MAKE WAY FOR THE RICH! ABIDJAN’S POOR LOSE HOMES

For the past few months, Ivory Coast’s Abidjan - deemed West Africa’s economic capital - has been kicking poorer residents out of their homes. The plan is to build even more luxury hotels and shopping malls. The city is famous for its gorgeous infrastructure and surface-level development. But this has come at a grim cost: the brutal neglect of Abidjan’s working-class majority.

From its first decade of independence through the present era, Ivory Coast has had especially close ties to France and the West. More than any other West African country, it’s supported France’s position on nearly every major foreign-policy decision.

Ivory Coast’s first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was a staunch anti-communist and opponent of Pan-Africanism. He positioned himself in firm opposition to leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Ahmed Sékou Touré and, later, Thomas Sankara. Today, the current president of Ivory Coast continues that legacy by staunchly opposing the Alliance of Sahel States (consisting of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger), which has shown France the door. But the country’s hyper-conservatism is not only hurting neighbouring states.

Writing about the inequality in, and European neo-colonial development of, Abidjan, Peter Schwab, the author of ‘Designing West Africa’ states the following:

“Abidjan, the commercial centre of the Ivory Coast and until some years ago its capital, is the focus of Ivorian elites, and was where the French ensconced themselves… the metropolis is, in fact, largely divided into an African quarter, Treichville, and a European one, Cocody. In the French quarter sits the Hotel Ivoire, once the outstanding jewel of Ivorian elites, French expatriates and foreign tourists... It stood as a symbol of what Ivorian elites subscribed to, and how European culture impressed itself on Africa.”

The question is: when will the Ivorian working-class see the benefits of the country’s proclaimed economic development? Your insights in the comments are appreciated.