> du 7 au 16 novembre au cinéma Le Trianon de Romainvile (93) et hors-les-murs
31/10/2025
30/10/2025
Chocolate making in Cote d'Ivoire
Chocolate making in Cote d'Ivoire • RFI English
Côte d’Ivoire, one of Africa’s most dynamic economies, is best known for its coffee and cocoa production. Yet for decades, Ivorians rarely tasted chocolate made from their own crops.
Determined to change that, entrepreneur Axel Emmanuel Gbaou founded ten years ago the brand 'Le Chocolatier Ivoirien', the ‘Ivorian chocolate maker’.
He is new selling thousands of chocolate bars per month locally, including his latest, Kimbo, the $1 bar.
My report in video:
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Article to come.
29/10/2025
Western celebrities and 'white saviourism'
I really agree...
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| The story by our reporter Aisha Down last week was a warning of a new era of “poverty porn” as leading aid agencies were found to be using AI-generated images to promote public sympathy for their causes. Arsenii Alenichev, a researcher into the production of global health images at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, told the Guardian: “The images replicate the visual grammar of poverty – children with empty plates, cracked earth, stereotypical visuals.” That delicate line between raising awareness and entrenching stereotypes popped into my inbox a few days later in the shape of an email from the Unicef media office looking for coverage of a visit by the Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson to South Sudan. That Neeson, one of a stable of Unicef goodwill ambassadors that includes David Beckham, cared enough to give up his time to meet children suffering from malnutrition in an inhospitable place is not in question. The UN agency is not alone in using the tactic of sending celebrities from the northern hemisphere to bring attention to issues in the global south, but is it really the right message? For me it edges uncomfortably close to “white saviourism”, and shows we are far away from decolonising the humanitarian community’s approach to aid and the people who need it. Clearly there is an argument to the contrary, but I have never seen any measure of whether this approach does more good than harm. Take the recent visit of a British royal, the Duchess of Edinburgh, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Media coverage of the visit of Sophie – wife of the king’s brother Edward – did cover the horrific rates of rape in the country where sexual violence continues to be very much used as a weapon of war, but also focused intently on just how brave she was. “Secret”, “high security”, “high risk”, a “royal first”– hammered down on the stereotype of the dark frightening place that is the African continent where people must find it an honour to be visited by a great white lady. No matter that it is the great white lady’s imperial family who helped reduce the DRC to its current state, surely an international audience can be trusted to understand the issues without the caravans of unqualified, privileged western celebrities standing in front of the camera in freshly pressed linen shirts? Tracy McVeigh, editor, Global development - Also we should add: Sending high profile celebrities and even head of programme of these charities and UN agencies... It cost a small fortune!! Money taken from donors' gifts and crucial donations for local people. So let's stop this mascarade only feeding the stereotype that these figures are needed... They're not, really not. |
28/10/2025
Newsletter: Aftermath of an election
Aftermath of an election
From Côte d'Ivoire to Cameroon, Argentina to the Netherlands, democracy is currently challenged... But this can also teach people to focus on long term goals and hope, like these people in Abidjan.
Link:
Aftermath of an election
From Côte d'Ivoire to Cameroon, Argentina to the Netherlands, democracy is currently challenged... But this can also teach people to focus on long term goals and hope, like these people in Abidjan.
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27/10/2025
Côte d'Ivoire: Ouattara remains President
Ouattara wins landslide fourth term as Côte d'Ivoire president
Côte d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouattara has won a fourth term, securing a crushing 89.77 percent, the electoral commission said on Monday evening, in a vote which his two greatest rivals were barred from.
Nearly nine million voters were eligible to cast their ballot Saturday in the world's top cocoa producer, which has resisted coups and jihadist attacks plaguing much of west Africa but which saw tensions soar and deadly violence in the run-up to the election.
Even before the provisional results' announcement Ouattara was already anticipated to have swept the polls, after early tallies on Sunday showed him winning upwards of 90 percent of the vote. Turnout was close to 100 percent in his northern strongholds.
The political veteran was also ahead in traditionally pro-opposition areas in the south and parts of the economic hub Abidjan, where polling stations had been almost empty on Saturday.
Entrepreneur Jean-Louis Billon came second to the veteran leader with 3.09 percent, said the commission's president Ibrahime Kuibiert Coulibaly, who announced a 50.10 percent turnout, a similar level to 2020 when Ouattara won 94 percent of the vote in an election boycotted by the main opponents.
This time around, Ouattara's leading rivals, former president Laurent Gbagbo and Credit Suisse ex-CEO Tidjane Thiam, were both barred from standing, Gbagbo for a criminal conviction and Thiam for having acquired French nationality.
