Côte d'Ivoire (pronounced /?ko?t div'w??r/ ' in English,
IPA: [kot di'vwa?] in French), or Ivory Coast, officially the Republic
of Côte d'Ivoire is a country in West Africa. The government
officially discourages the use of the name Ivory Coast in English,
preferring the French name Côte d'Ivoire to be used in all
languages.[5] It borders Liberia and Guinea to the west, Mali and
Burkina Faso to the north, Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea
to the south.
The country's early history is virtually unknown, although a Neolithic
culture is thought to have existed. In the 19th century it was invaded
by two Akan groups. In 1843-1844, a treaty made it a protectorate
of France and in 1893 Côte d'Ivoire became a French colony.
The country became independent in 1960. Until 1993 it was led by
Félix Houphouët-Boigny and was closely associated economically
and politically with its West African neighbours, for example forming
the Council of the Entente. At the same time the country maintained
close ties to the West, which helped its economic development and
political stability. Since the end of Houphouët-Boigny's rule,
this stability has been destroyed by two coups (1999 and 2001) and
a civil war since 2002, which has hampered its economic development.[6]
Côte d'Ivoire is a republic with a strong executive power
personified in the President. Its de jure capital is Yamoussoukro
and the official language is French. The country is divided into
19 regions and 58 departments. Côte d'Ivoire's economy is
largely market-based and relies heavily on agriculture, with smallholder
cash crop production being dominant. [2]
Contents [hide]
1 History
1.1 French colonial era
1.2 Independence
1.3 Houphouët-Boigny administration
1.4 Bédié administration
1.5 1999 coup
1.6 Gbagbo administration
1.7 2002 uprising
1.8 2003 unity government
1.9 Aftermath 2004 - 2007
2 Regions and departments
2.1 Population of major cities
3 Politics
4 Geography
5 Economy
6 Demographics
6.1 Crime and punishment
7 Culture
8 Name
8.1 Usage
9 Miscellaneous topics
10 References
11 External links
[edit] History
Main article: History of Côte d'Ivoire
Little is known about Côte d'Ivoire before the arrival of
Portuguese ships in the 1460s. The major ethnic groups came relatively
recently from neighbouring areas: the Kru people from Liberia around
1600; the Senoufo and Lobi moved southward from Burkina Faso and
Mali. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Akan people,
including the Baoulé, migrated from Ghana into the eastern
area of the country, and the Malinké from Guinea into the
north-west.
[edit] French colonial era
Compared to neighbouring Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire suffered little
from the slave trade. European slaving and merchant ships preferred
other areas along the coast, with better harbors. France took an
interest in the 1840s, enticing local chiefs to grant French commercial
traders a monopoly along the coast. Thereafter, 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.
France's main goal was to stimulate the production of exports.
Coffee, cocoa and palm oil crops were soon planted along the coast.
Côte d'Ivoire 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, a third of the cocoa, coffee and banana plantations
were in the hands of French citizens and a forced-labour system
became the backbone of the economy.
[edit] Independence
The son of a Baoulé chief, Félix Houphouët-Boigny,
was to become Côte d'Ivoire's father of independence. In 1944
he formed the country's first agricultural trade union for African
cocoa farmers like himself. Annoyed 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 made him the first African to become a minister
in a European government.
In 1958, Côte d'Ivoire became an autonomous member of the
French Community (which replaced the French Union).
At the time of Côte d'Ivoire'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. Coffee production
increased significantly, catapulting Côte d'Ivoire 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 the rest of Africa, Europeans
were driven out following independence; but in Côte d'Ivoire,
they poured in. The French community grew from only 10,000 prior
to independence to 50,000, most of them teachers and advisors. For
20 years, the economy maintained an annual growth rate of nearly
10% - the highest of Africa's non-oil-exporting countries.
[edit] Houphouët-Boigny administration
Politically, Houphouët-Boigny ruled with a firmness some called
an "iron hand"; others characterized his rule more mildly
as "paternal." The press was not free and only one political
party existed although some accepted this as a consequence of Houphouët-Boigny's
broad appeal to the population that continually elected him[citation
needed]. He was also criticized for his emphasis on developing large
scale projects. Many felt the millions of dollars spent transforming
his home village, Yamoussoukro, into the new capital that it became,
were wasted; others support his vision to develop a center for peace,
education and religion in the heart of the country. But in the early
1980s, the world recession and a local drought sent shockwaves through
the Ivoirian economy. Thanks also to the overcutting of timber and
collapsing sugar prices, the country's external debt increased threefold.
Crime rose dramatically in Abidjan.
