Before reading my book from Côte d'Ivoire, I did quite a bit of research, as I knew practically nothing going into it. Online I found a small second hand book about the country, which was very informative, and of course Wikipedia helped out. ;)
Geological facts
Name: Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Capital: Yamoussoukro
Government: Unitary presidential constitutional republic
Language: French (and Dyula, which acts as a trade language)
Area: 322.463 km2 (124,504 sq mi)
Population: 27.481.086
Cote d'Ivoire was colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th century. The French settled there from the 18th century, from 1893 (to 1960) it became a French colony. Abidjan is the administrative capital and the largest city. There are more than 60 ethnic groups, which can be broadly classified into four cultural groups: Akan, Krou, Mande and Volta. Ivory Coast is the largest exporter of cocoa beans. Other exports include coffee, diamonds and rubber. It is located on the Gulf of Guinea. In addition to the ivory trade, there was also a lot of slave trade in the past.
Photo by Alexandre Brondino on Unsplash
In 1907, forced labor was instituted, a much hated system of unpaid labor for public works (and later also on the plantations). This continued until 1946.
Cote d'Ivoire is famous for its woodcarving, especially masks. These are still part of the traditional, often religious ceremonies with white and black magic. With a mask, the wearer temporarily assumes a different identity, so that not himself, but an assumed identity performs the magical actions. People like to harass each other and in the event of adversity often suspect that a rival is behind it.
90% of the tropical rainforest has been cleared. After cutting and selling the wood, the land is often used for growing coffee and cocoa (and not for replanting trees).
Fun facts
There is a lot of small-scale street trade, where everything is offered for sale. From food, newspapers and music cassettes to medicine in case your wife (or husband) doesn't understand you.
Cote d'Ivoire received a lot of attention after Michael Jackson was proclaimed King of the Sanwi in 1992. Sanwi was a separate kingdom within the French colony until 1959 and then merged into Cote d'Ivoire.
The book I read
Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourouma
Translated by Frank Wynne
Synopsis: "The full, final and completely complete title of my bullshit story is: Allah is not obliged to be fair about all things he does here on earth". Birahima's story is one of horror and laughter. After his mother's death he travels to Liberia to find his aunt but on the way gets caught up in rebel fighting and ends up with a Kalashnikov in his hands. He tells of the chaotic and terrible adventures that follow in his career as a small soldier with heartbreaking bravado and wisdom.
My thoughts
Because of the childish writing style (a 10-year-old boy is speaking), the story seems light-hearted and sometimes even humorous. At the same time you never lose the sense of horror. Every now and then I had to look up whether events had really happened. Unfortunately, they all turned out to be true.
I suspect this is the book with the most parentheses (...) ever written. Birahima uses dictionaries when writing his 'blabla' to explain the 'difficult' words to his readers. The number of difficult words is somewhat larger for a 10-year-old than for an adult, so almost any explanation is superfluous. At the same time, this enhances the effect of the storytelling style.
Quotes (lots of farting going on)
"I dropped out of school because everyone said school means nothing anymore, not even an old grandma's fart. (That's what they say in native African language when something is a minor detail (...) because a struggling decrepit grandma's fart makes no noise and does not smell very bad.)"
"What Balla and Grandma said didn't really convince me; it was too late. You can never catch a fart that flew out of your bottom."
"The Mendés, who belonged to the same ethnic group as the Prime Minister, were privileged. That was normal, you walk behind the elephant in the bush so as not to get wet from the dew (meaning you are protected if you are related to a great person)."
The author
Ahmadou Kourouma (1927-2003) was an Ivorian novelist. The eldest son of a distinguished Malinké family, Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Boundiali, Côte d'Ivoire. Raised by his uncle, he initially pursued studies in Bamako, Mali. From 1950 to 1954, when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France to study mathematics in Lyon. In 1963 he had to flee the Ivory Coast because he was suspected of conspiracy against the authorities. He returned in 1992.
Determined to speak out against the betrayal of legitimate African aspirations at the dawn of independence, Kourouma was drawn into an experiment in fiction. His first novel, The Suns of Independence, (1970) contains a critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa. Twenty years later, his second book Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, was published. In 1998, he published Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote, a satire of postcolonial Africa in the style of Voltaire in which a griot recounts the story of a tribal hunter's transformation into a dictator, inspired by president Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo. In 2000, he published Allah is Not Obliged.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Other book recommendations for Cote d'Ivoire
On this website, we add new books from countries all over the world every week. Check out which (other) books are featured for Cote d'Ivoire here.
Souvenir
As one of the biggest export products is cacao beens, I thought a suitable souvenir for this country would be a cosy mug for (hot) chocolat. Or maybe not so much cosy, as grouchy. But hey, when you have chocolat, it's all good, right? ;)
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