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$Unique_ID{bob00313}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Cote d'Ivoire
Chapter 11.   Social Values and Patterns of Living}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{T.D. Roberts, Donald M. Bouton, Irving Kaplan, Barbara Lent, Charles Townsend, Neda A. Walpole}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{agni
values
land
traditional
modern
peoples
new
social
ivory
work}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
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 11.   Social Values and Patterns of Living

     The degree to which there exists a traditional set of values common to
Black Africans and distinct from European values is a matter of much
discussion and debate today among African intellectuals and politicians,
including those of the Ivory Coast. The debate centers around the concept of
"negritude." Sometimes it is asserted that African societies are less
materialistic than European societies, that the spiritual factor is never
missing in African social judgments. To some extent, this is true of African
societies in that, insofar as they were traditional, religious and secular
authority and values were deeply intermingled. Westernization and
modernization are secularizing it, making men more conscious of material
considerations, and placing a higher premium on the search for efficiency and
effectiveness.

     It is also asserted that the values of Black Africa are less
individualistic, that is, more geared to the maintenance of the family and
community. Individualism tends to be a pejorative word, even for many modern
African elites, since for them it refers to a primary concern for the
individual's rather than the society's needs and aspirations.

     Within the broad framework of traditionalism, however, large differences
are possible and indeed exist. Various ethnic groups in the Ivory Coast have
different value systems which vary not only in their content but in their
adaptability and in the pressures that have been placed upon them to change.
Customs have changed in recent times and, in fact, are so constantly changing
that the word "custom" itself has come to mean three quite different things:
ancient rules, daily practice, the decisions of the customary tribunal. The
describers of custom do not always make clear, nor are they always clear
themselves, which of these meanings they are employing. Often, recently
acquired values are seen as old traditions.

     Despite these confusions and the lack of good data, the social values
and patterns of living of the various ethnic groups of the Ivory Coast and
the emerging modern patterns can be described to a limited degree. The
Agni-an Akan group-who have been in contact with Europeans the longest and
are better known than most of the other peoples, best exemplify the social
changes now occurring in the Ivory Coast, and other ethnic groups are often
described by comparison with them (see ch. 4, Ethnic Groups and Languages).

The Traditional

     An Agni is psychologically before all else an aristocrat. He will not
work manually for others, whether European or African, except benevolently.
His manner has been described as disputatious and non-chalant with the airs
of a grand seigneur. He is extremely proud of his culture and will recount
to anyone who is willing to listen the history and ancient traditions of his
people. This is as true of the modern educated Agni as it is of the illiterate
rural peasant. It is this aristocratic pride, linked to the hierarchical
social structure, that makes the Agni reluctant to go hunting or on a trip
unless accompanied by one or several young men to carry his effects; he will
only carry his own gun. This pride also makes him concerned with the beauty of
his house or hut - for a beautiful home is a mark of riches and power - and
with his clothing. For example, an Agni considers it insulting to be
photographed in other than his good clothes.

     Protocol is very developed among the Agni. There are various terms of
address that traditionally must be used. The term of greatest respect, nana
(grandfather), is always used in addressing a chief but is also appropriate
for a notable or an elderly man. The newly arrived must greet first and shake
the hands of all, although this now common practice may be a European import.
Important matters are not discussed until all the formalities are disposed of.

     Although descent among the Agni is matrilineal, an Agni is attached
through the men to a martial tradition which, if remote today, is still a
subject of memory and talk. The royalty which he still maintains is a symbol
of an almost nationalist spirit which developed through the ancient trials of
his people. This martial tradition leads him, along with the other Akan
peoples, to scorn the custom of tribal facial scars and tattooing, albeit the
custom is widespread in West Africa. An Agni associates the facial scar with
captivity because the slaves he bought in the nineteenth century belonged to
groups who were scarred and because his laborers from the savanna region, who
do the work once done by slaves, are scarred.

