22 ms·

Notes on the Ivory Coast

165 points by yorwba 3y ago

grecy 3y ago
I spent a month exploring all over the Ivory Coast, driving my own 4x4 [1]. When I give talks about my 3 years driving right around Africa I use Ivory Coast as the example of road conditions. A road where trucks were stuck for two weeks [2], potholes and broken pavement so bad I was in first gear for days, and then some of the best freeways on the entire continent. All in the same country, sometimes only hours apart. The story of the The Basilica of Yamoussoukro [3] is insane. It's the world's biggest Catholic monument, costing around $600 million USD. The final cost doubled Ivory Coast’s national debt. Seriously. Before the Pope would sanction such a thing, he insisted a hospital also be built to help the citizens of the country. Strangely enough after the Pope visited the Basilica and gave his blessing, the hospital was never finished, and still sits half finished, closed. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGJLcHUDEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGJLcHUDEg [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z740focQL4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z740focQL4U [3] http://theroadchoseme.com/the-basilica-of-yamoussoukro http://theroadchoseme.com/the-basilica-of-yamoussoukro
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Bro the hospital opened in 2015. What makes you say it did not? https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/10/24/yamoussoukro-la-capitale-ivoirienne-veut-sortir-de-l-ombre_4796417_3212.html https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/10/24/yamoussouk...
thriftwy 3y ago
> To spoil the story a bit, the Ivory Coast descended into an ethnic/religious civil war that killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands in less than a decade after FHB’s death. An incredible amount of the contemporary accounts attribute the prior ethnic/religious peace of the Ivory Coast to FHB personally Sounds like Yugoslavia to me. Minus the balkanization and the tidal forces of EU. > he was massively corrupt and likely looted billions of dollars from the Ivory Coast. Funnily enough, we never seem to see any track of these money over and over again (and such stories are aplenty), and especially not in the hands of that dictator's children, clan or followers. Leading to suspicion that it is not "looting" but maybe the old colonial power using the local quasi-independent government to siphon money out of their former properties. This way, these dictators have to send money back to the mother ship, "or else"; themselves getting peanuts - but at least after hedonistically partying in Paris. You know that specific game mechanic if you ever played the original Dune from 1992. An counterexample to this rule (that confirms its existence) is Dos Santos' daughter who exists, owns significant capital, and is a target of boring stuff such as lawsuits. This is opposed to when these billions simply disappear for good.
- thriftwy 3y ago
  From the same dude's another article > The Balkan country was “liberated” by communists, either by the Soviet army (which didn’t give a shit about them) This is measured, I presuppose, in comparsion with the Old Europe with its uncanny taste for all countries outside the Old Europe, though, sometimes they do devour each other as well.
- Georgelemental 3y ago
  > Leading to suspicion that it is not "looting" but maybe the old colonial power using the local quasi-independent government to siphon money out of their former properties. France has many other investment options with much better expected returns, especially once you account for the cost of maintaining a military presence. There is much to criticize about recent French policy in Africa, but charges that the French government is cynically enriching itself by exploiting these countries just don't match observable reality; talking with people who have spent time working there will quickly confirm. Additional evidence comes from China's attempts to enrich itself in Africa, which have mostly failed to produce the desired riches in the expected amounts.
  - abenga 3y ago
    So it's just malicious incompetence, not even greed? There has to be a reason it seems former french colonies are never allowed to become stable. Just coup after coup, with French forces usually directly involved.
    - Georgelemental 3y ago
      Some of it is that these countries are stuck with borders that don't make sense, some of it is cultures not suited to modernity. And some former French colonies are relatively stable, for example Morocco and Vietnam.
  - marxisttemp 3y ago
    France literally made Haiti pay them reparations for…revolting against their slave colony. There seems to be no low they won’t stoop to for extra bucks!
prmph 3y ago
Are you, yorwba, actually Matt Lakeman, the author of these "notes"?
- yorwba 3y ago
  No, I'm just subscribed to his RSS feed.
optimalsolver 3y ago
Also interesting is his Notes On The Gambia, which for some reason is the premier destination for female sex tourism: https://mattlakeman.org/2023/07/10/notes-on-the-gambia/ https://mattlakeman.org/2023/07/10/notes-on-the-gambia/
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
orenlindsey 3y ago
Really well written article.
the_watcher 3y ago
