Ivory Coast, known in French as Cote d'Ivoire, is a country in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. Its name comes from the trade in elephant ivory that once flourished on its shores. Blessed with fertile land, it became the world's leading producer of cocoa and one of the most prosperous economies in the region, an era sometimes called the Ivorian miracle, though it has also weathered serious political conflict in more recent decades.
The region was home to a number of African kingdoms and peoples, and in the late nineteenth century it saw the resistance of leaders such as Samori Toure, who built an empire and fought French expansion. France colonised the territory as part of French West Africa and developed its plantations. Independence came in 1960 under Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled for over three decades and presided over a long period of stability and economic growth that stood out in the region.
Ivory Coast rises from a coastline of lagoons and sandy beaches on the Gulf of Guinea, through a belt of dense tropical rainforest, to wooded savanna in the drier north. This range of environments, watered by several rivers, makes the south especially fertile and well suited to the tree crops on which the economy was built. The forests have shrunk considerably as land has been cleared for farming, a pressure that continues to shape the landscape.
The flag of Ivory Coast has three vertical bands of orange, white, and green. The orange is said to represent the savanna lands of the north and the nation's growth, the white peace and unity, and the green the forests of the south and hope for the future. The simple, balanced design, resembling a reversed Irish tricolour, expresses the union of the country's different regions into a single nation.
Ivory Coast is religiously diverse, broadly reflecting its geography and history of migration. Islam is widespread, especially in the north and among communities with roots in the wider Sahel, while Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, is strong in the south and the cities. Traditional African beliefs remain important and are often practised alongside the world faiths. The country's large immigrant population, drawn by its prosperity, has added to this religious variety.
Ivorian cuisine is hearty and rooted in the country's farms and forests. A national favourite is attieke, a side dish of grated, fermented cassava resembling couscous, served with grilled fish or meat. Fufu, made from pounded yam or plantain, is eaten with rich sauces, and kedjenou, a slow-cooked chicken or guinea-fowl stew, is a celebrated speciality. Grilled fish, plantains, and spicy sauces are everyday fare in a varied West African food culture.
Agriculture is the engine of Ivory Coast's economy, and above all it is cocoa: the country is the world's largest producer of cocoa beans, the raw material of chocolate, supplying a large share of the global market. It is also a major grower of coffee, cashews, rubber, and palm oil. This farming wealth, concentrated in the fertile south, built the country's prosperity, though it has also driven deforestation and depends heavily on the labour of farmers and migrants.
The resistance of Samori Toure, French colonisation, and independence in 1960 under Houphouet-Boigny shaped the nation. The decades of stability and growth under his long rule earned the country its reputation for an economic miracle and made it a magnet for migrants from across the region. After his death, however, disputes over national identity and power led to civil conflict in the 2000s, including a serious crisis around a disputed election, before a return to relative stability.
Ivory Coast has a population of around 28 million people, made up of more than sixty ethnic groups and including a very large immigrant community drawn from neighbouring countries by the nation's prosperity. French is the official language, serving as a common tongue across this diversity. The population is concentrated in the south, especially in the sprawling economic capital and port of Abidjan, while the official political capital is the smaller inland city of Yamoussoukro.
