Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0030/00303.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00303}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Cote d'Ivoire
Chapter 4B.   Voltaic Groups of the Northern Ivory Coast}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{T.D. Roberts, Donald M. Bouton, Irving Kaplan, Barbara Lent, Charles Townsend, Neda A. Walpole}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{ivory
coast
groups
dioula
senoufo
languages
group
peoples
political
rda
see
tables
}
$Date{1973}
$Log{See Table 2.*0030301.tab
}
Title:       Cote d'Ivoire
Book:        Area Handbook for Ivory Coast
Author:      T.D. Roberts, Donald M. Bouton, Irving Kaplan, Barbara Lent, Charles Townsend, Neda A. Walpole
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 4B.   Voltaic Groups of the Northern Ivory Coast

     The Voltaic peoples extend over the northern Ivory Coast, northern Ghana
and Upper Volta, all south of the Niger River. As a whole, they share many
cultural features with and have an economy similar to that of the Mandingo
peoples who live to their west and northwest. They probably borrowed some
basic elements of the Sudanic (Mandingo) agricultural civilization at an early
date. By and large, however, they have not played the same role in the
political history of the Western Sudan as the Mandingo.

     The Voltaic family can in fact be divided into two main layers, the
Mossi-Gurma to the north and northeast, who built large empires, and a
grouping to the south and southwest, which includes the Bobo, the Senoufo, the
Gourounsi, the Koulango and the Lobi. The two major groups in the Ivory Coast,
the Senoufo and the Koulango, as well as the Lobi, a few of whom are found in
the northeastern tip of the Ivory Coast, are all partially matrilineal in
inheritance. Although patrilocal residence is increasingly common today,
residence with a maternal uncle is known and approved, and may have been the
earlier prescribed pattern (see ch. 5, Family). Others consider it the
consequence of the contact of the southern Voltaic group with the matrilineal
Akan peoples southeast of them.

     The Voltaic peoples are basically farmers, but almost all keep some
cattle-for sacrifices, for marriage payments, for hides and manure, but seldom
for milk. Trade has long been well-developed, but normally commerce is in the
hands of Mandingo groups-Dioula in the case of the northern Ivory Coast.
Cannibalism was unknown historically. Slavery was widespread, but otherwise
societies tended to be egalitarian. Political organization is linked to the
religious deification of the earth. The priest of the land is normally the
head of the lineage which first occupied the land. He propitiates the gods at
times of planting and harvest, particularly if any blood has been shed.
Political integration beyond the level of villages or small districts is not a
feature of those Voltaic peoples living in the Ivory Coast, although
monarchical states were developed in Upper Volta and northern Ghana, most
notably among the Mossi.

Senoufo

     The Senoufo live in the north-center of the Ivory Coast, their principal
center being Korhogo. They are also found in Mali and Upper Volta. The Senoufo
group seems in fact to have many divisions. It is arguable whether they had
any collective name for themselves. Some say they called themselves Seniambele
(sing., Senamana). Senoufo, which is the name now generally accepted, is in
origin a Dioula word meaning "those who speak Sene" or Siena. The Tagouana and
Djimini, who lived just north of the Baoule and who are sometimes listed as
separate groups, might better be considered the southern division of the
Senoufo. Their languages are but dialects of the Senoufo dialect cluster.

     The Senoufo seem to be composed of a local, indigenous people and various
peoples from the Sudanic regions who came to the area later and mixed with the
older group. This history may explain certain of the dualities of present-day
Senoufo politico-religious structures. The Senoufo have a number of legends of
origin which justify their land rights, many of which involve a mythical
ancestor named Nangui or Nengue, who left Kong to seek peace in the west and
crossed the Bandama River to found Korhogo, which means "heritage." Beginning
in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the Dioula began to infiltrate into
this area of the Ivory Coast and from then on the history of the two peoples
is interlinked in many ways. Although many Senoufo chiefs have been
"Dioulaized" or Islamized, the mass of the population has remained resistant
to Islam. In the late nineteenth century, Senoufo country was subjected to
invasion by Samory, the Mandingo warrior-chief, and was the scene of much
destruction and complicated shifting of alliances, finally ended by French
pacification.

