The Ivory Coast will give you back memories of going to Minneapolis and how it was about twenty years ago. The idea of diversity is barely just the difference between Lake Woebegone and the city.
While you are here the airport driver will probably tell you not to trust anyone. The airport shuttle, its driver would then take you right in front of your hotel.
It would be a good idea to tip the bellman as a lot of your luggage would be needed to be handled with care after this.
The cab driver on your first night there would drive onto the sidewalk to go round a traffic jam. You can do this while the many pedestrians duck for safety. The can would seem just like a microcosm in the entire city. Since the driver won’t really understand what you are up to, he would probably be going at breakneck speed.
The city planets would be really good for this town. Back in the United States, it would be havoc as we are used to following things in perfect order, at least in the streets!
You should always remember to keep your passport safe and with you at all times.
The many streets that are away from the city center, there are high rising buildings and upscale hotels. You will get to see pedestrians, goats, sheep, cows, and chickens. And all of these divers ignore traffic rules and signals and they would actually glare at you if you bother to obey the rules here.
When you go to Abidjan, which is the business and entertainment capital of West Africa. You will pass by many villages that have no electricity or running water. These are only accessible by Cano. The people over here are very polite and welcoming. They insist on you coming to visit. There is a special procedure for having visited as well. For instance, when you enter a village, you would have to first find out the house of the chief. The chief may then decide whether you could or could not pass through to the next village. If the chief gives you a right of passage then you are free to pass through this village even on your way back here.
If the chief gives you only half passage then you can only go through this village although, on your way back, you will have to find another route.
When you go to the chief, he would ask you to first sit. There are no chairs or benches available. You would most probably find someone actually making one set up for you while you wait. When the chief comes in you talk to him about your intentions and about yourself as well. Once you do this he will tell you what is on his mind. Once this is done, both of you will rise up and shake hands again. While you are here, the villagers are quite hospitable and you might most probably be offered drinks. The drink would most likely be a syrupy concoction that is made with the petals of the hibiscus plant. Or they may also make you a drink with coconut. Most of the villagers would most probably be standing right behind you listing to the conversation you are having with their chief.
In the Ivory Coast, it is believed that a good host is the one who believes that his guest carried a promise that he wants to reveal to anyone who shows any kind of genuine interest. According to Henri J who is a famous priest and scholar who wrote in his book which is called ‘reaching out’, that ‘poverty makes a good host’.
A lot of people in this country are quite poor and they are brilliant hosts. A friend of mine ended up spending a night at the home of his Ivorian teacher in Abidjan. And after the dinner was done, he was offered one of the many clay serving bowls as a gift so that he could take it home to his wife.
One of the places that you should visit is Yamoussoukro, which is a city that has been given a lavish makeover by someone who happens to be born there, Felix Boigny who was the president of the country form the year nineteen hundred and sixty to nineteen hundred and ninety-three.
This place now has beautiful boutique hotels, golf courses, a university, and an international peace center which has a palace with crocodiles in the ponds. Yamoussoukro also has one of the largest basilicas in the whole world. Our lady of peace was built in the year nineteen hundred and eighty-nine. This all is despite the fact that only about fourteen percent of the entire population here is catholic. Right next to this place is a house that is built for the pope and an international airport.
The city, on the whole, appears to be quite empty. Very few people on the golf courses and the parking lots outside the hotels seem to be quite empty.
Africa happens to always be a point where things are made into something extraordinary. This was written by VS Naipaul wrote in his famous book, ‘crocodiles of Yamoussoukro’. And this is why; Africa arouses hope, ambition, frustration, and irritation.
Yamoussoukro as a place is where anxiety becomes cute and everything here begins to feel almost unreal.
The city feels unreal because it was never part of the country’s order. The governments of the country didn’t make it. The people did!
The republic of cote d’Ivoire is also commonly known as Ivory Coast. This is a country in West Africa. It has an area of about three hundred and twenty-two thousand and five hundred kilometers. This country borders, Liberia, Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso, and finally Ghana. The south of this along the border of the gulf of guinea.
Before this country was occupied by Europeans, this place was home to many states like the Kong Empire and Baoule. A lot of these folk attempted to retain their separate identity all through the French period n even as the Ivory Coast got its independence. There is a treaty that was made by the Ivory Coast protectorate of France in the year eighteen nineteen three till the year eighteen hundred and forty-four.
This later became a part of the French colony which was scrambling into Africa.
