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.

His 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.

Côte d'Ivoire is one of the most diverse and cosmopolitan countries in West Africa, its population drawn from more than 60 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 western forest peoples are renowned for their carved masks and masquerade — the stilt dancers and the Zaouli mask of the Gouro are the best known — and Ivorian textile, gold, and bronze work has a long history. In music, Abidjan gave the continent zouglou in the 1990s and then coupé-décalé, the flamboyant, bass-heavy dance style that spread across francophone Africa.

Football is a unifying passion; the national team's 2015 and 2023 Africa Cup of Nations wins, the latter on home soil, were huge national moments. 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 capital in 1983 and holds the parliament and the giant basilica, but remains far smaller.

The economy is the largest in francophone West Africa, built on cocoa — Côte d'Ivoire grows more than 40 percent of the world's supply — 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), or the leafy, slimy sauce gouagouassou and kplala.

Kedjenou, chicken or guinea fowl slow-cooked in a sealed pot with peppers and tomato, is the celebratory dish. 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 modern art at the MACA, 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, a natural rock "bridge," and the villages of the mask-and-stilt-dancing peoples.

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 a vast savanna reserve; both are World Heritage Sites, though access is limited. The coast east and west of Abidjan has long palm-fringed beaches at Assinie and Sassandra.