"Their absence, their calls not to participate in the election, and the climate of tension that deteriorated in recent days foretold a significant demobilisation of the electorate," said William Assanvo, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
In the southern city of Gagnoa, Gbagbo's former stronghold, Ouattara won 92 percent of the vote but with a turnout rate of only 20 percent.
The opposition has already denied "any legitimacy" to Ouattara and has called for new elections.
'A calm election'
Political analyst Geoffroy Kouao believes "the turnout rate shows two things".
"First, Mr Ouattara's supporters turned out in force, as shown by the Soviet-esque results in certain regions," said Kouao.
"And second, supporters of the (Gbagbo and Thiam's parties) did not go to the polls."
Billon also expressed concern Sunday for "very low turnout in some regions", while still offering congratulations to Ouattara.
He and the other candidates on the ballot, including former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, did not have have a chance of reaching a second round due to a lack of support from a major party or significant financial resources.
Earlier calls for protests by the main opposition led to deadly unrest in the run-up to the election, with at least eight people killed this month and nearly two dozen reported injured in election-day clashes at some 200 polling stations.
The government had declared a nighttime curfew in some areas and deployed 44,000 security forces.
Presidential elections in the country are commonly rife with tension and unrest.
Ouattara first came to power following the 2010-2011 presidential clash between him and Laurent Gbagbo, which cost more than 3,000 lives among their supporters.
On Monday, Abidjan returned to near-normal activity after the capital was unusually deserted at the weekend.
"The Ivorians said NO to prophets of doom," headlined the Patriote, a pro-Ouattara newspaper, praising "a calm election".
The opposition daily Notre Voie, however, pointed to "an election reflecting a divided country".
(AFP)
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For more:
Côte d'Ivoire presidential election 2025: What's at stake?
25/10/2025
AKAA 2025
This year the contemporary African art fair Also Known as Africa (AKAA) in Paris celebrates its tenth edition, with artists blurring distinctions between craft and art, Asia and Africa, far away from the financial refuge that big art fairs have become...
Snapshots by myself:
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These include some of my favourite artists, like Dalila Dalleas Bouzar and Nu Barreto.
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Read RFI's article for more details:
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24/10/2025
Côte d'Ivoire heads to polls
Ivorians are heading to polls this Saturday in one of the most watched elections in the West Africa region.
Incumbent Alassane Ouattara, 83, is the overwhelming favourite, seeking to secure a fourth term, a task facilitated by the absence of several key opposition figures.
Nearly 8.7 million voters are expected to elect their president this Saturday in Côte d'Ivoire, a country of 38 million inhabitants and the most dynamic economy of the West Africa region.
Five candidates are in the running, including the incumbent, Alassane Ouattara, who is seeking a fourth term.
Ouattara, 83, has been in power since 2011, and since then the country began reasserting itself as an African economic powerhouse, being the world's top cocoa producer. A legacy that he hasn't missed mentioning in his campaign.
"We want a knockout blow," his allies say, as they hope for a win from the first round, avoiding a run-off. Facing him, four challengers, mostly outsiders, apart from Simone Gbagbo, the former first lady, ex-wife of Laurent Gbagbo.
Five candidates, one powerhouse
Facing Ouattara is first the former trade minister Jean-Louis Billon, the youngest candidate at 60, claiming to represent a "new generation" of Ivorian politicians.
The agribusinessman looks to rally voices by promising more jobs for the youth, the employed and those left out by the current rapid growth.
His campaign has been the most dynamic among the four, with rallies all over the country.
Two women are also competing: the aforementioned former first lady Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, 76, who is looking to gather support from the faithful followers of her former husband, and the centrist Henriette Lagou, a moderate who already stood in 2015 -- taking less than one percent then.
The fifth candidate, civil engineer and independent Pan-African Ahoua Don Mello, does not conceal his Russian sympathies and claims to represent 'leftist' ideas, as the Gbagbos.
But these four candidates lack the support of a formal party, while the main politicians on the Ivorian scene have been excluded from the race.
Former president and Ouattara's rival Laurent Gbagbo has been barred from standing, as well as the former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, head of one of the main political parties, PDCI.
The constitutional council eliminated them on the grounds they had been removed from the electoral roll, Thiam because nationality-related legal issues stemming from him acquiring French citizenship and Gbagbo for a criminal conviction.
Their absence added to a tense political climate, with their supporters calling for protests the authorities have strictly banned, citing a risk to public safety.
None of the four candidates seeking to unseat Ouattara represents an established party, and they lack the logistical means compared to the ruling Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), led by Ouattara.
