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Côte d'Ivoire

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: African Countries;
Countries

                      République de Côte d'Ivoire
   Republic of Côte d'Ivoire

   Flag of Côte d'Ivoire Coat of arms of Côte d'Ivoire
   Flag                  Coat of arms
   Motto: "Unity, Discipline and Labour"  (translation)
   Anthem: L'Abidjanaise
   Location of Côte d'Ivoire
        Capital       Yamoussoukro (official)
                      Abidjan ( de facto)
                      6°51′N 5°18′W
      Largest city    Abidjan
   Official languages French
   Government         Republic
    - President       Laurent Gbagbo
    - Prime Minister  Charles Konan Banny
      Independence    from France
    - Date            August 7, 1960
                                   Area
    - Total           322,463 km² ( 68th)
                      124,503 sq mi
    - Water (%)       1.4
                                Population
    - 2005 estimate   18,154,000^a ( 57th)
    - 1988 census     10,815,694
    - Density         56/km² ( 141st)
                      145/sq mi
       GDP ( PPP)     2005 estimate
    - Total           $27.48 billion ( 98th)
    - Per capita      $1,441 ( 157th)
      HDI  (2004)     0.421 (low) ( 164rth)
        Currency      CFA franc ( XOF)
       Time zone      GMT ( UTC+0)
    - Summer ( DST)   not observed ( UTC+0)
      Internet TLD    .ci
      Calling code    +225
   ^a Estimates for this country take into account the effects of excess
   mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower population than would
   otherwise be expected.

   Côte d'Ivoire ( pronounced /kot divwaʀ/ in International French;
   officially the République de Côte d'Ivoire), or, translated into
   English, the Ivory Coast, is a country in West Africa. It borders
   Liberia and Guinea to the west, Mali and Burkina Faso to the north,
   Ghana to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south. Once one of the
   most prosperous of the tropical West African states, its economy has
   been undermined by political turmoil and civil war, spawned by a failed
   attempt to assassinate the elected president. Consequently the country
   has been divided for the past four years, while the United Nations,
   France and South African President Thabo Mbeki of the African Union
   have worked with Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and leadership of the
   "Rebel Forces" to try to negotiate a peace deal, but without success,
   leading to four years of "no peace, no war", which has undermined the
   country's economy.

History

   Little is known about Côte d'Ivoire before the arrival of Portuguese
   ships in the 1460s. The major ethnic groups came relatively recently
   from neighbouring areas: the Kru people came from Liberia around 1600;
   the Senoufo and Lobi moved southward from Burkina Faso and Mali; in the
   eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Akan people, including the
   Baoulé, migrated from Ghana into the eastern area of the country, and
   the Malinké from Guinea into the northwest.

French colonial era

   Compared to neighbouring Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire suffered little from the
   slave trade. European slaving and merchant ships preferred other areas
   along the coast with better harbours. France took an interest in the
   1840s, enticing local chiefs to grant French commercial traders a
   monopoly along the coast. Thereafter, the French built naval bases to
   keep out non-French traders and began a systematic conquest of the
   interior. They accomplished this only after a long war in the 1890s
   against Mandinka forces, mostly from Gambia. Guerrilla warfare by the
   Baoulé and other eastern groups continued until 1917.

   France's main goal was to stimulate the production of exports. Coffee,
   cocoa and palm oil crops were soon planted along the coast. Côte
   d'Ivoire stood out as the only West African country with a sizeable
   population of 'settlers'; elsewhere in West and Central Africa, the
   French and English were largely bureaucrats. As a result, a third of
   the cocoa, coffee and banana plantations were in the hands of French
   citizens and a hated forced-labour system became the backbone of the
   economy.

