A contrasted habitat between cities and countryside
The traditional habitat differs from one region to another: from the round huts with banco and straw roofs to the rectangular huts, including the terraced huts inspired by 14th century Sudanese architecture... However, this traditional habitat is tending to disappear, replaced by uniform "solid" housing, for the sake of prevention and health, but also to show its success and opulence. Traditional materials (earth, straw, palm tree, raffia...) are therefore abandoned and rectangular houses built in brick or cinder block and covered with sheet metal, with a living room, bedrooms and, if possible, a shower and toilet, are erected. In some village enclaves such as Blokoss in Abidjan, the residential spread of the traditional village has given way to the verticality of buildings, each floor of which houses successive generations of patriarchal families, then tenants from outside. Abidjan and the other big cities have bars of buildings similar to our HLMs, to accommodate a population of immigrant workers, while others, more luxurious, group together part of the new Ivorian bourgeoisie. A few towns in the country and the old trading posts along the coast still house old colonial houses as well as patrician houses, small planters' buildings with four-sided tin roofs and louvered shutters. But most of them are now in an advanced state of disrepair.
The reappropriation of urban space
In the working-class neighbourhoods of the big cities, a form of reappropriation of public space through courtyard housing can be observed, which is in harmony with the concept of the African-style extended family. This communal way of life inherited from the Malinke tradition is very widespread in Abobo, for example. It brings together several family units organized around the head of the residence. In addition to its attractive rents, the communal courtyard presents itself as a resilience mechanism in a constrained space where economic resources are difficult to find, and reproduces in the middle of the city a community dynamic similar to that of the village. Nevertheless, those who can afford it will prefer to opt for a single-family home in the upmarket neighbourhoods of Riviera, Marcory or Cocody. They may also choose the intermediate solution of residential cities, grouping together the habitats of middle- to high-class Ivorians. Houses in enclosed residences, flanked by perimeter walls, gates and guards, alleys and green spaces. A common courtyard in a more or less individualized "upmarket" version, where the syndicate acts as the "village council". It should be noted that the evolution of Ivorian housing is also strongly linked to the political and security context. In the 1980s, there were no fences around the residences. They appeared in the following decade, when crime soared in Abidjan. Then, over the years, fences were erected, often "crowned" with dissuasive barbed wire. In the 1990s, there was also a popular offensive to reappropriate space, resulting in the disappearance of pavements, requisitioned to set up "wild" shops, stalls and markets. To this must be added the development of "squats" and shantytowns and the proliferation of maquis, places of urban sociability erected for some with three pieces of string and wood on every available square metre.
The very strong family value
The most widespread conception is still that of the extended family, including a strong sense of solidarity. Through a mechanism of respective interests and greed, however, this family "obligation of solidarity", while starting from a laudable principle, will often tend to degenerate into parasitism, enslaving those who get away with it to a forced redistribution of their earnings. The responsibility of cadets towards their elders is still very much alive in social relations and represents an extremely strong social pressure: caring for parents, providing for their needs, is almost a "divine duty", and those who shirk or are unable to assume this obligation, which could almost be considered "institutional", are very badly regarded, if not outright denigrated.
Deference to Elders
Girls and boys grow up together until the age of seven, at which time their lives separate, with each being oriented towards the specific tasks assigned to his or her gender. In Africa, age is a guarantee of wisdom and therefore respectability, and that the right to be born a child is given great importance. Thus, the "youngest" should always show deference to his "older brother", "uncle" or "old father", even if the latter belongs to a lower socio-professional category or is not particularly worthy of respect. In contrast to our Western societies, where the use of the term "the old, the old" is generally perceived as disrespectful, in Côte d'Ivoire this reflects a form of unwavering attachment to ancestral wisdom, which is also manifested in the very special place occupied by the elders within the community. During a visit to the village, for example, it is de rigueur to go and greet the elders in the same way as the village chief.
Assignment of first names
Despite a certain attraction for technical modernism, which above all makes it possible to display its financial (and therefore social) superiority in a more or less ostentatious way (cars, mobile phones, jewellery, clothing, etc.), the vast majority of Ivorians remain deeply attached to age-old traditions and customs. This is reflected in particular in the attribution of first names: in a traditional environment, the various aspects of daily life remain closely linked to calendar time and the division of weeks into days. In the Akan group, for example, each day of the week has a specific male and female name. Some groups in the north, such as the Baoule and Senoufos, name the child according to the day and a particular event marking the time of birth. In the West, the first name is chosen according to the circumstances of the birth. In the others, the name is determined according to the order of birth. Some children bear, in addition to their first name, the first name of their father, which multiplies the cases of homonymy, especially among little boys (Kouassi Kouassi, Kouamé Kouamé, etc.). Also noteworthy is the adoption in Christian circles of an additional baptismal name (Kouakou Kouassi Ernest, Kouamé Aya Georgette, etc.). Among Muslims, first names of Islamic religious origin are very common.
