COTE D'IVOIRE, HISTORY OF

history of the area from prehistoric and ancient times to the present. Additional reading T.D. Roberts et al., Area Handbook for Ivory Coast, 2nd ed. (1973), provides a general overview. Raymond Borremans, Le Grand Dictionnaire encyclopdique de la Cte d'Ivoire (1986 ), is more current. Robert J. Mundt, Historical Dictionary of the Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) (1987), a valuable reference work, has an extensive bibliography. Jean-Nol Loucou, Histoire de la Cte d'Ivoire, vol. 1, La Formation des peuples (1984), presents the origin and development of the country's major ethnic groups. F.J. Amon D'Aby, La Cte d'Ivoire dans la cit africaine (1951), is a pioneering and still valuable survey. Nancy Ellen Lawler The economy Cte d'Ivoire has a good financial reputation, which it maintained in the 1980s when the government agreed to reschedule its debt over a period from 1993 to 2002, including sums that had benefited from earlier agreements. Ivoirian policy is fundamentally liberal, and investments are welcomed through tax exemptions and legal protection against nationalization. Increased privatization became government policy in the mid-1980s, mainly owing to the fact that the government had participated in too many specialized undertakings in trying to diversify the economy. Previous plans have been revised with the aim of securing self-sufficiency in food and obtaining equipment in exchange for exports rather than by borrowing. In the long run, success will depend on avoiding luxuries and expanding the local market. Resources Cte d'Ivoire is primarily noted for its forest resources; it is a major exporter of tropical wood, but timber now follows cocoa and coffee as an export from one of the more developed western African economies. Mineral resources are rather scanty, but offshore petroleum reserves are being exploited. The land Relief The ground rises constantly as it recedes from the coast, and the northern half of the country consists of high savanna lying mostly 1,000 feet (300 metres) above sea level. Most of the western border with Liberia and Guinea is shaped by mountain ranges, whose highest point is Mount Nimba (5,748 feet [1,752 metres]), which is situated where the borders of the three countries meet. One of four natural regions, the coastal fringe consists of a strip of land, no more than 40 miles wide, studded with lagoons on its eastern half. Access from the sea is made difficult by the surf and by a long submarine sandbar. Behind the coastal fringe lies the equatorial forest zone that, until a century ago, formed a continuous area more than 125 miles wide. It has now been reduced to an area roughly triangular in shape, with the apex lying a little to the north of Abidjan and with its base lying along the Liberian border. The cultivated forest zone, which lies to the east of this triangle, consists of forest land that has been partly cleared for plantations, especially along the Ghana border and in the area around Bouak. The fourth region, the northern savanna, consists of a sparsely populated plateau, offering open ground favourable for stock breeding. About 4,500 square miles in this region have been set aside to form the Komo (Como) National Park. Drainage Apart from the Cavalla River, which forms most of the border with Liberia, major rivers from west to east are the Sassandra, the Bandama, and the Komo, all of which drain southward into the Gulf of Guinea. Because all are broken by numerous falls and rapids, their value for transportation is minimal. The people Ethnic groups There are more than 60 tribes, traditionally independent from each other, though larger groups among them may be recognized on the basis of cultural unity. Each one of these groups has tribal affiliations with larger groups living outside the borders of the republic. Thus the Baule, as well as other peoples living east of the Bandama River, are affiliated with the Akan group of Ghana. The lagoon fishermen farther south also have tribal brothers belonging to the same Akan group. The forest people west of the Bandama belong to the same group as the Kru boatmen of Liberia. In the interior, the Kru group is subdivided into tribes tiny in number but scattered over large areas of the forest and kept together by secret societies. The savanna peoples may be divided into two main groups. The Mande group, which is particularly strong in Mali, is represented by the Malinke farmers and by the Dyula peddlers. The Voltaic group comprises the Senufo as well as the Lobi and Bobo subgroups, who live widely scattered over the northeastern region and across into neighbouring states. Linguistic composition All tribal languages belong to one of three subgroups of the Niger-Congo family: Kwa in the south, Mande in the northwest, and Voltaic in the northeast. A trade language, known as Dyula-Taboussi and akin to the Mande Bambara, is spoken throughout the country by Muslim traders, and franais de Moussa is popular in Abidjan, but the official language is French.