Ivorian Folklore

1. Clothing

In Ivorian cities and coastal areas, on important occasions, people are usually dressed in suits and ties. In normal times, most Ivorians wear traditional national dress. Men wear "Bubu" fat robe. This robe production is very simple, generally to two sky blue or snow-white cotton horizontal collage into a sleeveless, round neckline open to the chest, long and feet, both sides of the opening from the shoulder to the knee. When wearing the "Bubu" robe, you must wear a purple felt or white knit cap, or use white cloth to wrap the head. Nowadays, it is up to the individual to decide what color of "Bubu" to wear, and whether to wear a beanie or a headband. In the past, however, the color and pattern of the cloth, and whether to wear a beanie or a headband, were determined by the status of the clan or family. As a result, there were "blue people" and "white people".

Women's traditional clothing, although the color varies, but the style is basically the same. Whether young or old, all with a piece of cloth Qi two armpits or in the waist a round, hanging down to the ankles. This piece of cloth to do "apron" called "Pagne". If "Paneh" has been consistent in its style for many years, its pattern, in particular, has followed the development of real life and the political and economic situation. The eye-catching colors, unrestrained lines and bold patterns of "Paneh" are like stamps that represent historical events, political trends and interpersonal feelings of different periods. For example, thousands of women attending the inauguration of the cathedral in Bidjan in August 1985 wore a "panne" with the Pope's head on it. "During the economic difficulties in C?te d'Ivoire in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a "crisis pane" was prevalent, and during the presidential elections in October 2000, many women wore a pane bearing the head of the presidential candidate they supported. It is not uncommon to see women expressing their feelings through the motifs on the pané. For example, there is a type of pané with a design of "four human feet," which means "you and I are inseparable," and a type of pané with a design of a swimming fish, known as the "pané," which has a design of a swimming fish. There is also a type of "Pane" with a design of swimming fish, known as "charcoal-grilled fish," which means that her husband takes her to a restaurant on weekend nights. These are all motifs that show the love between husband and wife. Another type of panay, with an eye painted on it, is called "the eye that seeks out the enemy," which is meant to show off one's beauty and cause jealousy in the enemy. Some motifs indicate "Why do you hate me"; others read "Don't turn away, my dear", which is a woman's silent protest against a man. In the villages of the remote northern regions of C?te d'Ivoire and in the deep forests of the central and western parts of the country, there are still some people whose clothing has hitherto remained at the primitive level of leaves and bark. People wear leaves or bark as a shaming cloth, which men tie to their buttocks with a rattan cane, and women tie a piece to their front and back. In the north, villagers often use banyan bark as a mat. The Baoulé people believe that this bark mat is better than any other fabric, and that frequent use of this kind of banyan bark mat can make one's skin soft and smooth. The Ivorian tribal peoples have a long tradition of wearing ornaments.

As early as the beginning of the 12th century, the Diola people, who were skilled in commerce, made extensive use of a small white shell currency imported from the Indian Ocean, which they saw as a symbol of wealth. Until the eve of World War II, the small white shells were the only currency of the Buna. At the same time, the small white shells became an important material for the precious jewelry of young Ivorian men and women. Whenever there is a grand religious festival or a major celebration, the young women of the Senoufo ethnic group, who perform a variety of religious ceremonial dances, use small white shells made of "shell crowns" to attract the most attention. At the "Penitentiary" festival, one can also see the chest ornaments of young men performing martial arts tricks, which are also made of such white shells. In the forested areas of western C?te d'Ivoire, bone ornaments are favored. For example, the Mun people grind animal bones and even human bones into various animal-shaped bone pieces, which are made into necklaces, earrings, anklets and so on.

Before the advent of metal jewelry, jade and gemstone jewelry was a favorite of the tribal peoples of the central valley and the coast. For example, bracelets and ruby necklaces made of white-grained sapphire by the Mossi immigrants were favored by Ivorian women. Hardwood jewelry, on the other hand, is very popular in the Lobi settlements. Wooden jewelry includes bracelets, earrings and anklets. Especially in the northern border areas of the Lobi women living in the corner of the lip hanging ring, not hardwood.

After the appearance of bronze, iron, aluminum, they soon became women's ornaments and men's weapons of good raw materials. From women's bracelets, earrings, rings and arm bands, to men's decorative weapons and religious rituals, such as bronze bells, bronze mirrors, almost all of them are mainly metal.

Leather is also an important raw material for the ornaments commonly used by the Ivorian tribal peoples. Such as saddles and bridles in horse harnesses, women's jewelry in the armlet, earrings, sorcerers and stationery boxes and so on, mostly to leather as raw materials. Rhinoceros horn and ivory ornaments, with its delicate texture, exquisite workmanship and favorite. However, because of the high price, mostly monopolized by the Ivorian women of the upper class. Gold jewelry was the last to appear in the history of Ivorian jewelry. But as soon as it appeared, it immediately became a representative of the most precious jewelry.