     The Agni is said to have the temperament of an entrepreneur. Some call
this individualism. He likes to be a planter, to control the free use of his
own time and be the master of his own enterprise. But he finds little
attraction in a solitary rural life and prefers the urban; even in former
times he was oriented to the large village agglomeration. With the profits of
his plantation, he invests in commerce, transport, and the mechanization of
his farms. Before the days of the modern economy, his rhythm of work was not
excessive, but he now plies himself and his laborers more diligently. The
basic rhythm of his life is determined by the cycle of trade. Expenditures
are highest immediately after the sale of crops, and second funeral
celebrations, an Akan custom, are always held at this time.

     The land is central to the traditional value system of the Agni, as it is
to almost every African peasant people. According to them, mere humans, weak
and mobile, do not truly own the land, which is vigorous, equilibrated, quick
to heal its wounds, and are almost in a state of inferiority to it. Man is in
a precarious position and cannot impose his wishes upon the land, but rather
seeks the good will of the land itself. The land, however, belongs to the
people and cannot be alienated, though this does not restrain an Agni from
purchasing the land of others, if they are willing to part with it.

     Traditionally, the Agni had welcomed strangers. The formation of a
foreign quarter in his village had been a source of pride because it meant
the extension of the village. Formerly, however, the influx of strangers had
been moderate, and they had acknowledged Agni social, economic, and political
dominance. With the increasing importance of market crops, the Agni have
sought to extend their acreage-often emphasizing quantity rather than quality
of the land. Two significant social consequences have flowed from this
expansion: debt and a massive influx of non-Agni to help till the land. The
Agni resent the influx but are dependent on it. They dislike the
too-independent strangers, but they must make concessions to them to keep them
on the land. They deplore, for example, the system of abou-san (a form of
share-cropping) which they fear, rightly, will lead to further degeneration of
their title to the land. An Agni is generous to a good worker, but he is
distressed, as well, that the very generosity will only strengthen the worker
economically and make him the equal of, or even superior to, the Agni.

     The traditional rights over land are inheritable but only if maintained
by use. These rights do not permit the proprietor to do damage to his
neighbor's rights. He must respect the right of passage, the collective use of
streams, brooks, and wells and the right of everyone to hunt, fish, and gather
(see ch. 18, Agriculture). The subsoil, as well, belongs to the community, and
the Agni can obtain its use only by paying one-fifth of his profits to the
community. Inheritance, however, is not automatic and may depend on whether
the heir merits the inheritance. The "true Agni" must maintain and enhance the
family fortune, a value highly consonant with modern family business
enterprise; therefore, a good-for-nothing who will squander the family wealth
can by passed over. Despite the traditional acceptance of matrilineal
inheritance, there is usually some enmity toward the inheritor by the sons of
the dead man. The heir's conduct is often criticized behind his back, but the
son must maintain outward respect for him, for "he is my father."

     The Agni attempt to refuse individual landownership is so strong that in
1954 the chiefs of Sanwi edited and codified a land statute in which they
sought to restore such old and dying customs as cooperative land labor and two
days of rest to respect the earth spirits, along with legitimating some modern
additions, such as the institution of a land register, land control office,
and an agricultural improvement office. Despite this conservatism, it is clear
that the introduction of cash crops has seriously weakened some traditional
values.

     Individual land title is beginning to find some justification among the
Agni, since it is necessary in order to get agricultural credit, to avoid
disputes about land boundaries, to obtain reimbursement in case of damage by
others, and to avoid difficulties for one's heirs. The greatest change in
values may be seen in shifts in inheritance patterns, so that sons rather than
matrilineal kin are beginning to inherit. Usually the sons have helped their
fathers in the cultivation of plantations for market crops. That the former
inherit at least some part of the wealth they helped to develop is seen as a
reward for them and serves also to maintain intact the economic values gained
by work.

     Of all the peoples of the Ivory Coast the Agni has had the longest
contact with the Europeans. More than elsewhere, even in the village, he lives
the style of life of a  petty bourgeois European. His shops in the village are
full of European goods. The younger, educated men in the village pay outward
respect to their elders, but behind their back and to the white man, they may
detract. The Agni is outwardly very much evolue. Yet paradoxically, this most
Westernized group in the Ivory Coast is also one of the most traditionalist,
for the Agni is also very Agni. Indeed, the literate Agni are the best
defenders of tradition, recording and expounding their history and customary
law in French publications. Noteworthy in this connection is F. J. Amon
d'Aby, former archivist of the Ivory Coast, now administrator and Agni
intellectual. There is in fact a real reculturation in process which marks the
vigor of the traditional Agni culture.

