Ivory Coast: Change

Since there is little settlement within Ivory Coast, “a sense of national identity has been slow to emerge.”[1] Part of this reason is the fact that there are so many people groups and languages that are within this one country. “As with many African nations, national boundaries mean little to the sense of identity of many of those who live within them. The principal ethnic groups that form the majority of Ivorian society have strong cultural and social ties to other members of their group who may live outside of the Ivory Coast’s national borders.”[2] “In Côte d'Ivoire, as across Africa, national boundaries reflect the impact of colonial rule as much as present-day political reality, bringing nationalism into conflict with centuries evolving ethnic identification.”[3] The people of Ivory Coast typically have ties to people who live in surrounding countries due to the boundaries that have been formed and the reasoning behind the formation of the boundaries. “These centrifugal pressures provided a challenge to political leaders in the 1980s, as they did to the governors of the former French colony.[4] The connections many people in Ivory Coast have with people outside the country caused issues within the country for the leaders because they do not really know all the connections the people could have. This has affected the day-to-day life in Ivory Coast because the nation has had trouble discovering who they are as a country since the people are so connected to other people outside the country. That is likely to affect anyone, if the people around are more connect to other people then it would make everyday life difficult. Those factors would also impact the stability of the country. It is difficult to find stability in something that has so many parts playing a role in it. The role of people outside Ivory Coast factor into how the people within the country act towards different situations and topics.