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View all search results40 years on, Ivory Coast’s capital struggles to make its mark
City officials now aim to build up an economic base beyond tourism, with plans for an industrial zone that could attract more businesses.
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T
he gleaming white basilica that overlooks Yamoussoukro symbolizes the ambitions of a modern capital of Ivory Coast, a goal that still feels out of reach 40 years since being carved out of the tropical countryside.
With smooth wide avenues, manicured parks and imposing 1970s concrete buildings, Yamoussoukro is unique in the Ivory Coast, and a world away from the sprawl of Abidjan, the country's economic and cultural heart.
It was the dream of the first postcolonial president, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who wanted to turn the village of his birth, N'Gokro, into the political center. The decree was issued on March 21, 1983.
Gradually the city emerged and was renamed in honor of Yamousso, a queen of the regional Baoule ethnic group and a great-aunt of the man revered as "FHB".
"Above all, Felix Houphouet-Boigny wanted to correct the colonial legacy and not have everything concentrated in a single town," said Jean-Noel Loucou, director of the former leader's namesake peace research institute in Yamoussoukro.
"The idea in creating this capital was to demonstrate African ingenuity with a distinctive architecture [...] and with plenty of green space," he told AFP.
Four decades later, the former agricultural village is home to 300,000 people but few national institutions; only the Senate and the national chamber of traditional chiefs and kings have been transferred to the city.
