte d'Ivoire, officially
the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire is a country in West Africa.
It has an area of 322,462 square kilometres and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso,
and Ghana;
its southern boundary is along the Gulf of
Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was
estimated to be 20,617,068 in 2009. Ivory
Coast's first national census in 1975 counted 6.7 million inhabitants. Prior to its colonization by Europeans, Ivory
Coast was home to several states, including Gyaaman,
the Kong Empire,
and Baoulé. There were two Anyi kingdoms,
Indénié and Sanwi, which attempted to retain their separate
identity through the French colonial period and after independence. An 1843–1844 treaty made Ivory Coast a protectorate of
France and in 1893, it became a French colony as part of the European Scramble for Africa.
Ivory Coast became independent on 7 August 1960. From
1960 to 1993, the country was led by Félix Houphouët-Boigny. It maintained
close political and economic association with its West African neighbours,
while at the same time maintaining close ties to the West, especially to
France. Since the end of Houphouët-Boigny's rule, Ivory Coast has experienced
one coup d’état, in 1999, and a civil war, which broke out in 2002. A political agreement between the government
and the rebels brought a return to peace.
Ivory Coast is a republic with a strong executive power invested in
the President of Ivory Coast. Its de jure capital
is Yamoussoukro and
the biggest city is the port city of Abidjan.
The country is divided into 19 regions and 81 departments. Through production of coffee and cocoa,
the country was an economic powerhouse during the 1960s and 1970s in West
Africa. However, Ivory Coast went through an economic crisis in the 1980s,
leading to the country's period of political and social turmoil. The 21st
century Ivoirian economy is largely market-based and relies heavily on
agriculture, with smallholder cash crop production being
dominant. The official
language is French, although many of the local languages are
widely used, including Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin and Cebaara
Senufo. The main religions are Islam, Christianity (primarily Roman Catholic) and
various indigenous religions.
Portuguese and French merchant-explorers in the 15th and
16th centuries divided the west coast of Africa, very roughly, into
five coasts reflecting local economies. The coast that the French
named the Côte d'Ivoire and the Portuguese named the Costa do
Marfim—both, literally, being "Ivory Coast"—lay between what was
known as the Guiné de Cabo Verde, so-called "Upper Guinea"
at Cabo Verde,
and Lower Guinea. There were also a "Grain Coast",
a "Gold Coast", and a "Slave Coast",
and, like those three, the name "Ivory Coast" reflected the major
trade that occurred on that particular stretch of the coast: the export of
ivory.
Other names for the coast of ivory included the Côte
de Dents "Teeth Coast", again reflecting the trade in ivory; the
Coast of the Five and Six Stripes, after a type of cotton fabric also traded
there; and the Côte du Vent, the Windward Coast, after perennial
local off-shore weather conditions. But
it retained the name through French rule and independence in 1960. The name had long since been translated
literally into other languages which the post-independence government
considered to be increasingly troublesome whenever its international dealings
extended beyond the Francophone sphere. Therefore, in April 1986, the government
declared Côte d'Ivoire (or, more fully, République de Côte d'Ivoire) to be its
formal name for the purposes of diplomatic protocol, and officially refuses to
recognize or accept any translation from French to another language in its
international dealings. Despite the Ivorian government's request, the English
translation "Ivory Coast" (sometimes "the Ivory Coast") is
still frequently used in English, by various media outlets and publications.
The first human presence in Ivory Coast has been
difficult to determine because human remains have not been well preserved in
the country's humid climate. However, the presence of newly found weapon and
tool fragments (specifically, polished axes cut through shale and remnants of
cooking and fishing) has been interpreted as a possible indication of a large
human presence during the Upper
Paleolithic period (15,000 to 10,000 BC), or at the
minimum, the Neolithic period. The
earliest known inhabitants of Ivory Coast have left traces scattered throughout
the territory. Historians believe that they were all either displaced or
absorbed by the ancestors of the present indigenous inhabitants, who migrated
south into the area before the 16th century. Five important states flourished
in Ivory Coast in the pre-European era. The Muslim Kong Empire was
established by the Juula in the early eighteenth century in the
north-central region inhabited by the Sénoufo,
who had fled Islamization under the Mali Empire.
Although Kong became a prosperous center of agriculture, trade, and crafts,
ethnic diversity and religious discord gradually weakened the kingdom. The city
of Kong was destroyed in 1895 by Samori Ture.
Compared to neighbouring Ghana, Ivory Coast suffered
little from the slave trade, as European slaving and merchant
ships preferred other areas along the coast with better harbours. The earliest
recorded European voyage to West Africa was made by the Portuguese and took
place in 1482. The first West African French settlement, Saint Louis, was founded in the
mid-seventeenth century in Senegal while, at about the same time, the Dutch
ceded to the French a settlement at Goree Island off Dakar. A French mission was
established in 1637 Assinie near the border with the Gold Coast (now Ghana). Assinie's survival was precarious, however. It was not
until the mid-nineteenth century that the French were firmly established in
Ivory Coast. In 1843–1844, French admiral Bouët-Willaumez signed treaties with
the kings of the Grand Bassam and Assinie regions, placing
their territories under a French protectorate.
