The capital and largest city of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Abidjan has the unusual feature of being a major trading port that is located on a lagoon rather than on the sea. Separated from the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean by the Vridi-Plage sandbar, this deepwater port was opened to the sea in 1950 by the Vridi Canal. The city quickly became the financial and communications center of French-speaking West Africa. The Abidjan museum is a rich storehouse for more than 20,000 pieces of traditional art. The city also has a national library, agricultural and scientific research institutes, several educational facilities, and a university founded in 1964. Just north of the city is a magnificent tropical rain forest called Parc National du Banco. The Abidjan radio station broadcasts mostly in French. However, it also uses English and eight local African languages in its news bulletins and in educational broadcasting. A television station broadcasts in French for several hours each day. The modern, bustling port of Abidjan exports such varied products as coffee, cocoa, timber, bananas, pineapples, manganese, and various types of fish. The tuna catch amounts to several thousand tons each year. In addition, city factories produce soap, matches, and a wide range of metal products, including furniture, automobiles, and air-conditioning and refrigerating units. Abidjan was a village in 1898 and became a town in 1903 when work was begun on a railway to Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso). Abidjan succeeded Bingerville as capital of the French Ivory Coast colony in 1934 and remained the capital after the country gained independence in 1960. In 1958 the first of two bridges was built to link the administrative and business districts on the mainland with Petit-Bassam Island, the industrial area. An international airport is located at Port-Bouët, a municipality on the sandbar. Population (1999), 3,199,000. |