Korhogo

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Korhogo
Korhogo (Ivory Coast)
Korhogo
Korhogo
Coordinates 9 ° 28 ′  N , 5 ° 38 ′  W Coordinates: 9 ° 28 ′  N , 5 ° 38 ′  W
Basic data
Country Ivory Coast

District

Savanes
height 370 m
Residents 286,071 (2014 census)
Korhogo 1995. In the background the Great Mosque

Korhogo is the capital of the Savanes administrative region in the West African Ivory Coast . Korhogo is the most populous city in the north of the country and the settlement center of the Senufo .

Cityscape and population

Savanes is the largest of the 19 administrative regions and is divided into four departments . The department of the same name belongs to Korhogo. The city is located around 600 kilometers north of Abidjan and around 50 kilometers from the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso at an altitude of around 380 meters. The northern part of Ivory Coast is part of the savannah belt . In the surrounding area, the basement forms some small but steep island mountains, which protrude above the plain from a layer of weathered soil up to 60 meters thick. The highest point is Mont Korhogo , which has been declared a protected area and can be climbed in half an hour, with a height of 567 meters. The hill is located in the southwest of the center, from its crest several irrigation lakes can be seen in the intensely cultivated agricultural land.

According to the 2014 census, the population of Korhogo is 286,071. The city center is characterized by the large, partially covered market, which is located on the edge of a densely populated residential area of ​​the lower class with corrugated iron roofs. The main road from here to the south leads to the only roundabout around which most of the administration buildings are grouped and continues in the direction of Mont Korhogo through Residential, the residential area of ​​the middle-class and upper-class.

Town hall at the roundabout

The old quarter of the Dioula traders and artisans in the north is called Koko. Only a few of the roads are paved throughout. The most famous building is the Great Mosque in Mughal style with a separate minaret, four corner towers and filigree patterns in the white plastering of the outer walls. The majority of the Senufo and Dioula in Korhogo are Muslim, with a large number being animists. There is a Roman Catholic diocese ( Notre Dame de Fatima, Catholic missionaries have been in the city since 1905), and some Baptist missionaries since the 1950s.

The airport for domestic flights has an asphalt runway 2,100 meters long.

history

Korhogo is said to have been founded in the 14th century by Senufo elder Nangui of Kong . In the 17th century, Manding-speaking peoples from the north (Dioula) immigrated to the Korhogo area, where they met indigenous Senufos. Mutual cultural takeovers resulted in an extensive mixing, as categories they remained separate. At the end of the 19th century, Korhogo was under the influence of the Malinke military leader Samory Touré , against whom the French initially in negotiations and then militarily extended their power to the north until 1898. After consolidating their colonial rule, the French began to employ forced laborers for road construction, for the railway line that had begun in 1893 and for the rubber plantations in the southern parts of the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, Korhogo was not only a leader in exporting cotton to the colonial rulers, but also in providing labor. In 1918 1,200 men from Korhogo were brought to the south, in 1928 8,000 Senufo had to leave their fields and were put into forced labor. A labor shortage developed in the Korhogo region which, along with a drought, resulted in economic distress. This was accompanied by a loss of authority on the part of the tribal leaders, who could no longer guarantee the security of the people. From the original system of fields cultivated jointly by many clans, a segmented social structure emerged around 1930 due to a lack of workers, in which individual clans worked their own fields.

In 1932 France began paying individual chiefs (clan elders) monthly for administrative tasks. The Paramount Chief of Korhogo, Gbon Coulibaly, who had welcomed the French in the 1890s, provided the slave laborers and was willingly placed in the service of the French. 1942–1943 there were local famines. Gbon's support for France did not end until 1945 when he openly began promoting the resistance movement of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, to which he remained loyal until his death in 1962. His son Dramane Coulibaly also supported Houphouët-Boigny, became regional leader of his RDA party and remained Paramount Chief until 1970.

The civil war against the government of the Christian South under Laurent Gbagbo began in September 2002 with attacks by a rebel movement under the name Mouvement Patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire (MPCI) on Korhogo and Bouaké . In an initial response, the French army flew 130 Western foreigners out of the city. A ceasefire was agreed in May 2003, but a state of emergency prevailed until the peace agreement was signed in July 2007. Rebels took command in the city. The Korhogo market became a hub for contraband. When the rebels withdrew in 2006, criminal violence increased. The security tasks were now taken over by a traditional hunter group called Dozos ; a brotherhood that claims to have magical abilities.

economy

Mont Korhogo on the southwestern outskirts. Green fields during the summer rainy season

The area around Korhogo is relatively densely populated with over 75 inhabitants per square kilometer. The annual rainfall is 1200 to 1300 millimeters. Senufo, sometimes also Dioula, mainly grow yams , peanuts , corn and rice . Cotton is the most important export item. Senufo used to practice subsistence cultivation with the hoe, but since the 1960s ox plows have been used more and more on the newly created large cotton fields. The previous sheep farming was supplemented by extensive cattle breeding. In the period between 1960 and 1980 the cotton harvest increased tenfold, in 1982 almost half of the cultivated area around Korhogo was cotton.

Senufo and Dioula are known for their handicrafts. In the city and the surrounding villages, wooden masks and fabric weaving are made. The villages specialize in weaving, basketry and forging. Iron ore is mined in the traditional way in the village of Koni, a few kilometers away, and processed into agricultural equipment.

Around 100 kilometers south of Tortiya, diamonds are mined in alluvial fields. The production is relatively low.

Individual evidence

  1. Results of the 2014 census . Retrieved January 7, 2016.
  2. ^ Catherine Boone: Political Topographies of the African State. Territorial Authority and Institutional Choice. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, pp. 254-256
  3. James Palmer: Ivory Coast crisis heads for civil war. The Independent, September 30, 2002
  4. ^ Smugglers Rule Rebel hero Ivory Coast as Lawful Business Wanes. The New York Times, August 21, 2005
  5. In pictures: Northern Ivory Coast. Dozo hunters. BBC photos of Dozos
  6. ^ Rebel Soldiers Absence Creates Increased Violence in Ivory Coast. Voice of America, August 15, 2006 ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.voanews.com
  7. Alexandra Harrison and Bob Foster. Cote d'Ivoire. Mining Annual Review 2000  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 64 kB)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.fdi.net  

Web links

Commons : Korhogo  - collection of images, videos and audio files