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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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Bassam is now just a nostalgic relic of its heyday as capital of the colony of the end to of the 19th century.

Most of it is run-down and decrepit but some of the finer buildings have been maintained as tourist attractions.

Naturally, where tourists flock there are also tourist souvenir shops like these along the road I took to get back to to Abidjan.

Yamoussoukro
Here is the incredible Basilica of Our Lady of Peace built by Houphouët-Boigny to reward Yamoussoukro for having been the birthplace of the "Father of the Nation". Largely copied on St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican it was erected in three years at a cost of more than 300 million dollars of state funds.

The Yamoussoukro Mosque was also built with public funds, probably to placate the Muslim 20 percent of the population about the huge amounts spent on the Basilica and on the nearby Presidential Palace where the great leader is now buried.

Boigny's grandiose monuments are unproductive, they are expensive to maintain and they stand out like alien entities in this African town but they draw little criticism from the people who seem to accept that their leaders have difficulty in distinguishing between public funds and their own private holdings.

One gentleman with whom I discussed the Basilica finally admitted that the money might have been better spent on roads, hospitals and schools but he countered that "The old man was a very generous person for he built a lot of concrete huts to replace peasant's straw shacks". Evidently, he did not see the difference either...

One day was enough to visit what Yamoussoukro had to offer. I stayed at the Akwaba (Welcome) Inn that you can see on the right across the lagoon and left on the following day by minibus for Korhogo further north.

Korhogo
I had a nice room with private bath at the "Hôtel du Centre" for only seven dollars. I felt much more at ease in Korhogo than in Yamoussoukro where the evidence of lavish waste got on my nerves.

I found the Senoufo people very friendly. Here I am sharing an excellent "kedjenou" chicken and "attiéké" dinner with Moussa, the owner of the "maquis" named after her. Beer came in one liter bottles it was good and not expensive.

The Senoufo are good artisans, they do textiles and iron forgings but their real specialty is wood carving. A whole district of the town is devoted to wood carving. Senoufo sculptures and masks can be found all over West Africa.

I had a good fortune to be introduced to the artist Kolo Coulibaly by his cousin Madou Coulibaly whom I had met on the bus from Yamoussoukro. Kolo travels regularly to Europe and sometimes to the USA to do large commissioned sculptures on the premises of his customers most of which are churches of various denominations. Kolo is Animist but you would swear that his magnificent crucified Christs have been inspired by a profound faith. He is is leaning on his own handiwork representing a "calao" which is a mythical bird revered as the protector of homes and villages. I would have loved to have it for my entrance hall but it would cost me more to ship than to buy it. That is why Kolo travels to do commissions.

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