Ivory Coast

Abidjan is the most cosmopolitan city in French-speaking West Africa

Ivory Coast is the largest economy in French-speaking West Africa and produces around forty percent of the world cocoa. Abidjan, its commercial capital, has a skyline of towers on a lagoon, a serious restaurant and nightlife scene, and a reputation as the most cosmopolitan city in the region.

The country came through a civil war and a post-election crisis that ended in 2011, and has been stable and rapidly developing since, though northern border areas still carry advisories. Yamoussoukro, the official capital and the birthplace of the first president, has the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, the largest church in the world, standing improbably in a small inland town.

Grand-Bassam, the former colonial capital, is a UNESCO site of decaying French buildings on a sandbar between lagoon and sea. Tai National Park has some of the last primary rainforest in West Africa and chimpanzees that use tools. Man, in the west, has waterfalls, liana bridges and mask traditions that are among the most important in the region.

Annual events and festivals

• Fete des Masques, Man region (Feb-Mar) — Dan mask dances, some of the most significant in West Africa.
• Abissa, Grand-Bassam (Oct-Nov) — the N’Zima new year, a week where social hierarchy is inverted and anyone can mock anyone.
• Fete du Dipri (Apr) — a night-time purification ritual in Abidji villages.
• Popo Carnival, Bonoua (Apr) — the largest carnival in the country.
• Independence Day (7 Aug) — marks 1960 independence from France.
• Fetes des Ignames (Aug-Sep) — yam festivals marking the harvest across many communities.
• MASA, Abidjan (Mar, biennial) — a major market of African performing arts.
• Eid al-Fitr and Christmas (varies and Dec) — both public holidays in a religiously mixed country.
• FEMUA (Apr) — an urban music festival in Abidjan.
• Cocoa harvest (Oct-Mar) — not a festival, but the season that shapes the rural year.