Yamoussoukro - Kita Cloth - Goli Dances - Attiéké - Bouaké

At the breakfast buffet this morning there are a couple of different ‘sausages’ (beef and pork), which in my opinion are more like pâté in their consistency, and it’s difficult to differentiate between the two in terms of taste.

David drinks what he assumes is pineapple juice, only to find it is a ginger juice so strong you could strip paint with it. We both love ginger, but this requires a cast iron stomach first thing in the morning.

Kita Cloth

We stop in Kondeyaokro Village outside Yamoussoukro where a group of people from the Baoulé tribe are weaving cloths that are closely related to the famous Kente Cloth associated with the Ashanti people of Ghana. The cloths are identified by their dazzling, multicoloured patterns of bright colours, geometric shapes, and bold designs.

The production of the cloths goes through several stages:

1. Cotton thread is bought at the market, usually sold by weight.

2. The thread is stretched out according to how long the finished cloth should be.

3. Colour is applied to the cotton, using chemicals bought from the market.

Chemical dyes

Dyed cloth drying in the sun

4. Narrow strips of cloth are woven on specially designed looms.

The looms are huge

They also look very complicated

5. Several of the narrow strips are then sewn together to make a bigger cloth.

The different colours have different symbolic meanings:

Blue = Peacefulness, harmony and love
White = purification, sanctification rites and festive occasions
Yellow = preciousness, royalty, wealth, fertility, beauty
Gold = royalty, wealth, high status, glory, spiritual purity

6. The finished cloths are finally taken to the market to be sold.

Our handsome guide Mathias shows off a finished strip

We move from one end of the village to the other to see another performance of a traditional masked dance.

Goli Masked Dances

Traditionally, this dance by the Baoulé people was only performed when the village chief died. These days, however, it is used for various celebrations, such as Christmas, New Year, birthdays, weddings, the Howards visiting, or just by request. I am relived by that, as I really don’t fancy killing the chief just so that we can watch the dance.

Kondeyaokro Village

We are greeted by a welcome dance by the musicians while the initiated men go to the sacred forest to prepare the masks.

Welcome dance

They let me have a go at playing the shekele, a simple instrument made from a gourd covered in netting to which shells have been attached, very much like a rattle. Note the traditional chairs we are given to sit on.

The Goli Dance is in two parts. First the ‘small masks’ known as kpan come out to have a good look around to check the place out for any danger.

There are two of them, one is said to represent a male, and the other a female, but it is almost impossible for the lay person to tell the difference.

The costumes are made from cloth and raffia, with metallic anklets adding another rattle-like sound.

The wooden facial effigies have no openings for the wearers to be able to look out, and it is not necessary, as the spirit will guide them.

I do notice, however, that they has an assistant who guides them as they dance, which is an absolute necessity as they make some serious jumps and twists.

The masks are sacred, and at one stage women were not even permitted to watch these dances. That constraint has now been lifted, but they are still very strict about women not touching the masks.

Each dancer displays leaps and twirls, and some fancy footwork.

Each dance lasts a couple of minutes at most, and when they feel they have finished, they use a wooden stick to hit the back of the mask (the entire outfit is known as a mask, not just the wooden face covering), which is covered with cow hide, making a whack sound similar to a gun being fired.

Once the kpan have finished their dances, there is a short lull in proceedings, which I use to photograph the young children that have gathered to observe or take part.

The children appear much better dressed in this village than others we've seen. They are not dirty and their clothes are not torn.

After a short interlude, the main characters, the Goli Glen masks, come out. The main bodies of the costumes are similar to the kpan, but using fresh palm fronds instead of raffia, which means they has to be made just prior to each performance. The fronds emphasises the association with wild nature.

The wooden zoomorphic face coverings do not represent a single identifiable animal, rather they are said to be composed by elements from different creatures such as an antelope and crocodile. The masks represent a ‘bush spirit’ that has no counterpart on earth. The long horns, open jaws and teeth are supposed to inspire fear.

The Baoulé people are traditionally animists and they believe in the existence of spirits in which the soul of the ancestors resides. They believe that the masks have the power to connect people with the world of spirits and the supernatural, and that they can influence your life for better or worse. Mathias, himself a Baoulé, explains that not all spirits are called up to do good deeds, “some people come to do bad things”.

