Welcome to Yamoussoukro! The town of the Founding Father of Cote D’Ivoire #4
The journey from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro was supposed to be two and a half hours. We left Abidjan a little after 4:30 pm and arrived Yamoussoukro at close to 9 pm. It was late and I hate arriving at a city I do not know at night. But I was grateful that I had some data left and could use the GPS to get to my hotel. After alighting from the UTB bus station, I tried to get a taxi in vain. I decided to walk as my Google maps showed it was a 15-minutes walk.
I began the uphill trudge on Avenue Houphouet-Boigny and noticed how expansive the roads were. Yamoussoukro has a good road network and urban plan though some neglect is apparent as it is not as busy and active as an administrative capital usually is. In 1983, President Houphouet-Boigny decided to move the capital of Cote D’Ivoire from Abidjan to his home town of Yamoussoukro. He invested a lot of public funds in building technical schools, an international airport and his grandest project yet, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace which is one of the largest churches in the world. But after his death in 1992, most government business has been gradually moved to Abidjan. Abidjan though the designated economic capital has become a de facto administrative capital.
I arrived at my hotel — Hotel Royaume after asking for directions from some attendants at the petrol station. I was put into a premium room than the one I had paid for because my online booking was not caught on time. Once you leave Abidjan, doing business online is a slow business. It is best to call and make reservations than to make an online reservation. But online worked for me as I could pay with my credit card and have a definite booking confirmation that a phone conversation might not guarantee.
I woke up on Sunday morning and wondered what to do? But decided to take a rest and map out the next two days. I had lunch at Restaurant Le Rois facing Avenue Houphouet-Boigny and owned by a Lebanese man. The Lebanese run the restaurant businesses out here in Cote D’Ivoire. It was a late lunch and early dinner of a bland chicken and chips variety, yes that Cameroon palate again. It cost me 3,500 frs which I thought was pricey. The chicken was not spicy at all. I tried Allocco (fried plantain) in Cote D’Ivoire and each time I realised the plantain was left to ripen too much and then drenched in so much oil when fried. This dish and I could not make it as friends, unfortunately. My saviour was coconut water daily with baguette and suya whenever I could find a spot.
I arrived at a decision to explore the great Our Lady of Peace Basilica and the Presidential Residence with its crocodile lakes. There is a lot to see in villages in terms of traditional weaving but I did not have time to do that.
Basilica of Our Lady of Peace
I took a taxi from my hotel and paid 300 frs to be dropped at the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace on Monday morning. I had just bought some coconut water to quench my thirst and serve as lunch. I marvelled at the quickly passing scenery on the road towards the Basilica and the wide roads. To be honest, Yamoussoukro was the first African city apart from Cape Town that I have visited that has such big and wide lanes. The roads were just so airy. When I arrived, the security guard helped me with breaking my coconut open and called out to a gentleman who had a roadside coconut kiosk to come and help me break it into bits. When I was done eating, he directed me to where the toilets were and how to get to the ticket office.
Each year, the Basilica receives between 300,000 to 350,000 people. The tour group I had to be a part of had started the visit already. I quickly paid 2000frs for a non-Ivorian visitor fee which I debated with the saleslady. I asked her why another African will be charged so much just to see the Basilica when Ivorians were paying 500frs? She said she was just doing her job and I buried it there. I left her and ran across the long walkway to join the group who were already inside the church. The environment around the basilica is breathtakingly architectural. It reminded me of Rome, think the Colosseum.
On entrance, the group had just gone past the pew where President Houphouet-Boigny sat during the inauguration and consecration of the Basilica by Pope John Paul II on 10th September 1990. There are 7000 pews in the church made out of iroko wood and the redness of the wood attests to this. Many of the tourists, most of them Ivorian Muslims went to reach for the special seat where ‘Papa Houphouet-Boigny’ sat over three decades ago. I could not see Houphouet-Boigny as a saint but only human, and therefore did not try to touch his special seat. If you know that he aided in the assassination of Thomas Sankara in next door Burkina Faso, supported the Ghanaian conspirators who toppled Kwame Nkrumah in neighbouring Ghana among other underhanded tactics, you might comprehend why I am not a fan of Felix Houphouet-Boigny.
