Abé (people)

The Abé (also "Abbey") are a people in the Ivory Coast in West Africa . The people include around 200,000 people, which makes up about 1.4% of the total population. They live mainly in the region of the city of Agboville . In this city they form the majority of the population. Their language is also called Abé .

The Abé form a subgroup of the Akan , to which the Ashanti , mainly resident in Ghana , belong, from which the Abé emigrated. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Abé fled slavery from the gold to the Ivory Coast. The forced labor and the construction of the Abidjan-Niger Railway through their settlement area led to an uprising in 1905, which the French colonial power was only able to put down after 1,400 Senegalese riflemen had moved in. Some of the leaders were deported to the French Congo and Central Africa . The town of Rubino north of Agboville is on the battlefield of one of the clashes and bears the name of one of the officers of the colonial army at the time.