Matt Lakeman's "Notes on $PLACE" have become my favorite random email update to get. They're all excellent. If anyone knows more about him (does he write anywhere else?), would love to learn more about his background and travel experiences.
primitivesuave 3y ago
This is one of the most well-written and well-researched historical narratives I have ever read. As one of the Wordpress comments suggested, I would be an instant subscriber to a Patreon to incentivize future writing projects (in case the original author ever reads this). I'm also quite inspired to visit the Ivory Coast for myself and see the giant basilica in Yamoussoukro. Perhaps in the modern age, "corruption tourism" will help bolster these types of places.
BlackJack 3y ago
I've read most of Matt's "Notes on [X]" In general they are well written and interesting. In some cases though it's too simplified and at times insensitive. In particular, I've talked to people who are from Nigeria/Ghana or have visited there and they pointed out issues with his narrative. But most people who read Matt's blog have never been to these places, so they take everything as 100% accurate. That being said, if you treat it as literally just his experiences, then they're fantastic reads. P.S. His notes on Mauritania [https://mattlakeman.org/2023/08/16/notes-on-mauritania/ https://mattlakeman.org/2023/08/16/notes-on-mauritania/] is really interesting for the train story. I had never heard of such a thing before.
- prmph 3y ago
  Yes, I thought these notes sometimes omit important bits as well. As a native Ghanaian, this was my comment on his notes on Ghana, which I posted before on HN: > I'd say the article omitted the animus towards Nkrumah from the UGCC (his former party). This opposition was manifested in their attempts to derail his rule from independence to his overthrow (there is some evidence they were in cahoots with the CIA et. al). Thus, the popular reactions to Nkrumah's policies were not only based on their merits. Most Ghanaians actually think pretty well of Nkrumah's development trajectory. This opposition, which forms the basis of one of Ghana’s main political lineages, called the UP tradition, is partly tribal in motivation. The Akans (the main ethnic group, who mostly support the UP tradition) see themselves as the central core of the nation, but their allegiance is mostly to the King. They have this sense of needing to take back control of the country, similar to the way white Americans might feel threatened by a supposed loss of control to minorities. But while the Akans have a can-do attitude, they are usually not good administrators and planners. So I'd say this rivalry, based on resentment of the initial success of Nkrumah’s tradition in particular, and resentment of uppity minority ethnic groups in general, is a major factor in Ghana's perennial inability to realize its full potential. This factor in Ghana's politics continues down to this day. Rawlings’ was a Ewe, as the article notes, and his (P)NDC was the third major political lineage in Ghana (after the UP and Nkrumah’s CPP). The UP tradition was again a thorn in their flesh, even before multi-party democracy was restored. The current president (from this same political lineage) is hated by many for taking the country back to a period of massive corruption and economic malaise. I'm not too political, but I tend to agree; he gives off the air of a 70s era politician, radically unprepared to lead a 21st century country, very corrupt, intolerant of criticism, not in control of things, and afraid of a coup. Many Ghanaians would claim that he was elected primarily based on support emanating from this conflict, and not because of demonstrating any competence.
scythe 3y ago
A fantastically written article, which goes well into depth on the history of the Ivory Coast and its erstwhile "benevolent" dictator. Worth an hour if you have one. To me, though, he seems to adopt the usual sophomoric mistaken approach of identifying the cause of a calamity in many different places, which is what I did in my IB extended essay about the fall of Suharto in Indonesia. Now I feel a little embarrassed looking back on this: I was trying too hard not to be wrong, and covering all of my bases in accordance. Of course, that was sixteen years ago, and I was in high school. In so doing, he buried what seems like the biggest mistake at the end: Côte d'Ivoire bled its own economy nearly to death when cacao prices collapsed in the '80s by internally subsidizing exports of its theretofore most profitable crop. Then they killed the whole industry while trying to set up a cacao OPEC, forgetting that it would be a lot easier for rich countries to just go without chocolate than to live without oil. Sure, war and corruption are bad, but plenty of countries had better performance despite them than CdI did during its long fall. In some sense, the logical comparison is Venezuela's self-sabotaging response to the PDVSA strike of 2002 [1]. It's also another case study in the enduring power of roads: for all the mistakes, CdI built the best road network in West Africa, and those roads are mostly still there, probably helping propel its recent recovery at a faster pace than its neighbors. Almost like a tiny Rome. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA#Politicization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA#Politicization
- resolutebat 3y ago