     The Senoufo are farmers whose close relation to the land is reflected in
much of their ritual. The basis of the social structure is the lineage, known
as the narigba, over whom the authority of the lineage head is very great.
Each family had a mythical ancestor, often identified with an animal who was
said to have aided him. The animal is the basis of a taboo, and members of the
lineage are forbidden to eat or kill it. Cohesion between family units in the
village was historically assured by the poro (or lo), age-graded secret
societies which cut across lineages and grouped young men, after an
appropriate initiation, into units engaged in practical work. A higher
chieftaincy was originally borrowed from the Mandingo. Because it was
reinforced by the French, the authority of these chiefs is contested. The
Senoufo economy has remained largely untouched by modern developments, but
some Senoufo now emigrate to the southern Ivory Coast.

Koulango

     Living in the northeastern part of the Ivory Coast around Bondoukou and
Bouna, they number under 50,000, even including the related Loro and other
groups. They are related to the Lobi, a few of whom may be found in the Ivory
Coast. They are also known as the Pakhalla, which is their Dioula name. The
Akan peoples call them N'Gora or N'Goramfo.

     The Koulango arrived from the east many centuries ago. They claim to have
come from Yendi in present-day Ghana, but this is not certain. They came as
small, peaceful groups and settled in their present area with the assent of
the peoples who then had the religious and political rights over the land.
Small vestiges of these older groups-including Nafana (Senoufo), G'bin, Gouro,
Huela, Noumou, Ligbi, Vei, Degha, Siti and Gbanian-still live among the
Koulango.

     They are the first-known inhabitants of Bondoukou, but were conquered by
the Abron several centuries ago and remained under their dominance until the
French conquest. Also Dioula merchants came to settle in this region in the
fifteenth century. The Dioula brought Islam and succeeded in converting most
of the groups, but the Koulango continue to adhere to their traditional
religion and are resistant to Islam.

     Political authority scarcely exists above the village level. Each village
has a civil and a religious chief. The Abron installed district chiefs, but
they were not Koulango.

Mandingo Groups of the Ivory Coast

     It has recently been suggested that the Mandingo peoples of the western
Sudan were one of four great creative world civilizations which evolved an
agricultural complex several thousand years ago. Whether this is true or not,
they assumed cultural leadership in West Africa at an early date. Traders and
artisans as well as cultivators, they developed highly complex political
structures and two veritable empires, the Soninke Empire of Ghana, which dates
from about the fourth to the thirteenth century (although it began to crumble
in the eleventh), and the Malinke Empire of Mali, existing between the
thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries. The capitals and core areas of both
empires were in the present-day Republic of Mali. Part of the Northern Ivory
Coast probably fell under the sway of at least the empire of Mali. About 1670,
the subject Bambara threw off the rule of the much-diminished state of the
Malinke and established their own independent states. In the nineteenth
century, the Fulani expansion destroyed these Bambara states and a new Malinke
conqueror, Samory, arose.

     The Mandingo cultures are basically agricultural, but animal husbandry
plays an important role in the economy. Markets and commerce, which are in the
hands of the Dioula, are extensive. Descent is patrilineal. Marriage involves
a bride price.

     The three principal Mandingo groups to be found in the Ivory Coast are in
the Malinke, also to be found in neighboring Guinea and Mali; the Bambara, a
very small group, the bulk of whose compatriots are in Mali; and the Dioula,
who have their own area around Kong but who are also widely dispersed
throughout the Ivory Coast. Although none of these three groups retains its
ancient hierarchical structure, they all have a sort of hereditary nobility as
well as various despised castes of artisans and griots (court musicians). Both
the Malinke and the Bambara have age-classes for both sexes, which engage in
communal labor.

     No longer is it easy to tell the three groups apart. They speak the same
language and have the same type of social organization and cultural
characteristics. They differ in their history, in their habitat and above all
in their religion. The Bambara are pagan, the Malinke semi-Moslem, and the
Dioula wholly Moslem-indeed the great propagators of the faith in the Ivory
Coast. Many Bambara on becoming Moslem call themselves Dioula. By contrast
Moslems often call all non-Moslem Soudanese Bambara. Thus the Dioula of
Sikasso call the Senoufo Bambara, and the Dioula of Odienne call the
non-Moslem Malinke Bambara. Dioula refuse to be called Bambara in the south
because "we are Moslems." It seems that some Moslem Malinke emigrating outside
their home areas elsewhere in the Ivory Coast are classed as Dioula.
Nevertheless, in urban areas, the ethnic distinction seems to be vigorously
maintained although the three groups are, in Abidjan, approximately equal in
size, in education (with the Dioulas in slight advantage) and in occupational
placement. Furthermore, in the capital at least, the religious distinction
seems to have disappeared, as 97 percent of the Bambara as well as of the
Malinke and Dioula were recorded as Moslem in 1955. Another complication in
distinguishing the Dioula involves the word dioula, which is used as a noun
meaning "traveling merchant." It often appears on passports as an
identification of occupation. Thus, by both Africans and Europeans, it may be
applied to any Islamized merchant from the savanna.

