Travel Guide Bondoukou

Located 416 km from Abidjan, Bondoukou is the capital of the administrative region of Gontougo and the capital of the Zanzan country, in the northeast of Côte d'Ivoire. Nicknamed "the city of a thousand mosques" Bondoukou is an important Koranic center and has many mosques. This peaceful city offers the amazing spectacle of multiple minarets overlooking the roofs of the city, nestled in a setting of wooded hills on whose heights nestle several villages koulango. It is reached by a long ribbon of paved road that runs in a straight line to the entrance of the town, unfolding before the eyes of the astonished traveler this unusual panorama to say the least.A former colonial circle, Bondoukou was until 1964 only a large rural town where only the administrative district was developed. This contrasted sharply with the medina, the "traditional city" made up of a multitude of socio-ethnic sub-districts arranged around religious buildings. The medina was built in the Sudanese style, with terraced houses often embellished with battlements and carefully maintained. It was a closed city with four main gates that allowed access only Bondoukou now has nearly 80,000 inhabitants and is home to a "mosaic population" composed of a dozen ethnic groups: Abrons, Koulangos, Malinkés, Lobis, Lorhons, Gbins, Noumous, Agnis Bonas, Agnis Binis, Nafanas, Gorombos. Here they are the so-called "eastern" Malinkés (concentrated in the regions of Kong, Bouna and Bondoukou), as opposed to the so-called "western" Malinkés (the most numerous), mainly present in Séguéla, Touba and Odienné. In accordance with the historical pattern of the city, there are about fifteen sub-neighborhoods, which were created around the large families of the region. In addition to these neighborhoods, which are strongly marked from an ethnic and religious point of view, other neighborhoods with heterogeneous populations have been added in recent years, which are more extensive and have developed around the public infrastructures: these are the Mont Zanzan, Lycée, TP and Camp Militaire neighborhoods.Bondoukou's economic activity is mainly focused on trade and the cultivation of yams, cereals and cashew nuts, which has even supplanted cocoa production in the region. Living to the rhythm of prayers, Bondoukou displays an existence that is both peaceful and dynamic, where all ethnicities and religious obediences live together in perfect harmony. This makes the particularity and the great pride of this exemplary city, which wants to be the image of a dreamed Côte d'Ivoire. Through two emblematic religious buildings, the Cathedral of Saint Odilia and the mosque of the late Imam Koudous, it embodies the peaceful cohabitation of the two most important religions of the world, Christianity and Islam.Although it is marginalized by a large part of public opinion and many Ivorians wrongly consider it as a "land of exile" or a "city at the end of the world", Bondoukou has a charm and attractions that retain the visitor. A "passage" city, a "frontier" city, it presents an architectural and human mix that is both unique and eclectic, which can only intrigue and evoke, in the dusty light of sunset, a city straight out of a Bilal comic book, mixing various architectural and religious influences, lost in the limbo of a time that is neither quite present nor quite past. Among the buildings worthy of interest are, in addition to those officially belonging to the city's tourist heritage, religious buildings that are less formal curiosities, such as the mosques in the Bambarasso, Koko, Limasso and Kamagaya neighborhoods, or the few colonial houses scattered around the traffic circle of the old market and along the central artery that runs through the Koko and Kamagaya neighborhoods. In the late afternoon, enjoy the atmosphere of the market of Mount Zanzan, then lose yourself in the surroundings of the old public garden watched over by its solemn eucalyptus trees, at the same time as the merchants returning to their homes. Then continue the walk through the dirt roads of this lively neighborhood, at the time when schoolchildren and students leave school and get ready to go "to sleep", some playing in the street or the family yard, others in the maquis where the hit of the moment is in the air