Independence

   The son of a Baoulé chief, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was to become Côte
   d'Ivoire's father of independence. In 1944 he formed the country's
   first agricultural trade union for African cocoa farmers like himself.
   Annoyed that colonial policy favoured French plantation owners, they
   united to recruit migrant workers for their own farms. Houphouët-Boigny
   soon rose to prominence and within a year was elected to the French
   Parliament in Paris. A year later the French abolished forced labour.
   Houphouët-Boigny established a strong relationship with the French
   government, expressing a belief that that the country would benefit
   from it, which it did, for many years. France made him the first
   African to become a minister in a European government.

   In 1958, Côte d'Ivoire became an autonomous member of the French
   Community (which replaced the French Union).

   At the time of Côte d'Ivoire's independence in 1960, the country was
   easily French West Africa's most prosperous, contributing over 40% of
   the region's total exports. When Houphouët-Boigny became the first
   president, his government gave farmers good prices to further stimulate
   production. Coffee production increased significantly, catapulting Côte
   d'Ivoire into third place in total output behind Brazil and Colombia.
   By 1979 the country was the world's leading producer of cocoa. It also
   became Africa's leading exporter of pineapples and palm oil. French
   technicians contributed to the 'Ivoirian miracle'. In the rest of
   Africa, Europeans were driven out following independence; but in Côte
   d'Ivoire, they poured in. The French community grew from 10,000 to
   50,000, most of them teachers and advisers. For 20 years, the economy
   maintained an annual growth rate of nearly 10% - the highest of
   Africa's non-oil-exporting countries.

Houphouët-Boigny administration

   Politically, Houphouët-Boigny ruled with a strength that some would
   call an "iron hand" while others characterize as "paternal." The press
   was not free and only one political party existed although some
   accepted this as a consequence of Houphouët-Boigny's broad appeal to
   the population that continually elected him. He was also criticized for
   his emphasis on developing large scale projects. Some felt that the
   millions of dollars were spent transforming his village, Yamoussoukro,
   into the new capital that it became, was a waste, but others support
   his vision to develop a centre for peace, education and religion in the
   heart of the country. But by the early 1980s, the world recession and a
   local drought sent shockwaves through the Ivoirian economy. Thanks also
   to the overcutting of timber and collapsing sugar prices, the country's
   external debt increased threefold. Crime rose dramatically in Abidjan.

   In 1990, hundreds of civil servants went on strike, joined by students
   protesting institutional corruption. The unrest forced the government
   to support multiparty democracy. Houphouët-Boigny became increasingly
   feeble and died in 1993. He favoured Henri Konan Bédié as his
   successor.

Bédié administration

   In October 1995, Bédié overwhelmingly won re-election against a
   fragmented and disorganised opposition. He tightened his hold over
   political life, sending several hundred opposition supporters to jail.
   In contrast, the economic outlook improved, at least superficially,
   with decreasing inflation and an attempt to remove foreign debt.

   Unlike Houphouët-Boigny, who was very careful in avoiding any ethnic
   conflict and left access to administrative positions wide-open to
   immigrants from neighbouring countries, Bedié emphasized the concept of
   "Ivority" ( Ivoirité) to exclude his rival Alassane Ouattara, having
   only one parent of Ivory Coast nationality, to run for future
   presidential election. As people originating from Burkina Faso are a
   large part of the Ivorian population, this policy excluded many people
   from Ivorian nationality, and the relationship between various ethnic
   groups became strained.

1999 coup

   Similarly, Bédié excluded many potential opponents from the army. In
   late 1999, a group of dissatisfied officers staged a military coup,
   putting General Robert Guéi in power. Bédié fled into exile in France.
   The coup had reduced crime and corruption, and the generals pressed for
   austerity and openly campaigned in the streets for a less wasteful
   society.

Gbagbo administration

   A presidential election was held in October 2000 in which Laurent
   Gbagbo vied with Guéi, but it was neither peaceful nor democratic. The
   lead-up to the election was marked by military and civil unrest. Guéi's
   attempt to rig the election led to a public uprising, resulting in
   around 180 deaths and his swift replacement by the election's likely
   winner, Gbagbo. Alassane Ouattara was disqualified by the country's
   Supreme Court, due to his alleged Burkinabé nationality. The existing
   and later reformed constitution did not allow non-citizens to run for
   president. This sparked violent protests in which his supporters,
   mainly from the country's Muslim north, battled riot police in the
   capital, Yamoussoukro.