  > Then they killed the whole industry while trying to set up a cacao OPEC, forgetting that it would be a lot easier for rich countries to just go without chocolate than to live without oil. The rich countries didn't go without chocolate: other cacao producers were more than happy to pick up the slack and collect the extra profits. OPEC is remarkable mostly as a rare example of a successful international cartel, and even then its history is riven with constant squabbles, sales off the books etc, and these days it's a shadow of its former self because Russia and now the US (thanks fracking) don't play ball.
  - pi-e-sigma 3y ago
    Russia, and before that Soviet Union, has never been part of OPEC
vjulian 3y ago
The Area Handbooks the author mentions sound fascinating. I see little information online about them from my cursory search but see a few used copies available. Historical accounts such as those are a treasure trove of fun reading, at least to me.
alephnerd 3y ago
Interesting thread related to Ivory Coast's lack of production, specifically how most Vietnam and Ivory Coast grow a similar amount of cashews, but most Ivorian cashews end up in Vietnam due to a lack of processing capacity in Ivory Coast - https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/1736038330251329939 https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/1736038330251329939
- grecy 3y ago
  If you find that interesting, you may want to look into why Switzerland is the 2nd largest exporter of coffee in the world, despite never growing a single bean [1]. The powers that be absolutely will not allow countries like Ethiopia to process the coffee they grow any more than they will allow Ivory Coast to process cashews. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096413/main-export-countries-for-coffee-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096413/main-export-coun...
  - foobarian 3y ago
    But why do they allow Vietnam to process cashews? How is Vietnam different?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - Maken 3y ago
      After they expelled the French and Americans, and then the Eastern Bloc collapsed, they were relatively free of foreign influence to develop their country as they saw fit.
      - alephnerd 3y ago
        > expelled the French and Americans And invited them back with the Moi reforms in 1986. > relatively free of foreign influence They got a massive FDI influx from Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China - especially after China began boycotting Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese firms in the 2013-2017 period. This is why VN's first SEZ (Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park) was devoted to food processing. A leadership crisis has also been brewing in the VCP for that reason, as the Southern cadre leans pro-SK and the Northern cadre leans pro-PRC.
AlbertCory 3y ago
Great article. Almost long enough to be in The New Yorker /s > By 1968, there were 48 cinemas in the Ivory Coast. In my own experience, cinemas are still quite rare in West Africa. I almost went to one in the Ivory Coast, but I didn’t want to see anything that was playing. All those Nollywood films! They can't all be for export. https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/1077508 https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/1077508
merek 3y ago
Excellent read so far (I'm about a quarter way through). I think I've found a minor error: > To the Ivory Coast’s west, Ghana went from one of the best African economies to one of the worst, culminating in the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah in 1968. Farther west, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria... These countries are East of Ivory Coast.
- prmph 3y ago
  And Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, not 1968.
- vlabakje90 3y ago
  There are other minor errors here and there. He mentions that it is 'literally impossible' to get a tourist visa other than by coming through the airport in Abidjan. Yet, in 2023 I did get one outside of Côte d'Ivoir, at the Ivorian consulate in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
- midasuni 3y ago
  Technically If you go west, and continue to go west past Ghana, from Ivory Coast you will get to Nigeria.
  - Kiro 3y ago
    Around the globe twice? No need to go through Ghana. It will save you one circumnavigation.
    - midasuni 3y ago
      Sure, but if you define Ghana as being to the west and then travel further west you will get to nigeria Go west c. 30Mm and you get to Ghana, a total of c. 60Mm and you get to nigeria.
      - Kiro 3y ago
        That's east.
marxisttemp 3y ago
> how are there no successful post-colonial African countries? > Despite giving me Marxist vibes So the author is ideologically opposed to the type of economics that is precisely concerned with this sort of analysis? I stopped reading here, I don’t need analysis from those who believe in fables of invisible hands and shy away from any analysis that could be considered to bite it!
hoseja 3y ago
..."It was established to cultivate a Francophilic loyal class of intellectual and political elites"... Weird how it's not polite to write about the indoctrination aspect of modern western schooling... Also astonished at the anglo refusal to acknowledge any other languages and orthographies exist. You are not being cute when you refuse to even try to correctly reproduce "those weird apostrophes and accents" or when you "apologize for butchering the pronunciation!"