     The true Dioula are those from the region of Kong, a city they founded in
the tenth century. Here in the midst of Senoufo country, they are no longer
considered strangers. Kong was a small empire, a trading center between forest
and savanna. It was for many centuries regarded throughout the West African
forest as a somewhat mystical realm, a land of riches. From Kong went forth
the Dioula as a traveling merchant. He installed himself in Bondoukou by the
fifteenth century and steadily throughout the southern Ivory Coast during the
twentieth century. Kong itself was totally destroyed by Samory in the
course of one of his campaigns. As a general proposition about the Dioula, one
might say that wherever the Dioula found themselves among peaceful workers
with a weak political organization, such as the Senoufo, they showed
themselves to be conquering warriors and established kingdoms, such as Kong.
Where, by contrast, they encountered a warrior race with a developed political
structure, such as the Abron in Bondoukou, they accepted this structure and
engaged in commerce.

     This was to be their pattern, as well, in the southern Ivory Coast in the
twentieth century, and they pushed as hard as the indigenous population would
allow. There it has not been a question of military conquest but of purchase
of land, and the Dioula have shown themselves to be assiduous in pursuing all
possibilities in this realm. The Dioula in the south, even when he is an
agricultural laborer, is oriented to the town, to commerce and, nowadays, to
administration. The Dioula is in this sense a natural entrepreneur for whom
the menial agricultural tasks which he initially undertakes as an immigrant
are only a way-station to a more established, more respectable and a more
prosperous profession.

Foreign Minority Groups

     Until the Nationality Code was promulgated in late 1961, it was difficult
to say who was a foreigner in the Ivory Coast. Some ethnic groups,
particularly the Mandingo and the Senoufo, cross national borders. For most of
the twentieth century, the Ivory Coast was a part of the Federation of French
West Africa (Afrique Occidentale Francaise-AOF). An "AOF-ien" was not
considered a foreigner, whereas someone from British West Africa (who was
called an "Anglais") was. This has changed in recent years with independence
and the growth of Ivory Coast nationalism. Ivory Coast law now distinguishes
strictly between aliens and nationals, the status being determined generally
by the nationality of the parents (jus sanguinis). Ivory Coast nationality may
be acquired by naturalization, but for ardent nationalists, even a Dioula in
the south is a foreigner, in the sense that he is considered an outsider.

     In 1962, the absence of a proper census and of full registration of civil
status made it impossible to know how many foreigners there were. Based on the
Abidjan census of 1955, one could guess that as many as one-third of the
Africans living in this center of administration, commerce and industry came
from foreign minority groups, and one-quarter were born outside the Ivory
Coast. What nationality they would claim or be granted, with the various West
African states independent, was another question.

Mossi

     This is the largest single foreign minority group. They are a Voltaic
people living in Upper Volta. The Mossi kingdom, headed by the Morho-Naba or
Emperor, whose capital is Ouagadougou, capital as well of Upper Volta, is
still functioning as a complex hierarchical structure to which the Mossi are
strongly attached. In many cases, Mossi in other lands have chiefs who are in
a sense invested by and responsible to the Morho-Naba. The Mossi, considered
docile, are heavily recruited and preferred as agricultural labor. They are,
however, a warrior people and are known to more ferocious than forest peoples
in cases of racial incidents. The Ivory Coast, along with Ghana, is one of the
two major outlets for Mossi migrant labor. The poverty of their home country
has led to a regularized pattern of migration which, however, is normally only
temporary. Mossi tend to return home after earning a certain amount of money.
Often the period of stay in the Ivory Coast is no more than two years. The
pattern of Mossi migration to the Ivory Coast is not unconnected with the
political ties between the two countries.

Forest Peoples

     Several kinds of foreign forest peoples live in the Ivory Coast. One is
an educated class of clerks, administrators and educators. In the early days
of French rule, some clerks from the Gold Coast were imported. This ceased
about the time of the first world war. Later a considerable number of educated
Dahomeans, a category which also included Togolese, were widely used in
government administration, the missions and commercial houses. Riots directed
against this group in 1958 led to their almost total repatriation. A number of
Senegalese have been established for from 20 to 30 years in the Ivory Coast.
Most of these are Wolof, who are Moslems and merchants. There are also a
number of fishermen from neighboring countries: Krou from Liberia, Fanti and
Ewe from Ghana. Some Fanti and Ewe have become urban dwellers.

