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Ivory Coast
Index
Urban ethnic associations performed important social
functions,
from the initial reception of new migrants to the burial
of urban
residents. They also served as important mutual aid
networks and
facilitated communication with home villages. Rapid
urbanization
brought together people from numerous ethnic groups,
however, and
these contacts contributed to changing values and produced
demands
that went beyond the reach of traditional leadership
roles. In this
changing environment, ethnic organizations lost influence
as
cultural and economic brokers. Most grievances arose in
response to
government policy choices, and because these policies were
not
phrased in terms of ethnic groups, neither were grievances
against
them. Neighborhood and citywide problems demanded broader
solutions, and multiethnic associations emerged as
important
interest groups.
Ethnicity was further diminished as a factor in urban
politics
as foreigners were drawn to Côte d'Ivoire's lucrative job
market
and as Houphouët-Boigny maintained fairly balanced ethnic
representation among political appointments, without
bringing
traditional leaders into top levels of administration. He
encouraged the most ambitious and educated young men from
different
regions to participate in nation building, and to do so
through his
patronage.
Houphouët-Boigny's patrimonial style of governing began
to
shape the social landscape, as the political skills he
acquired
during the waning years of colonial rule--his expertise as
a
strategist, his nonconfrontational manner of dealing with
political
rivals, and his paternalistic approach to allies--helped
consolidate his support. In the late 1980s, he continued
to emulate
the style of his Baoulé elders, softening strong
leadership enough
to maintain broad popular support, satisfying crucial
popular
demands, and co-opting potential opponents
(see Political Issues
, ch. 4).
As a result of these factors--the urban emphasis, the
relative
unimportance of ethnic differences, and Houphouët-Boigny's
patrimonial style of governing--a self-perpetuating elite
emerged.
Social relations were ordered more by access to status,
prestige,
and wealth than by ethnic differences, and for most people
the
locus of this access was the government. Wealth and
government
service became so closely linked that one was taken as a
symbol of
the other.
Data as of November 1988
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