2002 mutiny

   In the early hours of September 19, 2002, there was an attempted
   assassination of the president. Troops who were to be demobilised
   mutinied, launching attacks in several cities. By lunchtime the French
   interjected to assist the Government; it is disputed as to whether
   their interjection into the situation helped or hindered the situation
   - but by the end of the day, they had lost control of the north of the
   country, which is still divided from the south today. The fight for the
   south had also been tough. The battle for the main Gendarmerie Barracks
   in Abidjan lasted till mid-morning. What exactly happened that night is
   disputed. The government said that former president Robert Guéi had led
   a coup attempt, and state tv showed pictures of his dead body in the
   street; counter-claims said that he and fifteen others had been
   murdered at his home and his body had been moved to the streets to
   incriminate him. Alassane Ouattara took refuge in the French embassy,
   his home burned down.

   President Gbagbo cut short a foreign trip to Italy, and on his return
   said some of the rebels were hiding in the shanty towns where foreign
   migrant workers live. Gendarmes and vigiliantes bulldozed and burned
   homes by the thousand, attacking the residents.

   An early ceasefire with the rebels, who had the backing of the northern
   populace, proved short-lived, and fighting over the prime cocoa-growing
   areas resumed. France sent in troops to maintain the cease-fire
   boundaries, and militias, including warlords and fighters from Liberia
   and Sierra Leone, took advantage of the crisis to seize parts of the
   west.

2003 unity government

   In January 2003, President Gbagbo and rebel leaders signed accords
   creating a "government of national unity". Curfews were lifted and
   French troops cleaned up the lawless western border of the country. But
   the central problems remained, and neither side achieved its goals.

   Since then, the unity government has proven extremely unstable. In
   March 2004, 120 people were killed in an opposition rally. A later
   report concluded the killings were planned. Though UN peacekeepers were
   deployed, relations between Gbagbo and the opposition continued to
   deteriorate.

Politics

   Since 1983, Côte d'Ivoire's official capital has been Yamoussoukro;
   Abidjan, however, remains the administrative centre. Most countries
   maintain their embassies in Abidjan, although some (including the
   United Kingdom) have closed their missions because of the continuing
   violence and attacks on Europeans. The aforementioned population
   continues to suffer because of an ongoing civil war. International
   human rights organizations have noted problems with the treatment of
   captive non-combatants by both sides and the re-emergence of child
   slavery among workers in cocoa production.

   Since the incident on September 19, 2002 (refer to the history
   section), a civil war broke out, and the north part of the country has
   been seized by the rebels, the New Forces (FN). A new presidential
   election was expected to be held in October, 2005. However, this new
   election could not be held on time due to delay in preparation and has
   been postponed to October 2006 after an agreement was reached among the
   rival parties.

Geography

   Map Of Côte d'Ivoire
   Enlarge
   Map Of Côte d'Ivoire

   Satellite image of Côte d'Ivoire, generated from raster graphics data
   supplied by The Map Library
   Enlarge
   Satellite image of Côte d'Ivoire, generated from raster graphics data
   supplied by The Map Library

   Côte d'Ivoire is a country of western sub-Saharan Africa. It borders
   Liberia and Guinea in the west, Mali and Burkina Faso in the north,
   Ghana in the east, and the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) in the
   south.

Economy

   Maintaining close ties to France since independence in 1960,
   diversification of agriculture for export, and encouragement of foreign
   investment, has made Côte d'Ivoire one of the most prosperous of the
   tropical African states. However, in recent years Côte d'Ivoire has
   been subject to greater competition and falling prices in the global
   marketplace for their primary agricultural crops coffee and cocoa.
   That, compounded with high internal corruption, makes life difficult
   for the grower and those exporting into foreign markets.