French explorers, missionaries,
trading companies, and soldiers gradually extended the area under French
control inland from the lagoon region. Pacification was not accomplished until
1915.
The first posts in Ivory Coast included one at Assinie
and another at Grand Bassam, which became the colony's first capital. The
treaties provided for French sovereignty within the posts, and for trading
privileges in exchange for fees or coutumes paid
annually to the local rulers for the use of the land. The arrangement was not
entirely satisfactory to the French, because trade was limited and
misunderstandings over treaty obligations often arose. Nevertheless, the French
government maintained the treaties, hoping to expand trade. France also wanted to maintain a presence in
the region to stem the increasing influence of the British along the Gulf of
Guinea coast. The French built naval bases to keep out non-French traders and
began a systematic conquest of the interior. (They accomplished this only after
a long war in the 1890s against Mandinka forces,
mostly from Gambia. Guerrilla
warfare by the Baoulé and other eastern groups continued until
1917). The defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and the
subsequent annexation by Germany of the French province of Alsace
Lorraine caused the French government to abandon its colonial
ambitions and withdraw its military garrisons from its French West African
trading posts, leaving them in the care of resident merchants. The trading post
at Grand Bassam in Ivory Coast was left in the care of a shipper from Marseille, Arthur
Verdier, who in 1878 was named Resident of
the Establishment of Ivory Coast.
France's main goal was to stimulate the production of
exports. Coffee, cocoa and palm oil crops were soon planted along the coast.
Ivory Coast stood out as the only West African country with a sizeable
population of settlers; elsewhere in West and Central Africa, the French and
British were largely bureaucrats. As a result, French
citizens owned one third of the cocoa, coffee and banana plantations and
adopted a forced-labour system.
Throughout the early years of French rule, French
military contingents were sent inland to establish new posts. Some of the
native population resisted French penetration and settlement. Among those
offering greatest resistance was Samori Ture,
who in the 1880s and 1890s was establishing the Wassoulou
Empire, which extended over large parts of present-day Guinea, Mali,
Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. Samori Ture's large, well-equipped army, which
could manufacture and repair its own firearms,
attracted strong support throughout the region. The French responded to Samori
Ture's expansion of regional control with military pressure. French campaigns
against Samori Ture, which were met with fierce resistance, intensified in the
mid-1890s until he was captured in 1898.
From 1904 to 1958, Ivory Coast was a constituent unit of
the Federation of French West Africa.
It was a colony and an overseas territory under the Third Republic. Until the period
following World War II, governmental affairs in French
West Africa were administered from Paris. France's policy in West Africa was
reflected mainly in its philosophy of "association", meaning that all
Africans in Ivory Coast were officially French "subjects", but
without rights to representation in Africa or France. Until 1958, governors appointed in Paris
administered the colony of Ivory Coast, using a system of direct, centralized
administration that left little room for Ivoirian participation in policy
making. Whereas British colonial administration adopted divide-and-rule
policies elsewhere, applying ideas of assimilation only to the educated elite,
the French were interested in ensuring that the small but influential elite was
sufficiently satisfied with the status quo to refrain from any anti-French
sentiment. Although strongly opposed to the practices of association, educated
Ivoirians believed that they would achieve equality with their French peers
through assimilation rather than through complete independence from France.
But, after the assimilation doctrine was implemented entirely through the
postwar reforms, Ivoirian leaders realized that even assimilation implied the
superiority of the French over the Ivoirians, and that discrimination and
political inequality would end only with independence.
The son of a Baoulé chief, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was to become
Ivory Coast's father of independence. In 1944 he formed the country's first
agricultural trade union for African cocoa farmers like himself. Angered that
colonial policy favoured French plantation owners, they united to recruit
migrant workers for their own farms. Houphouët-Boigny soon rose to
prominence and within a year was elected to the French Parliament in Paris. A
year later the French abolished forced
labour. Houphouët-Boigny established a strong relationship with the
French government, expressing a belief that the country would benefit from it,
which it did for many years. France appointed him as the first African to
become a minister in a European government.
At the time of Ivory Coast's independence (1960), the country was easily
French West Africa's most prosperous, contributing over 40% of the region's
total exports. When Houphouët-Boigny became the first president, his
government gave farmers good prices for their products to further stimulate
production. This was further boosted by a significant immigration of workers
from surrounding countries. Coffee production increased significantly,
catapulting Ivory Coast into third place in world output (behind Brazil and
Colombia). By 1979, the country was the world's leading producer of cocoa. It also became Africa's leading exporter
of pineapples and palm oil.