A youth out of step
As a perverse effect of this hierarchization by age, society remains very gerontocratic and tends to discredit young people, who find themselves hampered by social, religious and traditional constraints and end up occupying spaces not occupied by their elders or by the State, such as new technologies. In a society where more than 75 per cent of the population is under 35 years of age and the average age of those with responsibilities is 60 (compared with the national average age of 20.7 years), a gap is thus emerging between the social and demographic weight of youth and the responsibilities it occupies. This situation is leading to an identity crisis that manifests itself in extreme forms, with the phenomenon of "microbes", young offenders aged around 8 to 25 who attack citizens with knives to strip them of their property in deprived neighbourhoods. But also through immigration to Europe, perceived as the only alternative to emancipate from a system perceived as "locked". The dominant economic models are also at issue, as they do not allow for the opening of spaces in which young people can blossom and develop their ideas.
The Ivorian of the 21st century
The Ivorian of the twenty-first century projects himself into a globalized society structured around uniform patterns of consumption and gratification. The advent of the mobile phone, the Internet and social networks has short-circuited physical and psychological distances, narrowing the gap between town and country and creating a kind of common space where urban lifestyles and consumption patterns have become the master benchmarks of social success and happiness. In the northeast, the post-adolescent lobi will be wearing a Barça jersey and scratched sunglasses when the first thing the illegal gold digger in Tortiya will get is a plasma screen or a freezer, while his Abidjan brothers will get a plasma screen or a freezer, meeting on Saturday afternoon to stroll and selfies in the aisles of the South Cape Mall, or debriefing The Voice Africa's latest bounty around a hamburger that they'll be sure to photograph for posting on their Instagram account. Even the dreaded microbes that borrowed their nickname from the Brazilian favelas gangs filmed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund in The City of God, who, like many ghettoised outcasts, are adept at this totally trivialised and aestheticised violence.
An inadequate education system
The Ivorian education system is contrasted. In the countryside, it is still deeply rooted in the idea that a large number of descendants is a guarantee of prestige and prosperity (by having many children, one ensures an abundant labour force and increases the chances of a peaceful old age, a presupposition that is amplified in rural areas). On the city side, the existence of children is conditioned by the hazards of their parents' conjugal life. They will thus be able to receive a more or less harmonious education depending on whether they grow up in a fulfilled home or find themselves tossed from one parent to the other. Their upbringing will then vary according to the social status of the relatives who will take them in, but also according to the degree of polygamy of the father and the different preferential treatment that the father accords to his respective homes, a practice that is still widespread today despite the official introduction of monogamy by the Civil Code of 1964. Although the country is registering improvements as a result of the compulsory education plan for 6-16 year olds initiated by Alassane Ouattara in 2015, the level of illiteracy remains relatively high. It varies from 30.1 per cent in the city of Abidjan to 84.7 per cent in the Folon region (north-western part of the country) and is more marked in the northern regions (over 70 per cent) than in the southern regions around Abidjan, where the figures remain below the national average (63 per cent). Boys predominate over girls, especially in rural areas and in the northern regions.
Early pregnancies
The enrolment rate for girls in 2019 was 55.8 per cent in primary school compared to 67.1 per cent for boys, and 24.6 per cent in secondary school compared to 33.1 per cent for boys. Although schooling is compulsory until the age of 16, only 50 per cent of girls enrolled finish middle school, and 25 per cent finish high school. Many of those who are enrolled in school are at great risk of being forced to work as soon as they return home. The first worrying and persistent scourge that causes them to drop out of school is the phenomenon of early pregnancy. In 2019, 3,700 cases of pregnancy among minors were recorded. These figures are indicative of a multifaceted crisis affecting schools, society, the family and the economy. While most of these pregnancies are the result of teachers using their status to "get away with it" and deliver what are known as "NSTs" (sexually transmitted notes) by sexually blackmailing minors, they are sometimes also the fault of "note-hunters" who, because the phenomenon has become commonplace without being repressed, seek to obtain "sexually transmitted goods" (food, school supplies, payment of school fees).
