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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Along the coastline from the nation's eastern border to
the
Bandama River is a series of lagoons, where fishing and
trading
dominate local economies. Lagoon societies include the
Mekyibo,
Attié, Mbato, Ebrié, Abidji, Adioukrou, Alladian, Avikam,
Abbé, and
others, each of which, in turn, is known by a variety of
names
within the region and is subdivided into smaller groups.
Residents of inland villages are subsistence farmers,
and many
lagoon peoples produce cash crops. Although not Akan
language
speakers, they speak related Kwa languages and are
organized into
matrilineages and chiefdoms similar to the Agni and Baoulé
to the
north. This cultural assimilation reflects the local
history of
occasional domination by Akan armies from the north.
Ebrié, Attié,
and Adioukrou societies are further segmented into age
classes
organized for warfare, mutual aid, and communal work
projects. Age
groups continued to operate in the 1980s, providing an
important
source of social cohesion.
Although the nation's capital, Abidjan, is in
traditional Ebrié
territory, the Ebrié made up less than 10 percent of the
population
of the city in the late 1980s. Many local groups have been
displaced by Akan peoples and others moving into the
densely
populated southeast corner of the nation. Some of these
survive in
scattered villages; others were absorbed into the coastal
economy
by early French arrivals and flourished under this
arrangement. As
a result, this complex and heterogeneous lagoon region
exhibits an
eclectic variety of cultural and linguistic traits that
defy simple
classification.
Data as of November 1988
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