Major security upscale
Some 44,000 security forces were deployed nationwide, which systematically quashed blockades or marches in several localities, especially former opposition strongholds in the south and west.
Three people died over the past few weeks, two protesters and a gendarme, in the south and centre-west. And more than 700 people were arrested, some for acts of "terrorism," according to state prosecutor Oumar Braman Kone.
Around 30 were sentenced to a three-year prison term for disturbing public order were also handed down.
The authorities acknowledged a tightening of the pre-poll screws by saying they did not want to permit "chaos" to arise nor see a repeat of the unrest of 2020, when 85 people died during the election.
"The state is taking preventive security measures to avoid electoral violence. But the best way to have peaceful polls is to organise inclusive elections," political analyst Geoffroy Kouao told AFP.
Ouattara himself came to power after a bloody crisis following the 2010-2011 contest, which cost more than 3,000 lives in clashes between his supporters and those of Gbagbo, who ruled for a decade before him.
All eyes on turnout
A crucial issue this Saturday is the turnout, while many voters complain they don't have real choices.
In the north, most people, who are of the Malinke ethnicity, strongly back Ouattara. His RHDP is hoping to get up to 90 percent of the votes and a strong participation rate.
Southern and western regions, home to groups historically pro-PDCI or pro-Gbagbo, might avoid the polls altogether, due to the lack of voting instructions from their leader.
"Since the end of the one-party rule and the rise of multipartism, the political debate in Côte d'Ivoire has begun to tribalise," historian Hyacinthe Bley told me, from the Félix Houphouët Boigny University, in Cocody Abidjan.
This led to tensions, even coups, like in 1999, and a civil war after the 2020 elections.
"The country is still divided between the north and the south", Bley continued, " and no one forgot the violence of the war of 2010-11. The presidential election of 2015 was more peaceful, but the reconciliation is still not complete."
"Nothing will make me vote, my candidate isn't on the list and none of them represents my ideas," complained Emile Kouadio, in the popular district of Yopougon in Abidjan, which remains overwhelmingly pro-Gbagbo.
According to Bley, people in Côte d'Ivoire still vote for a person rather than a party. So the four challengers appear very weak compared to Ouattara.
"The absence of the two main opponents will demobilise a significant portion of the electorate, and so far we haven't seen a significant shift behind a candidate," said William Assanvo, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
The government is highlighting its record of several years of strong economic growth in a country rich in mineral resources, which became an oil and gas producer in the 2020s, as well as a security situation largely under control, despite jihadist threats on its borders with Burkina Faso and Mali.
Critics however underline that the growth only benefits a small portion of the population and came with a deep increase in the cost of living.
What most people told me is however that they hoped for 2010-2011 violence never to repeat and the national reconciliation process to be deepened.
23/10/2025
Côte d'Ivoire - Women & Politics
Women, very active in the campaign, still hope for more space in Côte d'Ivoire's politics
Ivorians are going to the polls on 25 October to elect their next president. Incumbent President Alassane Ouattara is running for a fourth term, facing four outsiders during a two-week-long campaign. Women are very involved in the hustings, both on the President's side and in the opposition. There are even two female candidates. However, women only represent about 30 percent of elected people in Côte d’Ivoire.
I report from Abidjan.
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A Billon campaigner in Cocody, Abidjan, on 14 October 2025/ Photo: Melissa Chemam
Women are very involved in this campaign in Côte d'Ivoire, on the President's side and in the opposition.
The campaign started on Friday 10 October. Elected every five years, the President hold a very important role in the West African country, known for its rich cocoa and coffee productions.
The first round is scheduled for Saturday, with incumbent President Alassane Ouattara, 83, in power since 2011, running for a fourth term. He is facing four outsiders, including two women. Laurent Gbagbo (Simone's ex-husband) and Tidjane Thiam, were however excluded from the race by the constitutional council.
The two women are not expected to get a large part of the votes, but they do represent a keen involment of the female voters, campaigners and other elected officials in Côte d'Ivoire.
Some come to all meetings, others help organise these events. MPs, mayors and officials are also involved, even the candidates' wives, like Jean-Louis Billon's, Henriette Gomis Billon.
Candidates and campaigners
The two women also running for president. are Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, a former first lady, and Henriette Lagou, who told the media she hopes to embody a female alternative in a competition dominated by the traditional male figures of Ivorian political life.
Former Minister for Women under Laurent Gbagbo, Lagou also founded the movement "Two Million Girls for Gbagbo", to support the future of young Ivorien women and girls.
To seduce women voters, during the campaigns, both Ouattara and Billon, given as the president's main challenger, recruited dozens of women organisers and supporters.