165 points by yorwba 3y ago

I spent a month exploring all over the Ivory Coast, driving my own 4x4 [1]. When I give talks about my 3 years driving right around Africa I use Ivory Coast as the example of road conditions. A road where trucks were stuck for two weeks [2], potholes and broken pavement so bad I was in first gear for days, and then some of the best freeways on the entire continent. All in the same country, sometimes only hours apart. The story of the The Basilica of Yamoussoukro [3] is insane. It's the world's biggest Catholic monument, costing around $600 million USD. The final cost doubled Ivory Coast’s national debt. Seriously. Before the Pope would sanction such a thing, he insisted a hospital also be built to help the citizens of the country. Strangely enough after the Pope visited the Basilica and gave his blessing, the hospital was never finished, and still sits half finished, closed. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGJLcHUDEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGJLcHUDEg [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z740focQL4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z740focQL4U [3] http://theroadchoseme.com/the-basilica-of-yamoussoukro http://theroadchoseme.com/the-basilica-of-yamoussoukro

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Bro the hospital opened in 2015. What makes you say it did not? https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/10/24/yamoussoukro-la-capitale-ivoirienne-veut-sortir-de-l-ombre_4796417_3212.html https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/10/24/yamoussouk...

thriftwy 3y ago

> To spoil the story a bit, the Ivory Coast descended into an ethnic/religious civil war that killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands in less than a decade after FHB’s death. An incredible amount of the contemporary accounts attribute the prior ethnic/religious peace of the Ivory Coast to FHB personally Sounds like Yugoslavia to me. Minus the balkanization and the tidal forces of EU. > he was massively corrupt and likely looted billions of dollars from the Ivory Coast. Funnily enough, we never seem to see any track of these money over and over again (and such stories are aplenty), and especially not in the hands of that dictator's children, clan or followers. Leading to suspicion that it is not "looting" but maybe the old colonial power using the local quasi-independent government to siphon money out of their former properties. This way, these dictators have to send money back to the mother ship, "or else"; themselves getting peanuts - but at least after hedonistically partying in Paris. You know that specific game mechanic if you ever played the original Dune from 1992. An counterexample to this rule (that confirms its existence) is Dos Santos' daughter who exists, owns significant capital, and is a target of boring stuff such as lawsuits. This is opposed to when these billions simply disappear for good.

thriftwy 3y ago
From the same dude's another article > The Balkan country was “liberated” by communists, either by the Soviet army (which didn’t give a shit about them) This is measured, I presuppose, in comparsion with the Old Europe with its uncanny taste for all countries outside the Old Europe, though, sometimes they do devour each other as well.
Georgelemental 3y ago
> Leading to suspicion that it is not "looting" but maybe the old colonial power using the local quasi-independent government to siphon money out of their former properties. France has many other investment options with much better expected returns, especially once you account for the cost of maintaining a military presence. There is much to criticize about recent French policy in Africa, but charges that the French government is cynically enriching itself by exploiting these countries just don't match observable reality; talking with people who have spent time working there will quickly confirm. Additional evidence comes from China's attempts to enrich itself in Africa, which have mostly failed to produce the desired riches in the expected amounts.
- abenga 3y ago
  So it's just malicious incompetence, not even greed? There has to be a reason it seems former french colonies are never allowed to become stable. Just coup after coup, with French forces usually directly involved.
  - Georgelemental 3y ago
    Some of it is that these countries are stuck with borders that don't make sense, some of it is cultures not suited to modernity. And some former French colonies are relatively stable, for example Morocco and Vietnam.
- marxisttemp 3y ago
  France literally made Haiti pay them reparations for…revolting against their slave colony. There seems to be no low they won’t stoop to for extra bucks!

prmph 3y ago

Are you, yorwba, actually Matt Lakeman, the author of these "notes"?

yorwba 3y ago
No, I'm just subscribed to his RSS feed.

optimalsolver 3y ago

Also interesting is his Notes On The Gambia, which for some reason is the premier destination for female sex tourism: https://mattlakeman.org/2023/07/10/notes-on-the-gambia/ https://mattlakeman.org/2023/07/10/notes-on-the-gambia/

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

orenlindsey 3y ago

Really well written article.

the_watcher 3y ago

Matt Lakeman's "Notes on $PLACE" have become my favorite random email update to get. They're all excellent. If anyone knows more about him (does he write anywhere else?), would love to learn more about his background and travel experiences.

primitivesuave 3y ago

This is one of the most well-written and well-researched historical narratives I have ever read. As one of the Wordpress comments suggested, I would be an instant subscriber to a Patreon to incentivize future writing projects (in case the original author ever reads this). I'm also quite inspired to visit the Ivory Coast for myself and see the giant basilica in Yamoussoukro. Perhaps in the modern age, "corruption tourism" will help bolster these types of places.

