Côte d'Ivoire

The territory was a patchwork of kingdoms and stateless societies — the Baoulé and Agni in the centre and east, linked to the Akan world of present-day Ghana, the Senufo and Malinké in the north, and the Dan and Wè in the western forests, famous for their masks. Trans-Saharan and forest trade routes crossed it long before Europeans arrived.

France declared a colony in 1893 and, after decades of resistance, imposed forced labour and cash-crop farming. Félix Houphouët-Boigny, a planter and doctor, led a campaign that ended forced labour and then guided the colony to independence in 1960, which he ruled until his death in 1993. In April 1986 his government declared Côte d'Ivoire the country's formal name for all purposes and stopped recognising translations of it, though "Ivory Coast" is still widely used in English-language media.

Houphouët-Boigny's three decades brought the "Ivorian miracle": cocoa and coffee wealth, heavy investment, and stability that drew millions of migrants from poorer neighbours. When the economy faltered, tensions over land and national identity — the concept of ivoirité — hardened, producing a 2002 rebellion that split the country in two and a short but violent post-election crisis in 2010–11. Alassane Ouattara has governed since, presiding over a strong economic recovery. He was re-elected on 25 October 2025 with about 91 percent of the vote, in a contest from which several leading opposition figures were excluded and before which the government banned meetings and demonstrations against those exclusions.

Côte d'Ivoire is one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan countries in West Africa, its population drawn from dozens of ethnic groups plus large communities of Burkinabè, Malians, Guineans, Lebanese, and others. Religion is roughly split between Muslims, concentrated in the north and among migrants, and Christians in the south, with traditional practice widespread alongside both.

The country's peoples are renowned for their carved masks and masquerade — the stilt dancers of the west and the Zaouli of the Gouro of central Côte d'Ivoire are the best known — and Ivorian textile, gold, and bronze work has a long history. In music, Côte d'Ivoire gave the continent zouglou in the 1990s and then coupé-décalé, the flamboyant dance style born among Ivorians in Paris in the early 2000s that spread across francophone Africa.

Football is a unifying passion; the national team has won the Africa Cup of Nations three times, in 1992, 2015 and 2023, the last of them on home soil and a huge national moment. Hospitality, respect for elders, and long greetings shape everyday social life.

Abidjan, spread around a lagoon, is the economic capital and one of West Africa's largest cities — a place of high-rises in the Plateau district, sprawling working-class communes, traffic, and nightlife. Yamoussoukro, Houphouët-Boigny's home village, was made the political and administrative capital in 1983 and holds the giant basilica, but Abidjan keeps several political functions and Yamoussoukro remains far smaller.

The economy is the largest in francophone West Africa, built on cocoa — Côte d'Ivoire grew about 45 percent of the world's cocoa in 2024 — along with cashews, rubber, palm oil, coffee, oil and gas, and a growing services and construction sector. Poverty and unemployment remain widespread despite fast growth.

Daily life features the maquis, open-air eateries serving grilled fish and chicken late into the night, crowded gbaka minibuses, and busy markets, with the farming calendar and the cocoa harvest shaping the rural year.

Ivorian cooking is bold and starchy. Attiéké, a fermented, granular cassava couscous, is the signature side, served with grilled fish (poisson braisé), chicken, or a spicy tomato-and-onion sauce. Foutou, pounded plantain and cassava or yam, is eaten with rich sauces — sauce graine (palm nut), sauce arachide (groundnut), the aubergine-based sauce claire, or the leafy, slimy kplala, made from jute leaves. Gouagouassou is a stew of meat or fish in a vegetable sauce of aubergine and okra.

Kedjenou, a spicy stew of chicken and vegetables slow-cooked in a sealed pot with little or no added liquid, is a classic. Alloco, fried ripe plantain with a chilli-onion relish, is the universal snack, and grilled fish with piment is the maquis staple.

Bangui (palm wine), ginger juice, bissap (hibiscus), and locally brewed and imported beer are the usual drinks, along with strong coffee and, increasingly, Ivorian-grown chocolate.

Abidjan is the starting point for most visits, for its markets, its lagoon, the cathedral of St. Paul, the Museum of Civilisations and the contemporary art museum at Cocody, and its restaurant and music scene. Nearby, Grand-Bassam, the first colonial capital, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site of faded French buildings by the sea and hosts the Abissa festival.

Yamoussoukro's Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, modelled on St. Peter's and set in the bush, is the country's most startling sight, along with the presidential palace and its sacred crocodile lake. West of there, around the town of Man, lie forested mountains, waterfalls, the 881-metre peak known as the Dent de Man, the traditional liana bridges of the surrounding villages, and the mask-and-stilt-dancing peoples of the region.

For wildlife, Taï National Park in the southwest is one of the last large blocks of primary rainforest in West Africa, home to chimpanzees and pygmy hippos, and Comoé in the northeast is the largest protected area in West Africa, a vast savanna reserve; both are World Heritage Sites, though access is limited, and some governments advise against travel to Comoé, which lies near the northern border. The coast east and west of Abidjan has long palm-fringed beaches at Assinie and Sassandra.