According to Martine Vléon, national campaign director of the women for Billon, women play a key role.
"This page in our country's political history will be written by women who stand tall, dignified and determined — women who know that Côte d’Ivoire’s future will not be built without them," she said at the meeting, adding women always had a great role in Ivorian politics.
But the pillars remain the many female voters.
"We want peace in Côte d'Ivoire," a supporter of Billon told me. "Someone who will give us peace. We want to live in tranquility, in joy, in love. That's what we're looking for. We don't want someone who will come and create problems, no... We want to work."
For Ouattara's women supporters, what matters is the legacy of the president.
"I’m here to support my Papa ADO (Alassane Dramane Ouattara), the father of orphans, the one who built today’s great Côte d’Ivoire, which now looks like Paris. I don’t need to go to Paris anymore; I stay in my country, thanks to ADO. My country is the most beautiful country in the world. Papa ADO, I adore you."
Another female supporter added the President has done a lot for women in Côte d'Ivoire.
"He’s a good president. Thanks to him, there are so many markets today, and jobs," she told RFI. "We don’t struggle to sell anymore, you know what I mean?"
She says he is a good president for women too.
"Childbirth today, schools, it’s all free. There are evening classes for adults. And today we no longer suffer to give birth like before, you see? That’s why we women come out today to say thank you. May God give him a long life. You don’t change a winning team!"
Expectations
Among women journalists, a reference often comes to mind: the Women's March on Grand-Bassam, a protest movement initiated by women who traveled from Abidjan to Grand-Bassam from 22 to 24 December, 1949, to demand the release of political leaders imprisoned by the French colonial authorities.
Women are often credited in the country for holding family, businesses and society together, even if they are not as represented in parliament as men.
"Ivorian women have always carried the country on their shoulders," Vléon said at Billon's meeting in Abidjan, on 14 October. "They feed our families, educate our children, care for our sick and participate in economic and social life with courage and selflessness."
In 2023, women represented only 13 percent of Members of Parliament, 7 percent of mayors, and barely 6 percent of regional elected officials.
A law was however passed in 2019 to establish a 30 percent quota for women in list elections, increasingly implemented.
This was enough to boost female candidacies, but there is still a long way to go.
Solutions exist for greater representation of women in politics: enforcing quotas that already exist, aiming for 30 percent of women elected officials; training for female candidates; funds to support campaigns; raising awareness among children at school; and involving men in the fight for equality.
22/10/2025
Côte d'Ivoire election 2025: Let's listen to the youth
Young people in Côte d'Ivoire want jobs, change, but most of all peace
Young Ivorians expect economic growth, jobs and peace, in a country that is generally doing much better economically than most African countries, but can't seem to generate opportunities for all. With an 83-year-old president seeking a fourth term, young people inevitably express frustration.
Young supporters at a political meeting on Satruday 18 October 2025. Photo by Melissa Chemam
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“We believe the candidate Jean-Louis Billon will provide jobs for young people here, for us in Côte d’Ivoire," a young man told me at one of his rallies, in Cocody, in the heart of the economic capital, Abidjan. "Right now, as young people, we want to work... so we can feed our families.”
Like him, young people came to support Billon, a 60-year-old businessman, former Trade Minister and the first employer in the country's private sector. With the disqualification of political powerhouses Laurent Gbagbo and PDCI leader Tidjane Thiam, Billon is seen as the main opponent to President Alassane Ouattara, in power since 2011.
About 40 percent of the 38 million Ivorians are under 15.
And Ouattara, seeking a fourth term, is 83.
For some of the young voters, Jean-Louis Billon is the right leader, especially as he promises to bring employment to many more Ivorians.
These issues appeal to young voters from the opposition, who complain about lack of work.
“We are suffering… We cannot work," a man complained at a forbidden march to rally supporters of Thiam. "Some Ivorians are even going abroad.”
Côte d'Ivoire's economy is the most flourishing in West Africa and a pillar for the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, mostly known as UEMOA in French), which joins eight countries. But its wealth is still in the hands of a few.
Desire for change
For his supporters, Billon could also be a guarantor of change, and express a healthy political alternation for democracy.
"We would like a little change," one of them told me at his Abidjan rally. "Honestly, we recognise that the current president has done the best he could for us. Anyone who says that Alassane Dramane Ouattara hasn't worked will be acting in bad faith... Because he's done everything: infrastructure, schools, universities... Currently, everything is good, everything is fine. But we would like a little change, to appease the hearts of other politicians.”
Most people at the meeting also expressed a desire for peace and reconciliation.