In 1990, hundreds of civil servants went on strike, joined by students
protesting institutional corruption. The unrest forced the government
to support multi-party democracy. Houphouët-Boigny became increasingly
feeble and died in 1993. He favoured Henri Konan Bédié
as his successor.
[edit] Bédié administration
In October 1995, Bédié overwhelmingly won re-election
against a fragmented and disorganised opposition. He tightened his
hold over political life, jailing several hundred opposition supporters.
In contrast, the economic outlook improved, at least superficially,
with decreasing inflation and an attempt to remove foreign debt.
Unlike Houphouët-Boigny, who was very careful in avoiding
any ethnic conflict and left access to administrative positions
wide-open to immigrants from neighbouring countries, Bedié
emphasized the concept of "Ivority" (Ivoirité)
to exclude his rival Alassane Ouattara, who had two parents of foreign
nationality, from running for future presidential election. As people
originating from Burkina Faso are a large part of the Ivoirian population,
this policy excluded many people from Ivoirian nationality, and
the relationship between various ethnic groups became strained.
[edit] 1999 coup
Similarly, Bédié excluded many potential opponents
from the army. In late 1999, a group of dissatisfied officers staged
a military coup, putting General Robert Guéï in power.
Bédié fled into exile in France. The coup had reduced
crime and corruption, and the generals pressed for austerity and
openly campaigned in the streets for a less wasteful society.
[edit] Gbagbo administration
Election results of 2002 in Côte d'IvoireA presidential election
was held in October 2000 in which Laurent Gbagbo vied with Guéï,
but it was peaceful. The lead-up to the election was marked by military
and civil unrest. Guéï's attempt to rig the election
led to a public uprising, resulting in around 180 deaths and his
swift replacement by the election's likely winner, Gbagbo. Alassane
Ouattara was disqualified by the country's Supreme Court, due to
his alleged Burkinabé nationality. The existing and later
reformed constitution [under Guei] did not allow non-citizens to
run for presidency. This sparked violent protests in which his supporters,
mainly from the country's north, battled riot police in the capital,
Yamoussoukro.
[edit] 2002 uprising
In the early hours of September 19, 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 strong-hold 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 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 said
that former president Robert Guéï had led a coup attempt,
and state TV showed pictures of his dead body in the street; counter-claims
said 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 burned down.
President Gbagbo cut short a trip to Italy and on his return stated,
in a television address, that some of the rebels were hiding in
the shanty towns where foreign migrant workers lived. Gendarmes
and vigilantes bulldozed and burned homes by the thousands, attacking
the residents.
An early ceasefire with the rebels, who had the backing of much
of the northern populace, proved short-lived, and fighting over
the prime cocoa-growing areas resumed. France sent in troops to
maintain the cease-fire boundaries,[7] and militias, including warlords
and fighters from Liberia and Sierra Leone, took advantage of the
crisis to seize parts of the west.
[edit] 2003 unity government
In January 2003, President Gbagbo and rebel leaders signed accords
creating a "government of national unity". Curfews were
lifted and French troops cleaned up the lawless western border of
the country. Since then, the unity government has proven extremely
unstable and the central problems remain with neither side achieving
its goals. In March 2004, 120 people were killed in an opposition
rally, and subsequent mob violence led to foreign nationals being
evacuated. A later report concluded the killings were planned.
Though UN peacekeepers were deployed to maintain a Zone of Confidence,
relations between Gbagbo and the opposition continued to deteriorate.
[edit] Aftermath 2004 - 2007
"Childsoldier in the Ivory Coast."Early in November 2004,
after the peace agreement had effectively collapsed following the
rebels' refusal to disarm, Gbagbo ordered airstrikes against the
rebels. During one of these airstrikes in Bouaké, French
soldiers were hit and nine of them were killed; the Ivorian government
has said it was a mistake, but the French have claimed it was deliberate.
They responded by destroying most Ivoirian military aircraft (2
Su-25 planes and 5 helicopters), and violent retaliatory riots against
the French broke out in Abidjan.