A failing health care system
Plagued by corruption that hinders public policies and a "dehumanization" of health personnel, the Ivorian health system appears highly dysfunctional. A considerable effort was made in 2019 with the creation of the CMU (Universal Health Fund), which includes a contributory scheme financed by the contributions of the insured, for a monthly amount of 1,000 CFA francs and now covers 3 million Ivorians. In general, here we do not treat, we silence the pain with a lot of drugs. In Côte d'Ivoire, 96% of pharmaceutical products are imported. As consultations and medicines are very expensive, people generally only go to the hospital when there is nothing left to do, and it is therefore considered to be a hospital rather than a place of healing. As a result, Ivorians often obtain expired or counterfeit drugs from "pharmacies on the ground" (itinerant drug sellers). In Abidjan, the infamous Adjamé Roxy market is the largest repository of counterfeit drugs. In addition, many people resort to traditional medicine, which has the advantage of offering free consultations and payment for treatment according to the patient's means. This sector, although officially recognized by the WHO and trying to structure itself through the Federation of Traditional Practitioners of Côte d'Ivoire, is nonetheless plagued by many charlatans. As a result, many Ivorians are dying "as a gift" where it would be possible to save a human life. Health indicators show slow progress, due to low investment in the sector. Life expectancy is only 57 years and under-five mortality remains a concern, having been almost halved between 2012 (108 ‰) and 2017 (57.2 ‰), which is very encouraging. Indicators for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS (2.6 percent prevalence in 2018 compared to 3.7 percent in 2012) are showing progress due to the various external funding and financing the country receives. The main infectious diseases in Côte d'Ivoire are bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever (waterborne diseases); malaria, dengue, and yellow fever (vector-borne diseases); schistosomiasis or bilharzia (waterborne diseases); rabies (animal-borne diseases), and meningococcal meningitis (respiratory disease), a seasonal infection closely linked to the harmattan.
Women's "soft power
Of course, the status of women varies depending on whether one is in an urban or rural setting, traditional or modern. The typical image of the African woman plundering millet in the villages sums up her responsibilities: from dawn to bedtime, she has to provide for the needs of the household or the community by taking on, in addition to household chores, the work of harvesting and production and the education of children. Girls are initiated from an early age into their future role as mothers and are committed to caring for their younger siblings as if they were their own children. Although officially women are still generally placed in a position of inferiority in formal hierarchical relationships and the weight of prejudice and cultural perceptions almost always relegates them to the background, unofficially their discreet and firm influence plays a considerable role in the way the economy, politics and civil society evolve. From an economic point of view, women, who are heavily involved in the informal food and nutrition sectors (80 per cent of the Ivorian economy), control most of the resources essential to the survival of large cities. Moreover, as mothers and procreators, they are de facto the object of an almost sacred respect attached to a whole magical-religious symbolism.
Women in matriarchal societies
In some matriarchal societies, such as the state-owned chieftaincy or kingdom-type societies found among the Akans (whose founding figure is Queen Abla Pokou), women play the role of eminence grise and assume important political functions. They are "queen mothers" sitting alongside the chief, of whom they are intimate advisers, and they play the role of controlling "constitutionality", i.e. monitoring the charter and the conformity of rules with the king and the village chief. They also represent the institutional and legal memory of the people. In times of risk and adversity, it is women who requisition men and take decisions through an institution over which they have a monopoly. As repositories of considerable knowledge, particularly in the field of genealogy, they transmit both power and life, and are compulsorily consulted on the choice of heirs. This permeability and sharing of functions explains why the finery of Akan kings and chiefs resembles that of women.
The emancipation of women in power
Even if in most other social organizations the participation of women in decision-making is derisory, sometimes even almost non-existent, the advancement of Ivorian women has nonetheless progressed, which is reflected in particular in their representativeness within State institutions (Parliament and Government). The new Constitution of the Third Republic, adopted in 2016, institutionalizes a minimum quota of 30 per cent for women in Parliament. Even though under-represented, many women now occupy a prominent place in decision-making, political, economic and artistic circles, attesting to significant progress in the status of women in Côte d'Ivoire. These include Akissi Kouamé, the first African woman to be promoted to general in the army; Yolande Doukouré, appointed President of the National Order of Architects in 2014; Christelle Vougo, Head of the prestigious Saakan restaurant; Édith Brou, web influential and cyber-activist... The fact remains that while women occupy an increasingly important place in the public space, in the private sphere, the loving wife and mother devoted to her husband and children continues to embody Epinal's image of the ideal woman, for both men and women.
Forced marriage and excision
Nevertheless, the marked improvement in the status of women, especially in the cities, is far from being the norm, and certain questionable, even condemnable, traditional practices such as forced marriage or excision are still practised today, particularly in certain regions of the west and north, with sometimes irreversible social and medical consequences. According to the WHO, Côte d'Ivoire is one of the African countries most affected by excision, with 36 to 38 per cent of women between 15 and 49 years of age. Nearly 3 million girls are still subjected to it every year, although genital mutilation has been banned in principle since 1998. It is not uncommon to see young women or mother-daughters fleeing their homes to escape the practice. Variations in statistics depend on ethnic group and level of education rather than rural or urban conditions. However, there has been a marked decline in the 0-14 age group. In the north and north-west, where it is most prevalent, prevalence is 73 per cent, but only 11 per cent among 0-14 year-olds.
