Travel Guide Lataha

The small town of Lataha, located 7 km from Korhogo, is known as the cradle of the Boloye (or Bolohi), a sacred Senoufo dance practiced by the initiates, also known as the "dance of the panther men", because the dancers' costume imitates the fur of the feline. Originally a children's dance, it would have been taken up and improved upon by adults before spreading to other localities in the Far North to eventually become an essential component of the Poro. The dance and the sacred tradition in general was then exported to other Senufo villages throughout the north of Côte d'Ivoire.A symbolic representation of this school of life, it restores the Spartan harshness of the rites and trainings to which the young initiates are subjected. The dancers each belong to a different colobele (which could be likened to a kind of promotion of young people who have completed their training at the same time), and compete in skill to show their abilities. While Boloye was originally practiced only at night during funeral ceremonies, it is nowadays danced in various circumstances such as induction ceremonies and popular festivities. More exceptionally, it can also be performed occasionally at the request of farmers to deliver rain, save food crops from drought and thus preserve the village from famine, i.e. those that suffer most from drought: millet, maize, rice, but also groundnut, sorghum and yam. The orchestra accompanying the dancers (a troupe of two to five children, usually between 8 and 15 years of age) consists of gourds ("bolons" in the Senoufo language) to which skin strings and rattles are attached. The choreography consists of lively movements, dazzling sequences of contortions, jumps and acrobatics on the legs and hands, which reproduce those of the panther, the sacred animal of the Senoufo pantheon. Only initiates can play Boloye instruments or perform the sacred dance, dressed in the costume of a panther man. We advise you to attend if you have the opportunity. From a more pragmatic point of view (although one is always in dialogue with the heavens), near Lataha there is an imposing granite massif offering a sumptuous panorama of the surroundings. Its ascent is steeper than Mount Korhogo, but once you get to the top you may not want to come back down as the view is breathtaking.