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West Africa, Malta and the Balkans in 1999

IVORY COAST

Bec
2004-09-18 19:47:27

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of power... when there's no opposition.

After independence, Houphouët-Boigny, who reigned with an iron hand for more than two decades before his death in 1993, was rewarded by the French with generous grants and technical assistance for having blocked Senghor's project of a West African Federation. The French community grew from 10 000 to 50 000, most of them teachers and advisors, and Boigny's policy of collaboration with the former colonial power paid off handsomely with the Ivory Coast enjoying the highest growth rate, (10%), in Africa during the '60's and '70's. (oil-exporting countries excluded). A world recession and a severe drought in the early '80's brought the economy to a standstill with an annual growth of less than half a percent from 1985 to 1995 but now, things are looking up once again.

Here is Louis Varre in front of the Hotel Le Stop which he manages for Oswald Loosli whom I had met in Conakry. By a remarkable coincidence it turned out that Louis was the brother-in-law of René-Yvon Brancart, a high-ranking ivoirian civil servant that I had met here on business 27 years earlier.

It was a real joy and pleasure to see René-Yvon after such a long time. We had a lot to exchange on the course of events during the intervening years so the three of us went out on the town and had a ball until the small hours of the morning (I slept most of the following day!).

Grand Bassam
After recuperating from my nocturnal excesses, I took a taxi brousse on the autoroute not far from my hotel for a day trip to Grand Bassam which had been the capital during the first years of the colony.

High-quality masks and wood carvings along with gold jewelry and textiles are specialties not to be missed by visitors of the Ivory Coast. This shop in touristy Grand Bassam was expensive but it had some superb museum quality pieces.

Grand ...