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To visitors from one African
country the flag of Ireland, the green, white and
orange tricolour is very familiar – the flag of
Cote d'Ivoire is exactly the same, but in reverse.
Fatima Farmers chats to metro eireann’s
Mojisola Oduola-Falola about her homeland.
I have been living in Ireland since 1998 and I
still miss my home country, La Republique de Cote
d'Ivoire, or “the Ivory Coast”, as some English
speakers call it, very much - particularly the
weather.
In Cote d'Ivoire we have three seasons: Warm
and Dry (November to March); Hot and Dry (March -
May); and Hot and Wet (June to October).
Basically, Ireland has one: Cold and Raining
(January to December)!
Cote d'Ivoire is a very beautiful land,
located in West Africa, bordering the North
Atlantic Ocean, between Ghana and Liberia. The
terrain is mostly flat, with undulating plains,
stretching to mountains in the North-western
region.
Most of our 16 million-or-so inhabitants live
along the sandy coastal region, and. apart from
the area around the official capital, and
Abidjan, our administrative centre, where many
countries base their embassies, the forested
interior is sparsely populated. Once the largest
forest area in West Africa, logging has led to
major deforestation, and, sadly, pollution is also
casing the environmentalists concerns.
When I left Cote d'Ivoire the economy was
buoyant, and, for example, food in the shops and
markets was very cheap. In 1994 the economic
situation had improved, due to the 50% devaluation
of our currency, the discovery of offshore oil and
gas, improved prices for cocoa and coffee, and
growth in exports such as pineapples and rubber,
which are our leading exports. So when you buy
fruit juice, or loose fruit in the supermarket, it
might well l have be grown in my homeland.
However, things have since changed since the
military coup of 1999, and the price of basic
foodstuffs has risen sharply.
Ivoirens are very warm, and friendly. We are
very happy, always laughing and smiling, and very
sociable. Despite the hardships I hope we do not
lose our joie de vivre.
Our population works in farming, in the main,
and our economy is very sensitive not only to
fluctuations in international prices for these
products, but also the weather.
Also, we have so many industries that produce
foodstuffs; beverages; wood products; oil
refining; truck and bus assembly; textiles, and
fertilizer manufacture. These all contribute
something to the economy, as do our diamonds,
manganese iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, and
hydropower: as you can see, we are blessed with
mineral resources!
What do I miss about home? Well, I miss my
native food very much, because it is not available
here. Our attieke is made from cassava, and
is eaten with grilled chicken or fried fish, with
salad, and usually served with a drink of ginger
beer. Unlike other Africans, we don't like our
food very hot and spicy, but having said that,
Ivoriens are very well taken care of
nutritionally; we eat about four times a day and
snack in between meals - with fruits, not
chocolate, before you ask! We eat a lot of mashed
plantain, mangoes, papaya, and of course our
famous bananas and pineapples.
I really don't know where we are politically.
Since our independence from France in 1960, things
were going well until the army takeover of
December 1999, which was the first military coup
in the history of Cote d'Ivoire. This overthrew
the government led by President Henri Konan Bedie,
and was followed within a few months by violence
after the exclusion of Opposition leader Alassane
Quattara.
In October 2000, Lurent Gbagbo replaced
junta leader Robert Guei as President, thus
ending 10 months of military rule. President
Gbagbo initiated a two-month-long National
Reconciliation Forum in October 2001, but it
remains unclear if anything was achieved in during
these talks.
I just hope things improve. French is our
official language, but we have as many as 60
dialects, with Dioula the most widely-spoken.
About 30% of the population are Christians, while
about 40% is Muslim. The remaining third are
belonging to our indigenous religion.
Until recently all religious groups co-habited
peacefully with one another, though one of the
resultant effects of the military coup was
disharmony among different religious groups.
Ivoirens like to get a good education with most
people aspiring to go to university. Financial
constraints, however, make this difficult for some
people, and about one-in-two people over the age
of 15 can read and write.
The official life expectancy is about 45 years
for men and women, and with an estimated 1
million people in Cote d'Ivoire suffering from
AIDS, healthcare, economic conditions, and
political stability remain some of our greatest
concerns.
To read more about Fatima’s
homeland, check out:
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/cote.html
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