MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Ivory Coast
Index
The basilica Notre Dame of Peace at Yamoussoukro
Courtesy Clair Votaw
Only about one-eighth of the population was Christian
in the
1980s. In general, Christianity was practiced by the
middle class
and in urban centers of the south. It was most prevalent
among the
Agni and lagoon cultures of the southeast, least so among
the Mandé
of the northwest. Roman Catholicism was the largest
Christian
religion, but Methodist, Baptist, and a number of smaller
mission
churches also existed.
Roman Catholicism made a brief appearance in Côte
d'Ivoire in
the mid-seventeenth century and reappeared two centuries
later when
French missionaries began to work among the Agni. The
first African
Roman Catholic mission in Côte d'Ivoire was established in
1895,
and the first African priest was ordained in 1934. In the
1980s,
the Roman Catholic Church operated seminaries and schools
throughout the country. Although Côte d'Ivoire is
officially a
secular state, the president expressed pride in Abidjan's
large
Roman Catholic cathedral and alone funded construction of
a
basilica at Yamoussoukro, his birthplace, by 1990. Some
villages
have also adopted patron saints, whom they honor on both
secular
and religious holidays.
The largest Protestant religion as of the mid-1980s was
Harrism, begun in 1914 by William Wade Harris, a Liberian
preacher
who proselytized along the coast of Côte d'Ivoire and
Ghana. Harris
set an example for his followers by leading a simple life
and
eschewing conspicuous wealth. He condemned the use of
amulets and
fetishes as idolatry, and he preached against adultery,
theft, and
lying. His was a simple, fairly austere form of
Christianity, which
was open to Roman Catholics and Protestants and did not
preach open
defiance of colonial authority.
In 1915 Harris was expelled from the region by an
uneasy
colonial governor, an action that revitalized his church,
leaving
dozens of small "Harrist" churches along the coast. A
decade later,
Methodist missionaries made contact with Harris and
attempted to
continue his work among the lagoon peoples. Harris
succeeded in
part because of his ethnic background--he was African but
not
Ivoirian--but also because he converted women as well as
men--a
practice that had been scorned by earlier Christian
missionaries
who failed to recognize the impact of matrilineal descent
on an
individual's spiritual life. Harrism was subsequently
recognized as
a branch of methodism.
Data as of November 1988
|
|