BlackJack 3y ago

I've read most of Matt's "Notes on [X]" In general they are well written and interesting. In some cases though it's too simplified and at times insensitive. In particular, I've talked to people who are from Nigeria/Ghana or have visited there and they pointed out issues with his narrative. But most people who read Matt's blog have never been to these places, so they take everything as 100% accurate. That being said, if you treat it as literally just his experiences, then they're fantastic reads. P.S. His notes on Mauritania [https://mattlakeman.org/2023/08/16/notes-on-mauritania/ https://mattlakeman.org/2023/08/16/notes-on-mauritania/] is really interesting for the train story. I had never heard of such a thing before.

prmph 3y ago
Yes, I thought these notes sometimes omit important bits as well. As a native Ghanaian, this was my comment on his notes on Ghana, which I posted before on HN: > I'd say the article omitted the animus towards Nkrumah from the UGCC (his former party). This opposition was manifested in their attempts to derail his rule from independence to his overthrow (there is some evidence they were in cahoots with the CIA et. al). Thus, the popular reactions to Nkrumah's policies were not only based on their merits. Most Ghanaians actually think pretty well of Nkrumah's development trajectory. This opposition, which forms the basis of one of Ghana’s main political lineages, called the UP tradition, is partly tribal in motivation. The Akans (the main ethnic group, who mostly support the UP tradition) see themselves as the central core of the nation, but their allegiance is mostly to the King. They have this sense of needing to take back control of the country, similar to the way white Americans might feel threatened by a supposed loss of control to minorities. But while the Akans have a can-do attitude, they are usually not good administrators and planners. So I'd say this rivalry, based on resentment of the initial success of Nkrumah’s tradition in particular, and resentment of uppity minority ethnic groups in general, is a major factor in Ghana's perennial inability to realize its full potential. This factor in Ghana's politics continues down to this day. Rawlings’ was a Ewe, as the article notes, and his (P)NDC was the third major political lineage in Ghana (after the UP and Nkrumah’s CPP). The UP tradition was again a thorn in their flesh, even before multi-party democracy was restored. The current president (from this same political lineage) is hated by many for taking the country back to a period of massive corruption and economic malaise. I'm not too political, but I tend to agree; he gives off the air of a 70s era politician, radically unprepared to lead a 21st century country, very corrupt, intolerant of criticism, not in control of things, and afraid of a coup. Many Ghanaians would claim that he was elected primarily based on support emanating from this conflict, and not because of demonstrating any competence.

scythe 3y ago

A fantastically written article, which goes well into depth on the history of the Ivory Coast and its erstwhile "benevolent" dictator. Worth an hour if you have one. To me, though, he seems to adopt the usual sophomoric mistaken approach of identifying the cause of a calamity in many different places, which is what I did in my IB extended essay about the fall of Suharto in Indonesia. Now I feel a little embarrassed looking back on this: I was trying too hard not to be wrong, and covering all of my bases in accordance. Of course, that was sixteen years ago, and I was in high school. In so doing, he buried what seems like the biggest mistake at the end: Côte d'Ivoire bled its own economy nearly to death when cacao prices collapsed in the '80s by internally subsidizing exports of its theretofore most profitable crop. Then they killed the whole industry while trying to set up a cacao OPEC, forgetting that it would be a lot easier for rich countries to just go without chocolate than to live without oil. Sure, war and corruption are bad, but plenty of countries had better performance despite them than CdI did during its long fall. In some sense, the logical comparison is Venezuela's self-sabotaging response to the PDVSA strike of 2002 [1]. It's also another case study in the enduring power of roads: for all the mistakes, CdI built the best road network in West Africa, and those roads are mostly still there, probably helping propel its recent recovery at a faster pace than its neighbors. Almost like a tiny Rome. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA#Politicization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDVSA#Politicization