     Most of the other groups in the southeast Ivory Coast share the basic set
of values of the Agni and are often described by reference to those of the
Agni, The Baoule, having a more audacious history, are said to have greater
vitality. They are said to be more attached to the land and less distant from
the laborers on their plantations. Having lost the centralized monarchic form,
they are less condescending in manners. The evolution of inheritance patterns
has proceeded further among the patrilineal Abbe and the Attie, who have
renounced matrilineal inheritance, than among the more conservative Agni.
The Abbe find it more difficult to deal with strangers, having a less
resilient culture; but they have yielded more to the concept of
land-alienation, and individual land rights have gained much ground among
them. They are less successful than the Agni in getting immigrants to respect
their traditional values. The Abbe, like the Agni, but unlike the Baoule, are
highly resistant to being farm laborers. The Baoule have developed an outlook
which permits of considerable mutual aid among neighboring farmers. The Abbe
are more individualistic than the Baoule and the most xenophobic of the groups
in the southeast. They have a long history of violent resistance to the
French.

     The Aboure have the Agni entrepreneurial spirit in that they also are
considered adventurous. Finally, all these groups hold their Akan neighbors
in Ghana, known as "les Anglais," in high esteem, which in part explains
the taste for English bicycles, beauty products and fashions. The fact that
Kumasi (the Ashanti capital in Ghana) is the cradle of Akan sacredness plays
a significant role here.

     The Agni repugnance for facial scars is not shared by the Lagoon Cluster
peoples (for example, Avikam, Alladian, Autogiro). Nor does it seem to be
shared by the Baoule, among whom facial scars seem to be permitted or
suggested rather than obligatory or definitively identifying.

     Among the southwest forest peoples, there is little of the proud
certainty of being heirs to a high culture. They are conscious of the historic
fact that most of them are peoples who were pushed back into the forest by the
Akan peoples to the east and the Mandingo to the north because their
technological and political organization was inferior to that of the expanding
forces they met. This historic sense of inferiority has been compounded in
modern times by the fact that the peoples of the southeast, in earlier contact
with Europeans and showing an aptitude for modern ways, have advanced much
further on the prestige scale than the southwest forest peoples who are less
Christianized, less educated, and hold lesser occupations. The educated
elite in the southwest is particularly conscious of these failings and is not
proud of its tradition, as are the Agni. Rather they are wont to speak of
their fellow tribesmen as savages, backward, stupid, and dirty. The conflict
of the young with their elders, known today throughout Africa, takes here a
particularly acute form, unmediated by the reculturation process to be seen
among the Agni.

     Among the southwest peoples, the comparatively slight emphasis on money
is a striking contrast to the southeast, where the entrepreneurial spirit has
taken hold. The Akan have the heritage of an old civilization where gold, the
symbol of power, was saved. The forest peoples have a feeble tradition of
saving. One consequence of the lack of emphasis on money and saving is that,
although cash-crop farming has become widespread, there is little attempt to
hire laborers, and such work, even on the larger plantations, is left to
immigrant farmers-Dioula, Baoule, Europeans.

     The first object of money is to have wives, which is the possession
having most direct effect on social prestige. The impact of the money economy
has therefore been first of all to raise the rate of bride prices. Now
excessively high, they reinforce further the conflict of the young with
their elders, who find it difficult to pay the sums. Marriage thus comes late
for the male.

     Late marriage creates a problem in that the male is effectively forbidden
by custom from engaging in subsistence farming, except for the initial
clearing of the land. Subsistence agriculture is the work of the wife. This
traditional division of labor has not been carried over into cash-crop
farming. However, in order to start a small cash-crop plantation, it is the
custom, and perhaps the economic necessity as well, that a man must first
have reaped subsistence crop. Thus, a vicious circle is established, leading
large numbers of young and fit men into semi-idleness. One way some young
men (Ouobe and Yacouba, particularly) have broken out of this circle has
been to emigrate elsewhere to cash-crops farms to earn money with which to
return to enter their own social system.

