CHAPITRE 10Faith

The Religious Map

A Muslim north, a Christian south, and living traditions

✓ Verified · 2 sources

Islam predominates in the north, and Catholicism, Protestantism and evangelical churches in the south, alongside home-grown faiths such as the Harrist Church, which grew from the prophet William Wadé Harris's coastal preaching in the 1910s. Traditional beliefs and ancestral rites coexist with all of them.

Islam arrived along the northern trade routes, Christianity landed on the coast with colonisation and mission schools, and the two met in the centre.

CE QUE VOUS VERREZ · What you will see

Dawn in the north brings the call to prayer; churches in the south are full on Sundays; Harrist believers in white gather by the sea; many Christian families still honour their ancestors.

POURQUOI · So what

Most of the time faiths coexist peacefully; interfaith marriages and visits during each other's festivals are common. Yet in times of political mobilisation, religion has also been used as a dividing line.

SAVOIR-FAIRE · How to use it

Adjust invitations during Ramadan, dress more conservatively when visiting the north, and at the Yamoussoukro basilica talk about architecture rather than faith. All of this is part of good taste.

Asian and European parallelsLike religious life in Taiwan: Buddhism, Taoism, folk religion and Christianity side by side, often blended in daily practice.