Côte d'Ivoire
West Africa's economic powerhouse and the world's cocoa giant
Côte d'Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, is the economic engine of French-speaking West Africa and by far the world's largest producer of cocoa, the bean behind much of the planet's chocolate. Stretching from a lagoon-fringed Atlantic coast to the savannas of the interior, it draws migrants from across the region to its plantations and to Abidjan, a sprawling commercial metropolis often called the Manhattan of Africa. Home to more than 30 million people of remarkable ethnic and religious diversity, the country has rebounded from a period of civil war into rapid growth.
The south is a humid coastal plain of lagoons, rainforest, and the great cocoa and coffee belt, while the land rises gently northward into wooded savanna and, in the far west near the Guinea and Liberia borders, the forested Nimba range, where Mont Nimba reaches about 1,752 meters. Several rivers, including the Bandama and the Comoé, drain southward to the sea. Beyond cocoa and coffee, the economy produces cashews, rubber, palm oil, cotton, and offshore oil and gas, making it one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent, anchored by the port and financial hub of Abidjan.
The coast drew French traders seeking ivory and, later, plantation crops, and France made the territory a colony before independence in 1960 under Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who governed for over three decades and built the surreal basilica of Yamoussoukro, his home village turned official capital. His death opened years of political tension over identity and citizenship that erupted into civil wars in the 2000s, splitting the country in two. Since 2011 Côte d'Ivoire has stabilized and grown strongly, blending Akan, Mandé, and other traditions with a vibrant music scene and the regional draw of Abidjan.