Ivory Coast – Côte d’Ivoire as it known Africa, has been the one of the most stable and prosperous country among all African nations. However, in recent years, the quarrels among the migrant workers and “true” Ivorian and also between Christians and Muslims have harmed country a great deal.
Geography and Environment
Ivory Coast is located in the Gulf of Guinea coastline of 480 km. The country has abundant natural resources, to enable them to perform a wide range of agriculture. It is one of the major exporters of tropical timber in the world today and that has causing also causing fastest deforestation. Due to this deforestation, most of the country’s southern tropical rain forests have now disappeared. In the late 1980s, planting and protective measures were taken. However, since 2002, deforestation continues in the northern part of the country, which is outside of government control. It is also the largest forest area today.
History
It is quite possible that due to the decisions of the Empire of Ghana, 1200 immigrant populations moved towards East where Ivory Coast is today. Round about same time immigrants from North settled here and Islam came with them in this region and became a stronghold.
It is based on several southern states, the most important one is the Agni and Abrong Kingdom. Ivory Coast used to be a French colony back in 1893 but faced severe resistance from the people. In 1917, the French were successful to take full control of the entire and managed the country until it gained independence in 1960. The next three decades, Ivory Coast became Africa’s richest countries, mainly due to the export of cocoa. Because of this an endless stream of migrant workers, especially from Burkina Faso and Mali, came here got settled.
Ivory Coast’s society and politics
Félix Houphouët – Boigny ruled country after its independence till his death in 1993. His party was the only allowed party until 1990. Several politicians used nationalism in order to enhance their support as it was a political power struggles after the death of Houphouet-Boigny. This also created a divide between the “true” Ivorian and guest workers.
As nationalist movement supported only the Christians of the population and not Muslims, a divide was created. The result was that in 2002 civil war divided the country in two halves. North was under the government control and The Nationalists while the south was controlled by Muslim rebel forces.
The Ivorian economy and trade
Agriculture is the main Ivorian industry and most of the people live in rural areas. It has become the world’s largest coffee and cocoa exporter. Because of all the fighting many of the foreign workers have left and that has caused a severe shortage of workers in large plantations.