ivory coast facts...

firstly, don't call it the ivory coast! it officially wants to be called côte d’ivoire in every language.

in 1985, the government decreed that the country’s name should be rendered as côte d’ivoire, not translated as “ivory coast,” though the english version is still widely used.

it has a political capital and a practical capital.

yamoussoukro is the official/administrative capital, but abidjan is still the de facto capital and main economic powerhouse.

its capital has one of the biggest churches on earth.

the basilica of our lady of peace in yamoussoukro was built in the late 1980s and is described by britannica as the largest christian church in the world “by some measures.” it was built in the birthplace of the country’s first president, félix houphouët-boigny.

it is not just cocoa giant, it is also a cashew giant.

côte d’ivoire is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans, but it is also a major cashew producer/exporter. agriculture still employs around two-thirds of the active population.

it has more than 60 ethnic groups.

the largest broad groupings include the akan, northern mande and gur peoples. that helps explain why the country has such a wide spread of languages, music, masks, dance traditions and regional identities.

french is official, but street language is much more colourful.

britannica notes that alongside french, there are many local languages, plus trade languages and urban varieties such as français de moussa, a pidgin french widely associated with abidjan.

there’s a unesco-listed former colonial capital.

grand-bassam, once an important colonial-era port and capital, is now a unesco world heritage site — along with natural sites including taï national park, comoé national park and mount nimba strict nature reserve.

taï national park is one of west africa’s great rainforest refuges.

côte d’ivoire is often thought of through football and cocoa, but it also has major rainforest conservation areas, including taï national park, one of its best-known protected landscapes.

the national football team are “the elephants.”

côte d’ivoire’s men’s team are nicknamed les éléphants, and football is huge there — britannica notes that football fields exist in just about every town and village.

it has produced some absolute football royalty.

didier drogba and yaya touré are the obvious names, but the ivorian football conveyor belt also includes salomon kalou, emmanuel eboué, didier zokora, franck kessié and amad diallo.

its landscape changes dramatically from south to north.

you go from gulf of guinea coast and humid forest zones in the south towards cultivated forest and then northern savanna — so it is much more geographically varied than “west african cocoa country” suggests.

côte d’ivoire’s flag is vertical orange, white, green from left to right; ireland’s is green, white, orange. handy pub quiz trap.

its musical exports are serious.

reggae star alpha blondy is ivorian, and côte d’ivoire has also been central to styles such as zouglou and coupé-décalé, both of which became big parts of modern west african pop culture.

chocolate starts there, but much of the value is made elsewhere.

the country dominates cocoa production, but historically much of the higher-value chocolate processing and branding has happened abroad, one reason cocoa economics are such a big political and social issue.

it has no official religion.

despite the gigantic basilica and a large muslim population, the state has no official religion.

there, that's you all up-to-date with your cote d'ivoire facts.

Posted By: Tombs, Jun 20, 21:10:08