the meaning of masabo    welcome to west africa    quick notes about côte d'ivoire    about fana soro   
about the senoufo people    about traditional music    about traditional dance    about masks   
about the balafon    about the instruments    about oral traditions    about textiles and costumes   
school performance repertoire    masks - music & dance    learning activities    learning links   

The official national language of Côte d'Ivoire is French, a legacy of the earlier colonial administration. Educated Ivoiriens are bilingual speaking French and their mother tongue, which is the language of their village and ethnic group. With 60 different ethnic groups, this mean that there as many languages spoken in the country.

The 60 languages of the Côte d'Ivoire are all grouped under the Niger-Congo language family, a family of languages widely spoken in west, central, and south Africa. Languages of the Niger-Congo family are called tone languages because tones serve phonetically to distinguish the meanings of words. Different words are distinguished merely by changes in the pitch of a single syllable. These different pitches are crucial to understanding exactly what is said. In such cases, one word may have a number of different meanings depending upon which syllable is intoned higher or given more stress. The language of each ethnic group is broken down into many different dialects. Thus people living in the same ethnic group but in different regions have different pronunciations of the same words. For example, the Djoula language has 22 dialects.

Ivoirien cultural expression remains very distinct today, particularly in its oral forms. Although writing traditions exist, Ivoiriens are primarily a vocal people, as are most Africans. Throughout history, Ivoiriens have regarded the oral language as a potent force. All the people share and value this heritage. In a country where many ethnic languages coexist and a colonial language was imposed on everyone, it requires much effort to preserve a written literature for each ethnic language. Thus it is appropriate to convey African stories and folklore through an oral tradition.

Stories help people identify who they are in relation to others and often aid the understanding of a culture. Ivoirien storytelling is full of wisdom, experience, and the teachings of a people who depended on oral tradition to pass stories from one generation to another. These stories are a powerful educational tool because they often teach the listeners some important lessons about traditional values and life. Accompanied by music and sometimes dance, the stories can be about people, animals, or spirits, whether they are good or evil. The stories introduce their listeners to a world of knowledge, mystery, and magic that appeals to their emotions. Children love to listen to the stories their elders tell them. They often gather in the communal area for some storytelling when the elders are free.

Go to the Story "The Leopard's Drum"

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