The Goli Glen dancers have even more elaborate moves than the kpan. In the small video below, you can see the movement of the legs, and how he hits the back of the costume to indicate that he has finished.

Another instrument has been added for this section, a cow horn with a hole part way down, known as an abeng, making a sound almost like the horn of a car and serves as a way of communicating with the spirits of the land and ancestors.

The monotonous singing, the sound of the gourd rattles and the addition of the horn at regular intervals, is strangely hypnotic.

The children are very enthusiastic.

I can’t really describe it as dancing, not as we know it in the West, but the footwork is incredible!

At the end of the performance, we are invited to take photos of the masked dancers and with them.

The two Goli Glen masks

Notice how I am instructed to stand well away from the masks in case I accidentally touch them

The children join us

As well as the musicians and singers

We make a print of the last image to give to the organiser of the dances, and it proves so popular, they end up ‘fighting’ over it.

We leave Kondeyaokro Village behind and join the main road, where after a short while, Solo stops the car on the side of the road. Mathias and two men from the village who have been following us on motorbikes go off into the forest to a place where palm wine is being produced. They are gone for a very long time - I start to wonder if they have drunk too much of the toddy and lost their way back.

When they return, Mathias tells us it is “too far” for us to go, me because of of my mobility issues, and David because he is only wearing sandals and the path is very uneven. He has, however, brought us back a bottle of freshly tapped palm wine. Oh goody! (there might just be a hint of sarcasm there...)

Attiéké

We stop at Sakiare Village to see how they make this popular food. Attiéké is a couscous like side dish made from cassava, and it is what I ate on the first day here in Ivory Coast.

Attiéké

Attiéké is a staple food in Ivory Coast and is deeply rooted in the daily lives of its communities and the expertise needed to make it are passed down orally and through observation. The process is so important to their culture that the skills related to its production has been inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

This village is famous for the production of attiéké, and it is exported all over the country and beyond. It is produced by a cooperative of more than one hundred women.

Also known as manioc or yucca, cassava is a root vegetable that grows underground. There are several varieties, some producing tubers within six months of planting, others can take up to two years to mature.

The workers we see here do not grow their own cassava, they buy them in from the farmers. It's the women's job to prepare, cook, preserve, and sell the attiéké, while the men grow, harvest, transport and grind the cassava.

The roots are peeled using large cleavers.

I am a little alarmed to see a very young girl wielding a knife which is almost bigger than her.

Especially when she gets distracted by my camera while using the knife.

After peeling and chopping, the root is steamed in a pot with holes over a vat of boiling water for up to 20 minutes.

Prepared cassava

The steamer

After steaming, the cassava is sent off to grind into fine grains. When it is returned, it is laid out to dry, and sieved to make sure only the finest particles are used.

Drying

Sieving

The final step is to cook it for a few minutes once more, while stirring, then it is carried away to be dried again before it is packed up and sent out. Some people will come here to buy the attiéké in bulk, whereas other women take smaller bags to the market to sell.

Into the pot

Cook and stir

All done

Off to be packaged

Before we leave the village, I check to make sure the young girl still has all her fingers. She does.

Lunch

We return to Yamoussoukro for lunch at the same restaurant as yesterday, La Brise. This time the air conditioned room is fully booked, so we sit in the main part of the restaurant. The good news is, they have fixed their problem from yesterday, so the toilets have water and paper again. Neither David nor I are particularly hungry, so we share a Mexican Pizza. It is not particularly spicy, but quite enjoyable all the same.

From here we are heading north to Bouaké.

The road is classed as a motorway, with two lanes in each direction and very little traffic, especially on the opposite side of the road, which seems completely empty. Then we see a huge tanker coming towards us, in the outside lane, on our side of the road. Oh. I let out a gasp, but am not overly concerned at this stage, as we are in the inside lane and there is plenty of space. Less than a second later I see a white car in the inside lane, also coming towards us, overtaking the tanker. My first thought is that he will pull back in behind the tanker. He doesn’t. In fact he flashes us to say he’s coming through and for us to get out of the way. Solo (our driver) is thankfully on the ball, and pulls over onto the hard shoulder as the two vehicles go whizzing past us while my heart temporarily stops and I hold my breath. Phew, that was close!

