Weeks four and five

In weeks four and five students learned about the variety of faith traditions in Ivory Coast through a visit to an Islamic center and a lecture by a scholar who is also a Catholic priest: Pere Celestin presented an overview of the variety of religious experience in the country and concluded with an attempt to integrate elements of traditional religion with the Christian faith.

Professor Adepo is well known to Goshen College students and returned to our classroom this year to present a musical tour through the country. The former director of the national museum of art also challenged the notion that there are distinct forms of African art such as traditional and contemporary art.

Grand-Bassam

The excursion for week four was a trip to the old colonial city of Grand-Bassam where vestiges of colonial architecture can still be found. We visited an artisan center and then relaxed at a beautiful hotel on the beach.

Yammoussoukro

During week five we took a long trip to the far north of Ivory Coast. Along the way we stopped at Yammoussoukro and visited the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Paix that was built by former President Houphouet Boigny in the late 80's. It is one of the world's largest basilicas and is truly an amazing structure with marvelous stained glass windows, long marble entries and many, many massive columns.

At the Basilica

• Outside view of the Basilica
• students looking out at Yammousoukro from the roof

From Yammoussoukro we traveled to Bouake and had a very restful night at the SIL (International Linguistic Society) center. From Bouake we pushed on north to Senufo country in the vicinity of the city of Korhogo.

Korhogo

In Korhogo we visited artisans in their villages and were hosted by a group of Senufo musicians and dancers who performed the Panther Dance for us. In the sequence above, the masked dancers arrive in the village, greet their elders the musicians, and then dance. These men are all members of the Poro society. All of the musicians are adults who have gone through seven years of initiation and the dancers are in the process of learning the music, language, and other elements of this secret society.

Our last stop was at a blacksmith's workshop. He showed us how he processes iron ore using very simple technology. Rehanna was given the opportunity to operate his bellows and heat the iron bar that was eventually forged into a simple tool that was presented to the group.

• Ross, Lindsay, Brooke and Mike in front of the main market in Korhogo
• Students waiting for the masked dance to begin