National integration in Côte d'Ivoire

After sixty years of French colonial rule (1893-1960) Côte d'Ivoire gained its independence on 7 August 1960 with a heterogeneous population made up of some sixty different peoples. Nothing predisposed these peoples to a common destiny before colonisation. During the first three decades of independence the policy of national integration adopted by Félix Houphouët-Boigny and the traditions of these peoples fostered relative political and social stability conducive to national unity. However since the death of Houphouët-Boigny Côte d'Ivoire has plunged into an unprecedented social fracture linked mainly to political and inter-ethnic conflicts and the coup d'état of 1999. How did this country long recognised as a political economic and social model in an Africa in crisis become a veritable social fracture after the death of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny? This book invites Ivorians then Africans and other peoples of the world to understand the necessity of the issue of national integration in post-colonial African states in general and in Côte d'Ivoire in particular.