Ivory Coast: The Supremacy of French

• Main Author: Knutsen, Anne Moseng
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2008
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199286744.003.0009; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52230779/isbn-9780199286744-book-part-9.pdf

Abstract The Ivory Coast borders Liberia and Guinea in the west, Mali and Burkina Faso in the north, Ghana in the east, and the North Atlantic Ocean in the south. The country has two main topographical zones: the savannah in the north and the forest zone in the south. According to the latest census (1998), the population is 15 million inhabitants, of which 78 per cent are located in the forest zone of the south. The population is mostly Muslim (39 per cent) or Christian (30 per cent). Although Yamoussoukro is the formal capital, Abidjan is the commercial and administrative centre of the country, with 3 million inhabitants. Other important cities are Bouaké, Korhogo, Daloa, Gagnoa, and San Pedro. The Ivory Coast was a French colony from 1893 to 1960, when it became La République de Côte d’Ivoire. The country is among the world’s largest producers and exporters of coffee and cocoa and by maintaining close ties with France and encouraging foreign investments, the Ivory Coast has developed into one of the most prosperous states in sub-Saharan Africa. However, since the death of the nation’s founder Félix Houphouët-Boigny in 1993, the country has faced increasingly severe ethno-political problems, which have resulted in a division of the country into a government-held south and a rebel-held north.