Demographics

   77% of the population are considered Ivorians. They represent several
   different people and language groups. An estimated 65 languages are
   spoken in the country. One of the most common is Djoula, which acts as
   a trade language as well as a language commonly spoken by the Muslim
   population. French, the official language, is taught in schools and
   serves as a lingua franca in urban areas (particularly Abidjan).

   Since Cote d'Ivoire has established itself as one of the most
   successful West African nations, about 20% of the population consists
   of workers from neighbouring Liberia, Burkina Faso and Guinea. This
   fact has created steadily increasing tension in recent years,
   especially since most of these workers are Muslims while the
   native-born population is largely Christian (primarily Roman Catholic)
   and animist. 4% of the population is of non-African ancestry. Many are
   French, British, and Spanish citizens, as well as Protestant
   missionaries of American and Canadian background. In November 2004,
   around 10,000 French and other foreign nationals evacuated Cote
   d'Ivoire due to attacks from pro-government youth militias.

Culture

   Mask from Côte d'Ivoire
   Enlarge
   Mask from Côte d'Ivoire

     * Music of Côte d'Ivoire: Alpha Blondy, Gyil, Dunun
     * Islam in Côte d'Ivoire
     * List of writers from Côte d'Ivoire
     * Art of Côte d'Ivoire

Name

History

   The country was originally known in English as Ivory Coast. Some
   translations into other languages:
   Côte-d'Ivoire            French
   Elfenbeinküste           German
   Costa de Marfil          Spanish
   ساحل العاج               Arabic
   Norsunluurannikko        Finnish
   Pantai Gading            Indonesian
   Ivoorkust                Dutch
   Fildişi Sahilleri        Turkish
   Wybrzeże Kości Słoniowej Polish
   Берег Слоновой Кости     Russian
   Обала Слоноваче          Serbian
   Costa d'Avorio           Italian
   Costa do Marfim          Portuguese
   Slonokoščena obala       Slovenian
   Pobrežie Slonoviny       Slovak
   Pobřeží Slonoviny        Czech
   Elefántcsontpart         Hungarian
   Ακτή Ελεφαντοστού        Greek
   Fílabeinsströndin        Icelandic
   Coasta de Fildeş         Romanian

   In October 1985 the government requested that the country be known as
   Côte d'Ivoire in every language, without a hyphen between the two words
   (thereby contravening the standard rule in French that geographical
   names with several words must be written with hyphens).

Usage

   Despite the Ivorian government's ruling, "Ivory Coast" (sometimes "the
   Ivory Coast") is still used in English. Governments, however, use "Côte
   d'Ivoire" for diplomatic reasons. The English country name registered
   with the United Nations and adopted by ISO 3166 is "Côte d'Ivoire".
   English-speaking people in neighboring Liberia and Ghana both use "Cote
   d'Ivoire" in preference to "Ivory Coast". Journalistic style guides
   usually (but not always) recommend "Ivory Coast":
     * The Guardian newspaper's Style Guide says: "Ivory Coast, not "the
       Ivory Coast" or "Côte D'Ivoire"; its nationals are Ivorians"
     * The BBC usually uses "Ivory Coast" both in news reports and on its
       page about the country .
     * The Economist newsmagazine's Style Guide says "Côte d'Ivoire not
       Ivory Coast".
     * The United States Department of State uses "Côte d'Ivoire" in
       formal documents, but uses "Ivory Coast" in many general
       references, speeches and briefing documents .
     * Encyclopædia Britannica uses "Côte d'Ivoire".
     * ABC News, The Times, the New York Times and SABC all use "Ivory
       Coast" either exclusively or predominantly.
     * Rand-McNally Millennium World Atlas uses "Côte d'Ivoire".
     * FIFA and the IOC use Côte d'Ivoire when referring to their national
       football team and Olympic teams in international games and in
       official broadcasts.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4te_d%27Ivoire"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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