French technicians contributed to the 'Ivoirian miracle'. In other African
nations, the people drove out the Europeans following independence; but in
Ivory Coast, they poured in. The French community grew from only 30,000 prior
to independence to 60,000 in 1980, most of them teachers, managers and advisors. For 20 years, the economy maintained an
annual growth rate of nearly 10%—the highest of Africa's non-oil-exporting
countries.
In the early hours of 19 September 2002, while the
President was in Italy, there was an armed uprising. Troops who were to be
demobilised mutinied, launching attacks in several cities. The battle for the
main gendarmerie barracks in Abidjan lasted until mid-morning, but by lunchtime
the government forces had secured the main city, Abidjan. They had lost control
of the north of the country, and the rebel forces made their stronghold in the
northern city of Bouake. The rebels threatened to move on Abidjan again and
France deployed troops from its base in the country to stop any rebel advance.
The French said they were protecting their own citizens from danger, but their
deployment also aided the government forces. It was not established as a fact
that the French were helping either side but each side accused them of being on
the opposite side. It is disputed as to whether the French actions improved or
worsened the situation in the long term.
What exactly happened that night is disputed. The government claimed
that former president Robert Guéï had led a coup attempt, and state
TV showed pictures of his dead body in the street; counter-claims stated that
he and fifteen others had been murdered at his home and his body had been moved
to the streets to incriminate him. Alassane Ouattara took refuge in the French
embassy; his home had burned down.
Since 1983, Ivory Coast's official capital has been Yamoussoukro; Abidjan,
however, remains the administrative center. Most countries maintain their embassies
in Abidjan, although some (including the United Kingdom) have closed. The
Ivoirian population continues to suffer because of an ongoing civil war (See
the History section above). International human rights organizations have noted
problems with the treatment of captive non-combatants by both sides and the
re-emergence of child slavery among workers in cocoa production. Although most of the fighting ended by late
2004, the country remained split in two, with the north controlled by
the New Forces (FN). A new presidential election was expected to be
held in October 2005, and an agreement was reached among the rival parties in
March 2007 to proceed with this, but it continued to be postponed until
November 2010 due to delays in its preparation.
Elections were finally held in 2010. The first round of elections were
held peacefully, and widely hailed as free and fair. Runoffs were held 28
November 2010, after being delayed one week from the original date of 21
November. Laurent Gbagbo as president ran against
former Prime Minister Alassane
Ouattara. On 2 December, the
Electoral Commission declared that Ouattara had won the election by a margin
off 54% to 46%. In response, the Gbagbo-aligned Constitutional Council rejected
the declaration, and the government announced that country's borders had been
sealed. An Ivorian military spokesman said, "The air, land and sea border
of the country are closed to all movement of people and goods.
Ivory Coast has, for the region, a relatively high income
per capita (USD 960 in 2007) and plays a key role in transit trade for
neighboring, landlocked countries. The country is the largest economy in
the West African Economic and Monetary
Union, constituting 40 percent of the monetary union’s total GDP.
The country is the world's largest exporter of Cocoa beans,
and the fourth largest exporter of goods, in general, in sub-Saharan Africa
(following South Africa, Nigeria and Angola).
In 2009, the cocoa bean farmers earned $2.53 billion for cocoa exports
and is expected to produce 630,000 metric tons in 2013. According to The Hershey Company, the price of cocoa beans
are expected to rise dramatically in upcoming years. The Ivory Coast also has 100,000 rubber farmers
which earned a total of $105 million in 2012.
The maintenance of close ties to France since independence in 1960,
diversification of agriculture for export, and encouragement of foreign
investment, have been factors in the economic growth of Ivory Coast. In recent
years Ivory Coast has been subject to greater competition and falling prices in
the global marketplace for its primary agricultural crops: coffee and cocoa.
That, compounded with high internal corruption, makes life difficult for the
grower and those exporting into foreign markets.
French, the official language, is taught in schools and
serves as a lingua franca in the country. Ethnic
groups include Akan 42.1%, Voltaiques or Gur 17.6%, Northern
Mandes 16.5%, Krous 11%, Southern
Mandes 10%, other 2.8% (includes 30,000 Lebanese and 45,000
French) (2004). 77% of the population are considered Ivoirians. They represent
several different peoples and language groups. An estimated 65 languages are
spoken in the country. One of the most common is Dyula,
which acts as a trade language as well as a language commonly spoken by the
Muslim population. The native born
population is roughly split into three groups of Muslim, Christian (primarily
Roman Catholic) and animist. Since Ivory
Coast has established itself as one of the most successful West African
nations, about 20% of the population (about 3.4 million) consists of
workers from neighbouring Liberia, Burkina Faso and Guinea. 4% of the population is of non-African
ancestry. Many are French, Lebanese, Vietnamese and Spanish citizens, as well
as Protestant missionaries from the United States and Canada. In November 2004,
around 10,000 French and other foreign nationals evacuated Ivory Coast due
to attacks from pro-government youth
militias. Aside from French nationals,
there are native-born descendants of French settlers who arrived during the
country's colonial period.
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