After we traipsed from Gambia to Liberia, Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast, seemed delightfully modern. It even had an upscale mall! During this trip, Mike bought seven African masks to bring home, so, on November 7, 2023, we shopped for suitcases.
Many of the shops at the mall sold African items, but styled for modern tastes. Ivory Coast was formerly a French colony so, again, all signs were in French.
After wandering through native markets, it was quite striking to see African clothes branded and sold in Western style stores.
The food court offered food from France and China, as well as African specialties.
Mike let me taste his bowl of traditional jollaf rice with meat.
Abdijan also had some strikingly modern architecture. This Catholic cathedral was beautiful, inside and out.
The huge stained glass windows showed scenes of Africa, as well as Biblical scenes.
Abidjan also had a modern bridge across its bay, visible from all over the city.
We took a boat ride around the bay, and noticed the skyscrapers. Abidjan is a regional trading center.
We also saw the beautiful Abidjan bridge from a different angle.
The harbor was full of containers waiting to be loaded and of ships waiting to sail. Ivory Coast has just settled a civil war, but it still looked more prosperous than the other cities we visited.
In addition to its skyscapers and stylish bridge, Abidjan did have traditional areas. We visited Grand Bassam, the coastal city where the French first colonized the country. We passed these schoolgirls. At the beginning of each school year, they get identical haircuts and school uniforms, to encourage attention to studies rather than personal appearance!
Grand Bassam had a gallery of traditional French buildings, formerly used by the colony's administrators.
One remnant of colonial times is the many French baguettes.
This pink building looks very colonial, with its verandahs around the upper story, while Africans walk below, carrying baskets on their heads.
We were used to signs warning city residents to keep the beaches clean, but this sign, "Don't defecate on the beach," with a picture of a man defecating, seemed a bit much.
This "Royal Palace of Grand Bassam" had really, I think, been a palace for a native king, but now it was a restaurant.
Dave enjoyed the Grand Bassam walking tour.
We toured the Grand Bassam costume museum, housed in one of the French governor's houses.
The docent at the costume museum had one of the fanciest costumes in the collection!
Dave and I peeked out the window of the costume museum and were interested to see a formal French garden, in the style of Versailles, but looking like it needed a gardener who cared.
Our guide, Claude, had been telling us, ever since we left Senegal, that the best African masks were for sale in Ivory Coast. While Mike haggled for masks at this craft market, I searched for crafts that would match the decor of my home a bit better. I bought several sets of salad tongs which were snatched from my Christmas table!
We also stopped, during the afternoon, to see migrants to Ivory Coast washing clothes in the river. They delivered the clean clothes to fellow migrants living in shanty towns who didn't have running water, much less washing machines. Claude paid the laundry supervisor to have us visit; we just hoped the supervisor shared the money with the laundrymen. We calculated that each man's portion of the tourist fee would have been as much as a day's wages. People from poorer African countries migrate to richer ones, just as migrants are drawn to the U.S.
By the time I took my seat on the boat for the sail around Abidjan's harbor, I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open!
No comments:
Post a Comment