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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Nineteenth Century mud brick mosque in the Sudanic style
SINCE THE 1950s, CÔTE D'IVOIRE has been one of the few
sub-Saharan
African countries to enjoy political stability and a
relatively
sound economy. Much of the credit for Côte d'Ivoire's
success goes
to Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the country's most prominent
politician
since 1944, who methodically shaped personal and
institutional
controls and carefully cultivated and maintained close
ties with
Western industrialized countries.
Côte d'Ivoire remained relatively isolated for much of
its
early history. Islam, which penetrated most other regions
of West
Africa before the sixteenth century, made only minor
inroads into
Côte d'Ivoire's forest belt. The country's rugged
coastline and
lack of suitable harbors discouraged European exploration
until the
mid-nineteenth century. Before that time, the only French
contact
with Côte d'Ivoire occurred in 1637, when missionaries
landed at
Assini, on the southern Ivoirian coast. This remote region
was
neither politically nor economically significant and
therefore held
little attraction for settlement or exploitation by
European
powers.
In the 1880s, France pursued a more vigorous colonial
policy.
Driven by the growing forces of European imperial
competition for
foreign influence, as well as the promise of wealth to be
found in
a West African empire, French explorers, missionaries,
trading
companies, and soldiers gradually extended the area under
French
domination. They achieved control over the population,
sometimes
through deceit and coercion, by signing treaties with
local rulers,
who agreed to come under French protection in return for
economic
favors and protection from neighboring enemies. After Côte
d'Ivoire
officially became a French colony in 1893, France engaged
in a socalled pacification campaign clearly intended to subjugate
the
indigenous population and to establish French sovereignty.
Before
World War I, the many instances of violent and protracted
resistance to the French, especially among the Baoulé,
were the
longest wars fought between Europeans and Africans in West
Africa.
In many instances, these were contained only when
Ivoirians in
positions of power recognized the tremendous economic
advantages
accorded them by France.
By the 1940s, sources of strong opposition to the
French
colonial administration had emerged. At that time, France
was
neither able nor willing to crush opposition as in the
past.
Moreover, the opposition, which focused on the
administration's
institutionalization of forced labor and its
discrimination in
favor of French planters, intended--at least
initially--simply to
change colonial policy rather than to achieve
independence. Because
all Ivoirians were affected by at least one of these
discriminatory
practices, many were hostile to the administration.
Ivoirian
planters, in particular, suffered from French
discriminatory
policies. In 1943, for example, they were forbidden to
recruit
their own labor and were sometimes removed from their own
plantations to work for European enterprises. This group
thus stood
to benefit greatly from the abolition of colonial labor
recruitment
policies and had strong reasons to struggle against
certain aspects
of French colonialism. They were behind the formation of
an
anticolonialist movement that in 1944 resulted in the
birth of the
African Agricultural Union and later of the Democratic
Party of
Côte d'Ivoire.
In other ways, French colonial rule had significant
consequences for the modern history of Côte d'Ivoire. The
French
colonial system introduced modern technology and economic
development. It also reinforced the position of relatively
privileged groups like the Ivoirian planters, when
discriminatory
practices were abolished after World War II. As a result
of
economic and social changes in France after World War II,
French
investments in the West African colonies grew at the same
time as
Paris thrust greater responsibilities and powers on its
African
colonies. There emerged in Côte d'Ivoire a group whose
economic
interests were closely linked to those of France and whose
continuing close relations with France ensured the
stability of
French economic interests in Côte d'Ivoire. Thus, when
Côte
d'Ivoire became independent in 1960, France was able to
maintain a
secure economic grip on the country and continued to
influence
Ivoirian political decisions, much as it did before
independence.
The most significant features of modern Ivoirian
history have
been the development of the one-party state, which
Houphouët-Boigny
established to assure his own autocratic rule, and
economic growth.
When Côte d'Ivoire gained independence in 1960 under the
leadership
of Houphouët-Boigny, the new president immediately assumed
strong
powers as head of state, head of government, and leader of
the
ruling Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire.
Houphouët-Boigny's
political strength derived from the country's economic
prosperity.
Until the late 1970s, Côte d'Ivoire experienced enormous
economic
growth, based largely on agricultural exports. The
benefits of
economic prosperity were not equally distributed, however.
Benefiting most was a bourgeoisie made up of wealthy
politicians,
who were often also business people and owners of
prosperous coffee
and cocoa plantations. But the president successfully
prevented
significant pockets of resistance to his rule from forming
through
a combination of co-optation and mild repression. So
successful was
he that most of those whose rights were abused nonetheless
recognized that they were materially better off than their
neighbors. The greatest source of Houphouët-Boigny's
popular appeal
was, and continued to be in mid-1988, the strength of his
charismatic personality.
Data as of November 1988
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