Other Savanna Peoples

     Among the various Voltaic groups other than the Mossi are the Bobo, which
is the largest group; the Gourounsi; and the Dogon, who are mostly
agricultural laborers. There are a small number of Moor merchants and some
Hausa merchants, although for the most part the Hausa do not engage in
commerce further west than Ghana. Some Djerma (from Niger) engage in menial
labor on a basis similar to that of the Mossi. The Hausa and the Djerma tend
to be Moslems. Many savanna peoples, even if pagans, assert that they are
Moslems when in the southern Ivory Coast and live in the dioulakro (the
residential area of the Dioula). Scattered throughout the Ivory Coast, but
especially in the north, are a number of Peul (Fulani), who are often
shepherds of flocks belonging to Mandingo or Voltaic peoples. Physically, many
of the pastoral Peul are not Negroid.

Lebanese and Syrians

     There is a small merchant community in the larger towns. The majority
are Christians and the rest Moslems. Most are Lebanese. Because of links with
colleagues throughout West Africa, they are a significant economic group but
are less conspicuous in the Ivory Coast than elsewhere in West Africa. Their
position has occasionally been challenged but not seriously. They engage in
moneylending as well as wholesaling.

Europeans

     Most Europeans living in the Ivory Coast are French. There are well over
10,000 engaged in government service, education, missions and commercial
houses. There are also some petits francais who are clerks in retail stores
catering largely to French clientele, mechanics and other skilled workers.
Many of them come with their families, and their children attend school in the
Ivory Coast. White teenagers on motorcycles in Abidjan are not an unknown
sight.

     Although most Europeans have high social status, the role of the petit
francais is ambiguous. Although the government is not explicitly pushing
Africanization of the civil service, it is to be expected that Europeans will
disappear from government offices in the coming years. There still remains a
handful of "colonists"-men who have made their career in the Ivory Coast as
planters, merchants, lawyers and doctors. Until recently, this group played an
active part in the political life of the Ivory Coast, at first in opposition
to, later in cooperation with, the governing political party, the African
Democratic Rally (Rassemblement Democratique Africain-RDA). There are also
some Belgians, Swiss, Spaniards, Haitians, Americans, and an increasingly
large diplomatic corps.

Major Languages

     According to the early work of Maurice Delafosse, the Ivory Coast has
over 60 different languages. This is probably the highest per capita rate of
any West African country and perhaps even the highest absolute figure (with
the possible exception of Nigeria). All the African languages spoken are
classified in Greenberg's Niger-Congo language family. Of the eight major
branches of that family, which are only distantly related to each other, four
are represented in the Ivory Coast: Atlantic, Mandingo, Voltaic (or Gur), and
Kwa (see table 2). The distribution of these four branches corresponds
closely, but not exactly, with the four cultural regions. Hence languages,
such as Senoufo, Mande, Abron, Nzima and Krou, cross political borders.

     Agni, Baoule, Senoufo and Malinke-Bambara-Dioula are the languages spoken
by the largest single groups, the first two in the southeast, the latter two
in the north. The variant of Malinke-Bambara-Dioula, known as Kangbe, has
become a lingua-franca in southern trading areas. Probably no single language
is spoken by more than a half-million speakers in the Ivory Coast. However,
the Agni and Baoule dialects are to some extent mutually intelligible.

     Most of the languages correspond to the ethnic group of the same name.
However, where groups lie on the boundary of two cultural circles, their
language may belong to the neighboring linguistic group. Because in many cases
those languages have been inadequately studied, linguists often disagree about
the exact membership of the language. The Krou languages reflect the same
confusion as does the Krou ethnographic picture. The Vai languages of the
Mande-tan group seem to link northeast Ivory Coast archaic groups with some in
Liberia far to the west. The Lagoon languages show less relationship to each
other than do the other groups, and recent studies have linked Adioukrou,
formerly thought a lagoon language and spoken by a Lagoon Cluster people, to
languages of the Atlantic group whose major center is far to the west of the
Ivory Coast.

