Tag Archives: Cote d’Ivoire

Abidjan v Lusaka

It’s been almost half a year now that we’ve been living in Lusaka, Zambia, and as with previous moves around Africa, I thought it would be interesting to spotlight a few differences compared with Abidjan. Development wise, there are a … Continue reading

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BRVM update and other economic notes

Twelve months ago, I announced the end to my series of annual posts focusing on investments on the Abidjan-based stock exchange. The posts seemed to be getting very similar – double digit growth reported, all in the (relative) safety of … Continue reading

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7 things we learned from Didier Drogba’s ‘Commitment’

The other weekend I read a blog post about Didier Drogba’s latest autobiography ‘Commitment’, and after a quick Kindle purchase, the book had been downloaded and read by Sunday evening. I do have his previous autobiography (unread) on my shelf, … Continue reading

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What’s in a name?

I’m not sure I’d ever heard anyone use the phrase ‘Drogba’s Country’ when I selected it for this blog. But it was pretty clear that the only thing most people knew about Cote d’Ivoire back in 2011 was that it … Continue reading

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Vive les vloggeuses

Just over a year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled ‘The Rise of the Female Blogger‘ about the explosion of a talented generation of women Ivorian bloggers, in what was a rather male-dominated sector in the early years. I think … Continue reading

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Seeing Abidjan with Freetown eyes

I’ve written a couple of blog posts in the past comparing Abidjan and Freetown (post1, post2). Travelling between two such cities would be an effective antidote for anyone who thinks you can treat African countries and cities as being basically … Continue reading

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Cultural update

Arriving in Abidjan a few hours after the birth of my son, the space to visit friends and engage in cultural activities during my two weeks in Cote d’Ivoire were understandably limited. Coming from Freetown – which I increasingly view … Continue reading

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Deja vu: And if the cocoa price dropped?

A thumb sketch of Ivorian economic history from independence goes like this: a major cocoa farmer becomes president, encourages the development of the sector by opening up new land and encouraging farmers to cut down the forests to become productive. … Continue reading

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Journal Gbayé – Ivory Coast’s news in rap and nouchi

I’d seen the stories about the rap news in Senegal (the JT rappé) , but now from the same outfit we have an Ivorian version, rapped/sung in French and Nouchi (local Ivorian street slang), with support from George Soros’ Open … Continue reading

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Back home

Over the last week back in Abidjan, I had the pleasure of living again in the house we bought in 2010. Previously we’d been hiring a small studio for my wife to sit-out the Ebola crisis with our new baby, … Continue reading

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