resolutebat 3y ago
> Then they killed the whole industry while trying to set up a cacao OPEC, forgetting that it would be a lot easier for rich countries to just go without chocolate than to live without oil. The rich countries didn't go without chocolate: other cacao producers were more than happy to pick up the slack and collect the extra profits. OPEC is remarkable mostly as a rare example of a successful international cartel, and even then its history is riven with constant squabbles, sales off the books etc, and these days it's a shadow of its former self because Russia and now the US (thanks fracking) don't play ball.
- pi-e-sigma 3y ago
  Russia, and before that Soviet Union, has never been part of OPEC

vjulian 3y ago

The Area Handbooks the author mentions sound fascinating. I see little information online about them from my cursory search but see a few used copies available. Historical accounts such as those are a treasure trove of fun reading, at least to me.

alephnerd 3y ago

Interesting thread related to Ivory Coast's lack of production, specifically how most Vietnam and Ivory Coast grow a similar amount of cashews, but most Ivorian cashews end up in Vietnam due to a lack of processing capacity in Ivory Coast - https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/1736038330251329939 https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/1736038330251329939

grecy 3y ago
If you find that interesting, you may want to look into why Switzerland is the 2nd largest exporter of coffee in the world, despite never growing a single bean [1]. The powers that be absolutely will not allow countries like Ethiopia to process the coffee they grow any more than they will allow Ivory Coast to process cashews. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096413/main-export-countries-for-coffee-worldwide/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1096413/main-export-coun...
- foobarian 3y ago
  But why do they allow Vietnam to process cashews? How is Vietnam different?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - Maken 3y ago
    After they expelled the French and Americans, and then the Eastern Bloc collapsed, they were relatively free of foreign influence to develop their country as they saw fit.
    - alephnerd 3y ago
      > expelled the French and Americans And invited them back with the Moi reforms in 1986. > relatively free of foreign influence They got a massive FDI influx from Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China - especially after China began boycotting Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese firms in the 2013-2017 period. This is why VN's first SEZ (Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park) was devoted to food processing. A leadership crisis has also been brewing in the VCP for that reason, as the Southern cadre leans pro-SK and the Northern cadre leans pro-PRC.

AlbertCory 3y ago

Great article. Almost long enough to be in The New Yorker /s > By 1968, there were 48 cinemas in the Ivory Coast. In my own experience, cinemas are still quite rare in West Africa. I almost went to one in the Ivory Coast, but I didn’t want to see anything that was playing. All those Nollywood films! They can't all be for export. https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/1077508 https://www.netflix.com/browse/genre/1077508

merek 3y ago

Excellent read so far (I'm about a quarter way through). I think I've found a minor error: > To the Ivory Coast’s west, Ghana went from one of the best African economies to one of the worst, culminating in the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah in 1968. Farther west, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria... These countries are East of Ivory Coast.

prmph 3y ago
And Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966, not 1968.
vlabakje90 3y ago
There are other minor errors here and there. He mentions that it is 'literally impossible' to get a tourist visa other than by coming through the airport in Abidjan. Yet, in 2023 I did get one outside of Côte d'Ivoir, at the Ivorian consulate in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
midasuni 3y ago
Technically If you go west, and continue to go west past Ghana, from Ivory Coast you will get to Nigeria.
- Kiro 3y ago
  Around the globe twice? No need to go through Ghana. It will save you one circumnavigation.
  - midasuni 3y ago
    Sure, but if you define Ghana as being to the west and then travel further west you will get to nigeria Go west c. 30Mm and you get to Ghana, a total of c. 60Mm and you get to nigeria.
    - Kiro 3y ago
      That's east.

marxisttemp 3y ago

> how are there no successful post-colonial African countries? > Despite giving me Marxist vibes So the author is ideologically opposed to the type of economics that is precisely concerned with this sort of analysis? I stopped reading here, I don’t need analysis from those who believe in fables of invisible hands and shy away from any analysis that could be considered to bite it!

hoseja 3y ago

..."It was established to cultivate a Francophilic loyal class of intellectual and political elites"... Weird how it's not polite to write about the indoctrination aspect of modern western schooling... Also astonished at the anglo refusal to acknowledge any other languages and orthographies exist. You are not being cute when you refuse to even try to correctly reproduce "those weird apostrophes and accents" or when you "apologize for butchering the pronunciation!"