Our tour guide whose name I forget informed the group what a day it was when Pope John Paul II came to consecrate the basilica. Mind you, there is a difference between a basilica and a cathedral that I did not know. Apparently the former is not considered a church per se unless specially designated by the pope according to its function but generally it gets its name for the nature of its architecture. A cathedral is the seat of the bishop in a Catholic diocese. Given that the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro is not a cathedral, it does not have a bishop. Since its opening, it has been managed by Polish Pallottines priests at an estimated cost of $1.5million USD annually. Our tour guide informed us that since the basilica was opened it has never had an Ivorian rector until now. I was weak.
The Basilica was designed by the Ivorian-Lebanese architect Ali Farkhoury and constructed by the French company Dumez. It covers over 30,000 square metres, 158 metres high and has a rectory and villa for the Pope when he/she visits. It is one of the biggest cathedrals in the world, though some will say it is the biggest but it is debatable. The architecture is arresting with everything thought out. There are 160 columns of which 60 of these are inside and 6 are tectonic, think this means they are malleable to their environmental factors. Four of the columns carry all the water collected when it rains around the cathedral and is connected to a drainage system that takes the water to an artificial lake constructed by President Houphouet-Boigny down to the village. These lakes have crocodiles in them and they were brought in by President Houphouet-Boigny as his pets.
The Chapel inside the Basilica can hold 300 people and the doors around the building weigh 2-tonnes each. The expansive windows are made of stained glass covering an area of 7,400 square metres which was imported from France. There is a holy water fountain made out of Carrara marble weighing 800 tonnes. Inside some of the giant columns, there are 14 lifts and 14 levels of stairs leading to the top of the building, which signify the 14 Stations of the Cross (a prayer procession depicting the passion of the Christ by Catholics which is used during the Lenten Season).
During the construction of the basilica, according to what our guide said, a tile factory was established in Yamoussoukro to cater to the needs of this project. I wondered why Cote D’Ivoire did not keep this factory open to continue producing tiles for the country instead of importing as much as it does right now? I felt it was a great missed opportunity for job creation and establishing a national industry.
The Presidential Residence
During the tour at the Basilica, some of the tourists were interested in the fact that I took notes. They asked where I was from and I said Cameroon. That is how I met two other Cameroonians who were part of the tour group. It was a lady and a gentleman and they were Francophones. People found it funny that I was always taking notes and the other Cameroonian lady — Nadege, was happy to state that we are very serious people and do not go out to play. I chuckled at the very Cameroonian response. They were kind enough to offer me a lift in their four-wheel-drive car down the hill to the Presidential Residence. They had come to Yamoussoukro for the day from Abidjan. I would have had to take a taxi otherwise. I was grateful for this offer as the sun would not let up. It was a welcome well-conditioned car, what was not to like!
On arriving at the Presidential Residence, we were told we needed an official invitation to enter the grounds. We were only allowed around the gates and the lake was well-gated but there were some areas where if one was not careful, they would slide in and become a hearty lunch for the biggest white crocs I have seen in my life. I wondered what will make a president decide to keep crocodiles as pets and even create a lake for them. I saw the massive creatures gliding through the lake waters, humongous they were and it made my spine shiver. The locals liked to tell visitors how the crocodiles had feasted on their keeper a few years back. He apparently committed the cardinal offence of feeding the crocodiles and getting too close. They finished grabbing the chicken and chewed him as an extension of that meal. I did not stay here long after watching some two white big crocodiles gliding across that water. I am not a fan of reptiles.
I quickly left the scorching sun and went in search of the solace of my hotel room which would cool me. I could also shower and I realised my compatriots from Douala were eager to return to Abidjan. I bade them a quick goodbye and with that, we went our separate ways. I retreated to my hotel where I needed to pack and prepare for my journey to Bouake, onwards towards Mali.
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