Gbagbo's original mandate as president expired on October 30, 2005,
but due to the lack of disarmament it was deemed impossible to hold
an election, and therefore his term in office was extended for a
maximum of one year, according to a plan worked out by the African
Union; this plan was endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.[8]
With the late October deadline approaching in 2006, it was regarded
as very unlikely that the election would be held by that point,
and the opposition and the rebels rejected the possibility of another
term extension for Gbagbo.[9] The U. N. Security Council endorsed
another one-year extension of Gbagbo's term on November 1, 2006;
however, the resolution provided for the strengthening of Prime
Minister Charles Konan Banny's powers. Gbagbo said the next day
that elements of the resolution deemed to be constitutional violations
would not be applied.[10]
A peace deal between the government and the rebels, or New Forces,
was signed on March 4, 2007, and subsequently Guillaume Soro, leader
of the New Forces, became prime minister. These events have been
seen by some observers as substantially strengthening Gbagbo's position.[11]
[edit] Regions and departments
Main articles: Regions of Côte d'Ivoire and Departments of
Côte d'Ivoire
Regions of Côte d'IvoireCôte d'Ivoire is divided into
nineteen regions (régions):
The regions are further divided into 58 departments.
[edit] Population of major cities
City Population
Abidjan 3,310,500
Bouaké 775,300
Daloa 489,100
Yamoussoukro 295,500
San-Pédro 151,600
Divo 134,200
[edit] Politics
Main article: Politics of Côte d'Ivoire
Since 1983, Côte d'Ivoire'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 their missions because of the continuing
violence and attacks on Europeans. 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.
However, this election could not be held on time due to delay in
preparation and was postponed first to October 2006, and then to
October 2007 after an agreement was reached among the rival parties.
Further information: Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire
[edit] Geography
Main article: Geography of Côte d'Ivoire
Satellite image of Côte d'Ivoire, generated from raster graphics
data supplied by The Map Library
Map of Côte d'IvoireCôte d'Ivoire is a country of western
sub-Saharan Africa. It borders Liberia and Guinea in the west, Mali
and Burkina Faso in the north, Ghana in the east, and the Gulf of
Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) in the south.
[edit] Economy
Main article: Economy of Côte d'Ivoire
Maintaining close ties to France since independence in 1960, diversification
of agriculture for export, and encouragement of foreign investment,
has made Côte d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the tropical
African states. However, in recent years Côte d'Ivoire 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.
[edit] Demographics
Main article: Demographics of Côte d'Ivoire
77% of the population are considered Ivorians. They represent several
different people 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. French, the official language, is taught
in schools and serves as a lingua franca in urban areas (particularly
Abidjan). The native born population is roughly split into three
groups of Muslim, Christian (primarily Roman Catholic) and animist[12].
Since Côte d'Ivoire 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, over two thirds of these migrant workers are Muslim.
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 Côte
d'Ivoire 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.
[edit] Crime and punishment
Main article: Advance fee fraud
Advance fee fraud (also known as "419" and the "Nigerian
scam") is a form of organized crime common in many West African
countries, including Côte d'Ivoire.[13] The scammer persuades
the target to advance relatively small sums of money (the advance
fee) in the hope of realizing a much larger gain (usually touted
as millions).[14]
[edit] Culture
Mask from Côte d'IvoireMain article: Culture of Côte
d'Ivoire
Music of Côte d'Ivoire: Espoir 2000, Les Garagistes, Gyil,
Dunun
Roman Catholicism in Côte d'Ivoire
Islam in Côte d'Ivoire
List of writers from Côte d'Ivoire
Art of Côte d'Ivoire
[edit] Name
The country was originally known in English as Ivory Coast. In October
1985 the government requested that the country be known in every
language as Côte d'Ivoire, without a hyphen between the two
words (thereby contravening the standard rule in French that geographical
names with several words must be written with hyphens).
[edit] Usage
Despite the Ivorian government's ruling, "Ivory Coast"
(sometimes "the Ivory Coast") is still sometimes used
in English:
BBC usually uses "Ivory Coast" both in news reports and
on its page about the country,[15]
The Guardian newspaper's Style Guide says: "Ivory Coast, not
'the Ivory Coast' or 'Côte D'Ivoire'; its nationals are Ivorians,[16]
ABC News, The Times, the New York Times, and the South African Broadcasting
Corporation all use "Ivory Coast" either exclusively or
predominantly.
Governments use "Côte d'Ivoire" for diplomatic reasons.
The English country name registered with the United Nations and
adopted by ISO 3166 is "Côte d'Ivoire". English-speaking
people in neighboring Liberia and Ghana both use "Côte
d'Ivoire" in reference to "Ivory Coast".[citation
needed] Other organizations that use "Côte d'Ivoire"
include:
the United States Department of State uses "Côte d'Ivoire"
in formal documents, but uses "Ivory Coast" in many general
references, speeches and briefing documents,[17]
FIFA and the IOC, referring to their national football and Olympic
teams in international games and in official broadcasts,
The Economist newsmagazine,[18]
Encyclopædia Britannica[19], and
National Geographic Society.[20]
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