CHAPITRE 01People

The Four Cultural Worlds

How 60-plus ethnic groups fall into four families

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Côte d'Ivoire has more than 60 ethnic groups, which scholars usually group into four cultural worlds: the Akan of the south-east and centre (Baoulé, Agni, N'zima and others), the Kru of the south-west (Bété, Dida, Wè and others), the Mandé of the north and west (Malinké/Dioula in the north; Dan/Yacouba and Gouro in the west), and the Gur or Voltaic peoples of the north (Senufo, Lobi, Koulango).

The borders were drawn by colonisers, but the peoples cross them: the Akan extend into Ghana, the Mandé into Mali and Guinea, the Senufo into Burkina Faso and Mali. To understand an object, first ask which cultural world it belongs to, not whether it is 'Ivorian'.

CE QUE VOUS VERREZ · What you will see

In one country, masks from the south are finely realistic, carvings from the north are abstract and powerful, and masks from the west are dark and mysterious. One person is called Ouattara, another Kouassi, another Gbagbo.

POURQUOI · So what

This map is the starting point for reading everything else. Masks, cloth, music, festivals, surnames and even the political map can first be placed in one of these four worlds.

SAVOIR-FAIRE · How to use it

A name often hints at where someone comes from. Day names such as Kouassi, Kouadio or Yao usually come from the Akan; Ouattara, Coulibaly, Traoré and Diabaté usually from the Mandé/Dioula north. Bring it up lightly, out of curiosity, and never use it as a label.

Asian and European parallelsLike Taiwan's Hoklo, Hakka, post-1949 and Indigenous communities: one country, several languages, cuisines and rituals, each connected across the sea or a border to somewhere else.