     French is spoken throughout the Ivory Coast. All schools are conducted
from the beginning in French, and the quality of spoken and written French
among the educated is quite high. It is also spoken by many others, especially
in urban centers and by men. Written material is almost exclusively available
in French, which is the only official language and the language of
administration and the National Assembly.

     Biblical texts, however, are available in Agni, Baoule, Alladian, Ebrie,
Attie, Dida, Krahn, Malinke and Adioukrou. The government has in recent years
issued some fundamental educational material written in African languages,
using an adapted Latin phonetic script. There are no vernacular newspapers,
but there are vernacular radio broadcasts and a flourishing popular theater in
African languages, particularly Agni and Baoule.

     Arabic is taught in the Koranic schools, but its use is mainly among the
Lebanese and Syrians. Other African languages in use are Mossi and Gourounsi
(of the Voltaic group), Fanti (of the Akan subgroup of the Kwa), Ewe and Fon
(both Kwa) and Wolof (an Atlantic language). These are spoken principally by
persons of these ethnic groups among themselves.

     Most Africans are multilingual, even in the rural areas, especially if
these areas are involved in the money economy or are the site of heterogeneous
populations. It is not uncommon to meet Africans who can speak or understand
five or six languages, including French. English is rare, even among the most
educated, although the government is presently encouraging its study in
secondary schools.

Government Ethnic Policy

     The Ivory Coast Government considers racism to be one of its most serious
internal problems. The government and the RDA have often pointed to the
particular difficulties of the Ivory Coast because of its multiplicity of
groups.

     Historically, the multiplicity was so extreme that the RDA, when it was
organizing as an opposition party against French colonial rule, felt forced
to organize its basic village or town-quarter units not on a geographic basis
but on an ethnic basis, thus the "Baoule committee of the RDA in a given
town." This distinguishes the RDA of the Ivory Coast from all other sections
in Africa. In 1959 the Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast and Secretary-General
of the RDA recognized this as a serious error and urged the reorganization of
the RDA on a geographic basis. That same year, the newly founded youth section
of the RDA, the Jeunesse Rassemblement Democratique Africain de la Cote
d'Ivoire (JRDACI), passed resolutions urging the same.

[See Table 2.: Division of Languages in the Ivory Coast]

     In the period of struggles between the RDA and the French authorities,
the latter encouraged political parties in opposition to the RDA, based
around ethnic ties-among the Agni, the Bete, the southwest forest groups, the
northern groups. One of the themes of these groups was a protest against
Baoule domination of the RDA: Houphouet-Boigny, Auguste Denise and other top
leaders of the RDA are Baoule. Although with the triumph of the RDA these
French-encouraged parties disappeared and were absorbed into the RDA, internal
politics of the RDA came to revolve in part around ethnic issues, particularly
the sharp 1959 debates in the party which were interpreted by some as a
coalition of various non-Baoule groups against the Baoule. Also in 1958 and
1959 were the anti-Dahomean riots organized by a group of Ivory Coast workers
called the Ligue des Originaires de la Cote d'Ivoire and the attempted
secession by the King of Sanwi.

     The government is attempting by a policy of judicious dosage in its
political organs to overcome the mutual suspicions of various indigenous
groups. There is, however, an increasing exclusion from internal political
power of alien Africans and Frenchmen. They have been virtually eliminated
from the National Assembly and the government, although Africans of long
residence in the Ivory Coast and long history of devotion to the RDA are used
in the diplomatic corps. Frenchmen are still members of the Economic and
Social Council. The government announced in 1962 that in the future tattoos,
ritual scars and filed teeth are forbidden by law. Severe punishments are
provided. The announced objective of the measure is to strengthen
national unity by suppressing tribal differences.

     The groups in which men classify themselves in the Ivory Coast are
evolving. Once men were of a given tribe and others were strangers. In the
colonial era, men evolved wider categories-African categories, such as
forest men versus savanna men, or world categories, such as black men versus
white men. In recent years, still another category has come into existence,
nationalist ones, such as Africans versus Europeans, and more particularly in
the Ivory Coast, Ivory Coasters versus foreigners. None of these
classifications exist to the exclusion of the others, and the appropriate
classifications are a matter of political debate. Nevertheless, one can see a
tandem strengthening of two categorizations, in liaison with and opposition to
each other. Men are very conscious today of being from a given ethnic group
though the unit may be enlarged and redefined from 20 years ago. Men are also
increasingly conscious of being Ivory Coasters. The politics of the Ivory
Coast is an attempt to keep these two self-categorizations in balance.