Flavio Cunha is a 21-year-old economics student at the Félix Houphouët Boigny University, in Abidjan. He expressed worries about his own future because of it.
"I wouldn't say that I feel hopeful, it's kind of complicated. The job opportunities are really super limited. So you have to be super competitive in the job market, because we have a lot of new graduates and experienced graduates on the job market. You don't get jobs easily."
He is also worried that politics is actually making the situation worse, in a country where opportunities could be plentiful.
"African politics makes things worse in Africa because of our leaders, especially here. The politics that they're applying doesn't actually suit us. Currently we're in the election month, and we feel a little bit worried about what's going to happen, because of the way that the politicians speak, and the way they do politics. It doesn't make us secure about our future."
Flavio remembers the civil war of 2010-2011 and doesn't want a repeat. "I do have memories, lots of difficult memories, a lot of bad things. I lived in Adjamé at the time (in Abidjan), I was seven, I saw a lot of dead bodies on the streets, that was horrible."
He says it is important to not repeat these mistakes.
"We just need peace, that's it. That's why we young people are not that into politics. Because in Cote d'Ivoire, in Africa, politics means war fighting and stuff. We don't have democratic politics in Cote d'Ivoire. That's unfortunate, as that's super important."
For all these reasons, Flavio, who still has three to study to get his degree, says he would rather like to go abroad, work in English, and start a business.
Restricted voices
Many in Abidjan agree that life remains hard for the average Ivorians.
Though the city's economy is booming and infrastructures are growing, like the first urban train currently under construction and flyovers which radically improved traffic, some deplore they simply cannot get better jobs.
"I don't want to be a taxi driver here in Abidjan, away from my family", a young Yango driver told me. "I hope we can have a president that creates good jobs for young people like us."
Another deplores the lack of alternatives. "Thiam and Gbagbo should have been able to run," another driver told me. "And it is a shame that a president can change the constitution to prolong his mandate, and that he can ban any form of opposition's protest."
The lack of alternative could cause justified anger, says Hyacinthe Bley, a historian at Félix Houphouët-Boigny University. Excluded candidates have called their supporters to march to protest against their exclusion, but these marches and protests were strictly banned.
"The authorities should let them express their anger, or else they will think that the current government just uses all means for repression to their advantage," he told me. "That cannot be good for a peaceful election."
The historian says this could lead to some boycott of the vote or voters' apathy.
Powerful rallies
Ouattara has nonetheless brought Côte d'Ivoire in a remarkable state, both economically and socially, and many young people also recognise his achievements.
After holding a rally in the centre of the country, he came back to Abidjan to host two meetings at the main stadium in the neighbourhood of Le Plateau, the business district where most skyscrapers can be found, overlooking the laguna. One meeting was dedicated to young people.
"After President Houphouet-Boigny, only President Ouattara has worked, practically speaking. So, people realise that he is the one able to move the country forward," a supporter told me.
Pascal Kobena came for the future of his children.
"Ouattara does everything so the country can move forward in terms of development, in terms of peace, and to guarantee the security of Ivorians, property and the people who live there," he told me.
The most privileged students tend to agree. Some bitterly remember that political divisions only brought violence and division and are not ready to risk peace for politicians' careers.
But these ones see president ADO as the solution, like some of the "ADO girls" and "Mums for Ouattara", who came to his meetings on Saturday and Sunday at the stadium.
"We don't change a team that wins!" a woman supporter told me.
These people express a choice for stability. While others might not vote at all, saying they have no real choice.
The first round of the presidential election is this Saturday 25 October 2025. 8.7 million voters are called to the polls.
Most political observers expect Ouattara to be reelected straight away, without even a second round, for a fourth mandate.
Ivoirian youth expectations
Writing about young people's expectations for this presidential election...
Article to come on Friday on RFI English.
Here at a meeting in the Félix Houphouët Boigny stadium last Saturday:
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More soon
19/10/2025
Côte d'Ivoire - Flavio, student, on his future, politcs and the past not to repeat
As Côte d’Ivoire heads to the polls next weekend, 21-year-old economics student Flavio Kouna shares his worries about jobs, politics, and the lingering scars of past conflict:
Watch here:
Côte d'Ivoire Elections 2025 * RFI English
18/10/2025
Marie Claire Messouma Malanbien @ galerie Cécile Fakhoury d'Abidjan
Oeuvres de Marie Claire Messouma Malanbien à la galerie Cécile Fakhoury d'Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, dans le cadre de l'expositions collective 'Le seuil de nos azurs', présentée du 11 octobre 2025 au 3 janvier 2026 :
Superbe galerie d'art!
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