     There is another way in which the values of the traditional culture keep
the southwest forest peoples from smooth adaptation to a modern plantation
economy. The absence of a political hierarchy in their social structure has
been compensated for by an extensive system of mutual obligations between
families and villages, a system that is expressed through numerous
celebrations. These celebrations involve gift-giving, which has become very
expensive. As with  bride prices, the impact of a money economy has raised the
customary gift prices, so that large sums of liquid cash must be kept
available to meet the emergency occasions that constantly occur. Furthermore,
these celebrations are time-consuming and cannot be postponed. It is
possible that at the height of the harvest season, a family might be required
to spend two or three days in another village celebrating. And at harvest
time, time is money. The network of mutual obligations is very burdensome, but
they are observed. They are, in fact, the basis of social stability. But these
obligations make it difficult for the southwest peoples to compete with
immigrant farmers, who have broken more with hampering traditions, for whom
a wife is less expensive, and who are, in fact, better farmers.

     A Mandingo, and particularly a Dioula, from the northern savanna region,
is a born intermediary. Unlike most other peoples of the Ivory Coast, he
is little attached to the soil. He cultivates without conviction and only
occasionally, as an economic steppingstone. In the past he has been more the
organizer of great states, the military conqueror, and the merchant than
the bearer of artistic, intellectual, or spiritual values. He affects a
considerable disdain for the indigenous populations he exploits. In the sense,
he resembles the Agni. Adoring feasts and sumptuous costumes, he is envied by
his neighbors and is proud of this envy, for he is convinced  that his way
of life is an ideal one.

     A Dioula is much attached to the purity of his line. The descendant of
an unmixed marriage is considered generally superior to a Tabusi (of Dioula
father and stranger mother), but Dioula society claims the paternity of
Tabusi and absorbs them. He shows a strong preference for male children. The
Dioula attaches much importance to his home, which usually is large  in order
to lodge laborers and receive guests. The organization of work on his farms is
familial, like the Baoule, but unlike the Agni or the southwest forest
peoples. He dislikes the abou-san system, as either owner or tenant. As
tenant, he prefers to work for himself and own the land. As owner, he allows
abou-san only if he is alone or if the land is too far away. As a method of
farming, the Dioula finds abou-san less remunerative for the owner, more
subject to fraud and requiring more delicate supervision.

     When a Dioula migrates to the south, he remains attached to his place of
origin in the savanna. There he will contract his marriage, send his children
to meet his family and return to visit his relatives and take them financial
aid, at least once every six years. If the father cannot go, he will send his
wife, his son or his brother. Despite the attachment, he does not return on
retirement, since he has invested in the south, which is his new home if not
his spiritual hearth.

     In general, however, the primary object of the savanna immigrant in the
south is to earn the maximum amount of money possible "in order to return home
without shame." The immigrants generally seek to implant themselves by various
means, legal or not. They refuse to assimilate to southern values and seem to
maintain the identity of their value-systems, although they often adopt new
material habits of food and shelter and create new organizations, such as
young men's societies and cooperatives, in the image of some they have found.
This is true not only of the Dioula but of the other savanna groups (Bobo,
Malinke, Mossi, Djerma) who often live in the Dioula quarters but maintain,
even within them, their own customs and system of social organization.

     The Mossi migrant, unlike the Dioula, refuses to work alone and seeks
employment along with fellow Mossi. His reactions are collective, simple,
violent. He cannot be forced. Employers have learned it is wise to let him
cool off when he says no. Hard workers, they have a reputation for giving
mutual aid in work and are willing to accept difficult work. The employer is
baba (father), to whom outward respect and obedience are due. The Mossi tends
to isolate himself from non-Mossi and to be quite domestic, often returning
home with gifts. Remaining attached to traditional values more than most
migrants, he seeks little upward mobility, except as a foreman over other
Mossi. For him, his migratory status is an interval, a bit painful, almost an
initiation.

