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Ivory Coast
Index
Figure 2. Precolonial Kingdoms
Source: Based on information from J.-N. Loucou, "Histoire," in
Pierre Vennetier (ed.) Atlas de la Côte d'Ivoire (2d ed.),
Paris, 1983, 25.
Little is known about the original inhabitants of Côte
d'Ivoire. Historians believe that they were all either
displaced or
absorbed by the ancestors of the present inhabitants. The
first
recorded history is found in the chronicles of North
African
traders, who, from early Roman times, conducted a caravan
trade
across the Sahara in salt, slaves, gold, and other items.
The
southern terminals of the trans-Saharan trade routes were
located
on the edge of the desert, and from there supplemental
trade
extended as far south as the edge of the rain forest. The
more
important terminals--Djenné, Gao, and Timbuctu--grew into
major
commercial centers around which the great Sudanic empires
developed. By controlling the trade routes with their
powerful
military forces, these empires were able to dominate
neighboring
states.
The Sudanic empires also became centers of Islamic
learning.
Islam had been introduced into the
western Sudan (see Glossary) by
Arab traders from North Africa and spread rapidly after
the
conversion of many important rulers. From the eleventh
century, by
which time the rulers of the Sudanic empires had embraced
Islam, it
spread south into the northern areas of contemporary Côte
d'Ivoire.
Ghana, the earliest of the Sudanic empires, flourished
in
present-day eastern Mauritania from the fourth to the
thirteenth
century. At the peak of its power in the eleventh century,
its
realms extended from the Atlantic Ocean to Timbuctu. After
the
decline of Ghana, the Mali Empire grew into a powerful
Muslim
state, which reached its apogee in the early part of the
fourteenth
century. The territory of the Mali Empire in Côte d'Ivoire
was
limited to the northwest corner around Odienné. Its slow
decline
starting at the end of the fourteenth century followed
internal
discord and revolts by vassal states, one of which,
Songhai,
flourished as an empire between the fourteenth and
sixteenth
centuries. Songhai was also weakened by internal discord,
which led
to factional warfare. This discord spurred most of the
migrations
of peoples southward toward the forest belt.
The dense rain forest covering the southern half of the
country
created barriers to large-scale political organizations as
seen
further north. Inhabitants lived in villages or clusters
of
villages whose contacts with the outside world were
filtered
through long-distance traders. Villagers subsisted on
agriculture
and hunting.
Five important states flourished in Côte d'Ivoire in
the preEuropean era
(see
fig. 2). The Muslim empire of Kong was
established by the Juula in the early eighteenth century
in the
north-central region inhabited by the Sénoufo, who had
fled
Islamization under the Mali Empire
(see Ethnic Groups and Languages
, ch. 2). Although Kong became a prosperous
center of
agriculture, trade, and crafts, ethnic diversity and
religious
discord gradually weakened the kingdom. The city of Kong
was
destroyed in 1895 by Samori Touré
(see Local Resistance and Establishment of Protectorates
, this ch.).
The Abron kingdom of Jaman was established in the
seventeenth
century by an Akan group, the Abron, who had fled the
developing
Asante confederation in what is present-day Ghana. From
their
settlement south of Bondoukou, the Abron gradually
extended their
hegemony over the Juula in Bondoukou, who were recent
émigrés from
the market city of Begho. Bondoukou developed into a major
center
of commerce and Islam. The kingdom's Quranic scholars
attracted
students from all parts of West Africa.
In the mid-eighteenth century in east-central Côte
d'Ivoire,
other Akan groups fleeing the Asante established a Baoulé
kingdom
at Sakasso and two Agni kingdoms, Indénié and Sanwi. The
Baoulé,
like the Asante, elaborated a highly centralized political
and
administrative structure under three successive rulers,
but it
finally split into smaller chiefdoms. Despite the breakup
of their
kingdom, the Baoulé strongly resisted French subjugation.
The
descendants of the rulers of the Agni kingdoms tried to
retain
their separate identity long after Côte d'Ivoire's
independence; as
late as 1969, the Sanwi of Krinjabo attempted to break
away from
Côte d'Ivoire and form an independent kingdom.
Data as of November 1988
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