Ivory Coast: Town of Yamoussoukro in its fortieth yr as capital

From all 4 corners of the town, it’s not possible to overlook it: the immense dome of the Basilica of Our Girl of Peace in Yamoussoukro is the image of the excessiveness of this metropolis, which is however struggling to determine itself, on the daybreak of its fortieth yr, because the true capital of Côte d’Ivoire.

With its vast avenues, its giant wooded areas, its Seventies structure and its fluid highway site visitors, Yamoussoukro, within the peaceable middle of Côte d’Ivoire, is not like some other metropolis within the nation.

It’s the fruit of a dream, that of the primary president of impartial Côte d’Ivoire, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, to make his native village of N’Gokro the capital of his nation. This was executed on March 21, 1983.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the village turned an actual metropolis and inherited a reputation in homage to Yamousso, the Baule queen and great-aunt of “FHB”.

“Félix Houphouët-Boigny first needed to right the colonial legacy we had acquired to cease every part being concentrated in a single metropolis (Abidjan),” Jean-Noël Loucou, secretary basic of the Félix Houphouët Boigny Basis, a analysis institute on peace points, defined to AFP.

“In creating this capital, the concept was to point out the African genius with a selected structure, with out massive buildings with plenty of inexperienced areas,” he provides.

Forty years later, the town could be very giant and has some 300,000 inhabitants. However nonetheless only a few establishments.

The center of Ivorian politics nonetheless beats within the coastal south, in Abidjan, with solely the Senate and the Nationwide Chamber of Conventional Kings and Chiefs having moved away.

– Political incantations –

Nonetheless, there was no lack of political incantations because the demise of the founding father in 1993.

Laurent Gbagbo, president from 2000 to 2011, even launched main development initiatives to construct a Nationwide Meeting and a presidential palace. However the two websites at the moment are deserted, overgrown with vegetation.

“The desire to switch the capital to Yamoussoukro exists. It’s the means which can be missing. As a neighborhood authority, we shouldn’t have the means to enter worldwide debt, so we’re obliged to decide on worthwhile financing that may generate cash. However I’m hopeful that this can occur at some point,” the area’s governor, Augustin Thiam, advised AFP.

“Yamoussoukro shouldn’t be but actually the capital of Côte d’Ivoire. However it’s out of the query to create a capital from scratch. There are various issues to judge, quantify, earlier than transferring on to the conclusion,” he provides from the gardens of the residence of President Houphouët, his nice uncle.

In the interim, Yamoussoukro stays one of many nation’s principal vacationer sights, thanks specifically to its basilica, impressed by that of St. Peter’s in Rome and which is the very best Catholic spiritual constructing on the earth at 158 meters excessive.

The Caiman Lake, which borders Houphouët’s imposing residence, additionally attracts the curious who observe the handfuls of lizards that bask on the banks, proper within the middle of city.

– “Crossroads” of the nation –

“Houphouët tried to construct Yamoussoukro little by little round three pillars, training with nice faculties, faith with the basilica, and tourism. The place of the town is strategic, it’s a nice crossroads within the middle of the nation. Everybody passes by right here,” says Nanan Kouassi Konan, chief of the neighboring village of Kami, one of many “cradles” of the previous president.

The saturation and tumult of Abidjan with its 6 million inhabitants might additionally push increasingly more Ivorians to return to Yamoussoukro.

Serge Pokou, a hotelier and farmer, took the step a number of years in the past together with his household.

“I naturally opted for the calm of Yamoussoukro, which is a mixture of fashionable metropolis and countryside, steeped in a preserved African tradition. The geometry of the primary roads, the luxurious inexperienced areas, the shocking buildings preserve the calm, the attraction and the splendor of the town”, he appreciates.

It additionally stays to construct an actual financial cloth across the capital past tourism. The long run creation of an industrial zone is hopeful on this respect.

“We count on financial advantages as a result of the capital should reside, so we’d like actions. The main faculties in Yamoussoukro are having hassle retaining their engineers and technicians as a result of there is no such thing as a business right here,” says Jean-Noël Loucou.

“However we have to be cautious to safeguard the id of the town and its tranquility, which stay, above all, the criterion of selection for many who reside there or who search to settle there,” warns Serge Pokou.