     A Senoufo is known for his conservative attachment to peasant values and
his traditional social organization. He is resistant to the modernization of
his agricultural techniques and has been comparatively little touched by the
modern economic system. He practices facial scarification, except for the
Moslems among them, but this has less a distinguishing function than an
esthetic one. The serpent is a central symbol among the Senoufo, quantities
of representations being found on jewelry, rings and fetish huts. The serpent
is the messenger of life. No one may kill it or chase it, and it may be
attacked only if it first attacks. A serpent may, however, be eaten in ritual
in some tribes. Large pythons are said to be immortal, going to heaven in
storms.

     The central values of the Senoufo are taught and maintained in the lo
(often referred to as poro by Ivory Coasters) which is a secret society
wherein the traditional education is gained by means of an initiation of great
length and many stages. Even among the conservative Senoufo, traditional
institutions like the poro are declining or being severely modified. For
example, traditionally among the poro, death was prescribed if the individual
forgot certain special sacred formulas, but today the individual is merely
fined. In many tribes, poro is nearly extinct.

Emerging Patterns

     A new national value system is emerging, particularly in the urban areas.
There, those who have broken partially with the traditional find the most
freedom to pursue their new ways, find the greatest opportunity to learn new
values. But the urban dwellers are also caught in a dilemma of moral
uncertainty and consequently seek reassurance by forming all sorts of
voluntary organizations.

     The new values are in many ways the classic values of an industrial
system. They place primacy on a man's accomplishment, rather than on the
accidental attributes which he obtains by birth. They include a vague
monotheism which either Christianity or Islam fulfills but do not exclude some
secondary reliance on amulets, sorcery, or other forms of spiritual
intercession.

     The outlook on the world of the modern Ivory Coaster includes the
assumption that the world is improvable, and in particular that living
standards, both those of himself and his family and of the nation as a whole,
can surely rise, partly by effort, partly by reclaiming outside assistance
which is morally due him. The ideal man is one who, having made his way in
this new impersonal world of money, does not forget his family and relatives
and aids them all to rise with him. Loyalty to one's subgroup is still
considered a prime virtue.

     The outward symbols of Western bourgeois affluence are much valued. The
car, the refrigerator, the large house are signs of success; the trip abroad,
the imported fruit even more so. Yet a successful man is required not to
forget altogether the traditional ways and to pay at least outward obeisance
to the traditional forms, especially on ceremonial occasions in the rural
areas-occasions he should not neglect even if he is totally urbanized.

     The movies have a great formative influence, as can be seen, if from
nothing else, in the effect they have on the name-signs found on all forms of
transport vehicles in the cities. They not only serve to raise aspirations but
provide many of the modern urban folk themes.

     Authority and its justification is still highly personalized. The
national leader, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, is treated as a traditional chief of
great power. In local areas, the leading figure, perhaps a member of the
cabinet, receives similar fealty. Yet, however personalized, this new
allegiance is more national than ethnic in flavor and serves to legitimate
many depersonalized aspects of the new administration. Although the party is
more mythical than real, it serves as a frame for some social control of the
younger groups.

     Attitudes toward work and time are slowly changing. While a high sense of
professional consciousness and priority to efficiency is not yet established,
it would be false to draw an opposite picture. Punctuality may still be a rare
virtue and diligent, self-directed work unusual, but the pressures of those
with moral authority are in this direction, and the new concepts and practices
are spreading.

     The luxuries of the new elite are seen in part as their just reward, in
part as the symbolic participation of the whole nation in modern world
prosperity, and in part as a funnel to spread the new wealth, through the
channels of the extended family, to large groups of people. Nevertheless,
there is some resentment toward the exaggerations involved in the new
ostentation. Occasional puritanical waves spread over public opinion.

     There can be said to be a true "living in the present" in the modern
sector of the Ivory Coast. Life is enjoyed for what it can provide, and the
major complaints center about the insufficiency of material comforts and
rewards. Yet there is a basic optimism that there will be more in the future.
Both the political system and the values of the modern elite are built around
this optimism, which is fed by increasing contact with the outside world. The
modern elite is determined to spread its values throughout the country and, to
a considerable degree, is succeeding.