Five things Ivory Coast’s first president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, will be remembered for

Photo: Ivory Business

He supported Françafrique

As the leader of a former colony of France, Houphouët-Boigny was seen as a contrarian for supporting an alliance with the coloniser.  With Francafrique, he alluded that the former colonies will benefit in terms of economic growth and political stability if they maintained their alliance with France.

RELATED STORIES

Read the insightful Nobel Lecture delivered by Wangari Maathai in 2004

Read Martin Luther King’s famous 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech

Dorie Miller, the black messman who defied segregation to save lives at Pearl Harbour

Fertile African lands colonisers stole from indigenous communities

The term came under scrutiny before Houphouët-Boigny attempt at making it a positive phrase. It was a term that alluded to France’s continued colonisation of Africa albeit in covert ways.