This photo above was not taken at the time (I was too busy being terrified), but a minute or so later. As you can see, there is a car parked on the hard shoulder here – had that been earlier, we would have been in real trouble.

Later we see the accident, and the drivers of vehicles going that direction just crossing the central reservation (no barriers) to drive on our side. There are no signs, no prior warning, no-one supervising. Scary - and dangerous - stuff!

Mon Afrik Hotel, Bouaké

I think “quirky” is the best way to describe this hotel, something that is evident before we even enter the courtyard: A Jeep has been cut in half and used as decoration on the outside wall.

The theme continues as we enter the reception, where artwork of every type abounds.

David checking in

A large carved wooden elephant - after all, Ivory Coast was once known for their elephants!

A lot of thought has gone into the furnishing and decorations - I like it!

We are shown to our room, which can best be described as “compact and bijou”.

The room is close to reception, which is no doubt what Mathias requested. This is the entrance to the room.

There is not much space inside

Mathias is not impressed. He goes back to reception to see if they can find us a larger room. This one is down a path covered with arches and guarded by wooden soldiers.

The room has a small sitting area outside, complete with its own little ‘totem pole’ (albeit missing an arm).

The room is considerable bigger, as is the bed, which to me is much more important.

The mattress, however, is rock hard, and six inches smaller than the bed itself, leaving a wooden ledge all around.

After leaving us to unpack, Mathias returns shortly afterwards, with a waiter to take our dinner order. Hedgehog (or rather ‘edgehog’) is unavailable here too. It seems to be a bit of a prickly dish to find (sorry, not sorry).

We both order beef kebabs, with one portion of fries to share between us. David has been craving ice cream for days, but none of the restaurants have had any so far. He orders banana flambé with chocolate ice cream, while I ask for the mango flambé. No mango, it’s not the season. I choose just some vanilla ice cream instead.

Mathias goes off again with the waiter, but returns once more a few minutes later with the bottle of palm wine he acquired earlier. Dammit, I’d hoped he’d forgotten. He hands it over with two small paper cups. I tell him to just pour us a little bit each, and then he can enjoy the rest.

You can see what I think of it from these screen prints of a video. It tastes to me like it is still fermenting!

Having changed rooms, the temperature inside is still on the warm side (26 °C), so we go for a little walk around the grounds while we wait for the AC to cool the air down. The grounds are full of winding paths, verdant vegetation, and artwork, with the rooms interspersed throughout and featuring lots of different architectural styles.

I'm intrigued by the bright green bark on this tree, and some research when I return home suggests it might be a kapok tree. If anyone knows differently, please let me know in the comments below.

There’s also an outside terrace with a restaurant and bar, plus a swimming pool.

The whole place has a distinct safari lodge feel, and I am not in the least surprised when we spot a few little critters on our walk.

Female West African Rainbow Lizard

Striped Ground Squirrel

At first glance, this looks to me like a dik dik. Studying it further, however, I realise that the colouration is wrong for a dik dik (it's too dark), and a google search suggests it’s a Royal Antelope.

They (we see another one along the path) do not seem to be afraid of humans, letting me get quite close.

Dinner

We are shown to a table sitting outside in the lovely tropical grounds with lights strung between the trees.

While we wait for the food to arrive, David order a Beaufort beer, and I choose a Planteur cocktail, which has rum and pineapple.

Love the ice frosted glass that comes with the beer

My fruity rum punch

When the food arrives, we realise we should have ordered one plate of kebabs between us, there is so much meat. At least we only ordered one portion of fries to share.

Something seems to have been lost in translation, as we both have fries with our meal, plus an additional plate of fries. Just as well David is a great fan of chips!

Some of the pieces of meat are more tender than others, and the two sauces are good, especially the mushroom one which is very garlicky.

The restaurant plays excellent music, lots of songs from the 1980s that we can sing along to.

When dessert arrives, David gets his banana flambé, and I am served a dish with vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

Banana flambé

Ice cream

Just after I’ve started eating the ice cream, another banana flambé arrives. I spread the vanilla ice cream on it, and give David the chocolate ice cream.

I do love a good translation confusion, especially when it results in me 'having to eat' a delicious dessert.

Goodnight from Ivory Coast, and thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for arranging this incredible adventure.