2. Diet

The diet of the Ivorian people is not exactly the same depending on the region of residence and religious beliefs. In the north of C?te d'Ivoire, in the areas inhabited by the Malinke, Dioula and Lobi peoples, the main foodstuffs of the inhabitants are sorghum and millet. With a wooden mortar, sorghum, millet and other crushed, plus some vegetables, peanuts, green beans and chili peppers, and so on, together to cook into a porridge, after cooking can be grabbed and eaten. This food is commonly known as "Kuskus". In the Arab countries of North Africa, "Kuskus" is a common food for residents. "Kuskus" many ways to do, for example, the first pounded sorghum rice and other grains cooked, and then the use of tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant and other vegetables, plus some beef, lamb, cooked into vegetable soup, poured on the "Kuskus". Couscous can also be served with milk or honey. In the eastern and central parts of the country, the inhabitants of the Akan and South Mandi ethnic groups mainly eat potatoes, cassava, yams and plantains, with a small amount of rice in some places; the further to the west they go, the rarer the food becomes, and there is no food to be found at all; however, there is an abundance of fruits and vegetables here, and people often use fruits as food. Tsetse flies are rampant in the central and western mountainous areas, and pastoralism is in decline, with very little beef or mutton. Dried and smoked fish imported from Mali is a rare meat food for the local people. Ivorians since ancient times have a hobby of eating stimulants, such as the love of eating Kola fruit. It is believed that the Kola fruit is all-powerful, especially to stimulate the sexual function.

3. Housing

Since the independence of C?te d'Ivoire, with the development of the national economy, Ivorians' living conditions have changed a lot and improved. In towns and cities, especially in Abidjan, Yamoussoukro and other big cities, you can see buildings everywhere, chic bungalows, wide streets, congested traffic vehicles, showing a modern atmosphere. Residents, like Europeans, live in fairly modern housing with all the indoor facilities. In the countryside, the housing conditions of the villagers have also changed and improved considerably. However, in the vast countryside of C?te d'Ivoire, the traditional thatched huts, with their centuries-old monotonous, mud walls and knitted roofs, are still very much in place among the various tribal populations. Only the different regions, thatched hut shape, the door of the courtyard ornaments slightly different. In the north, conical "mushroom houses" are common; in the central forested areas, shanties shaped like long bricks predominate; in the border area with Mali, long brick shanties and "mushroom houses" are interspersed; and in the northeastern Lobi settlements bordering Burkina Faso, there are stepped houses. The Lobi people in the northeastern region adjacent to Burkina Faso live in terraced houses.

In the Korhogo region in the north, the dwellings are characterized by a distinctly northern savannah. "Mushroom houses" and long brick shanties are common, and families are housed in either long brick shanties or "mushroom houses". In addition to the living room, there are also pens and huts for livestock. Here, the door and mud wall of the villagers' huts are often painted in red and white. These two colors are said to ward off evil spirits. In the south-central region, the Jaguar settlement in the valley of the Bundama River is a tall, cool "wreath-shaped" house. In these "wreath-shaped" houses, the living room and barn are arranged in a row around the perimeter, with the courtyard in the center. To the west and south of the Jaguar settlement is the Guro settlement. The houses of the Luo are similar in appearance to those of the Jaguar, except that they are slightly quadrangular in shape, similar to the courtyard in the north of the country, but with rounded corners instead of right angles. Southeastern tribal housing, and the Guro residence in appearance, only the door and the courtyard ornaments have unique features, but in the style of housing construction art and customs, and the interior tribes do not *** with the historical origin, which is obviously affected by the Akan lineage of immigrant culture results. In the southeastern lagoon area, the fishermen who use the lakes as a source of livelihood have built water villages that are very characteristic of the region. This kind of water house has a strange and chic, thick wooden piles straight into the water, very solid, 2 meters above the water on the wooden boards, the top of the plank house. Windows on all sides, the roof is covered with reeds or straw, with good heat insulation and rain effect. Each house is about 40 square meters, with a living room, a kitchen and a place for outdoor activities. There is a certain distance between each house. In each village, there are as few as dozens or as many as hundreds of households. The houses of the Ani bear the distinctive features of Ashanti descent. In the Ani compounds, especially in the houses of the Ani chiefs, there is a carved pillar symbolizing power. The upper part of the pillar is carved with the totem animal statues of the family and the tribe and the myths and legends about the family and the tribe; the carvings on the lower part are mostly based on real life. The carvings on the door are roughly the same as those on the Prime Pillar.

4. Etiquette

Ivorian customs and etiquette due to the different tribes, settlements, religious beliefs, language and culture, living habits and historical origins of the colorful. Ivorians are known for their simplicity and sincerity, attention to etiquette, hospitality and good friends. From an early age, a person receives traditional education in morality, etiquette, religion, culture and other aspects of knowledge. When Ivorians meet, they always greet each other warmly, generally shaking hands and saying warm words of friendship and good wishes. When friends who are familiar with each other meet, they greet each other with a warm handshake with their right hands while wrapping their left hands around each other's waists until the end of the conversation when they let go of their hands to say goodbye. C?te d'Ivoire's society has always had the custom of respecting the elderly and making respect for the elderly a basic moral criterion to measure whether a person is cultivated and polite. Offending the elders is an outrageous act, and the elders will scold or beat them at home, and in public they will be scolded and cursed by the crowd, with no one ever coming forward to defend or protect the person who is being scolded. In a family, the oldest person is of course the head of the family, in the family of any thing by the head of the family to make a decision, has the supreme invisible power, even if the parents of the brother or the children of the senior national leaders, back home the first thing is to the head of the family to report to the head of the family, for the parents can only be respected for what they say to wash their ears. On all occasions and at all times, when a junior meets an elder, even if he or she does not know him or her, he or she must greet him or her with a word of respect and a bow. Quite a lot of Ivorians meet older guests, appear polite, greetings, more often called "Dad" or "Mom", fully embodies the Ivorian respect for the elderly and respect for the elders of the national etiquette.

C?te d'Ivoire is a country that pays great attention to the title of the country, that the proper title can give people a civilized impression of the first. In C?te d'Ivoire, men are generally called "Monsieur", married women or wearing a wedding ring are called "Madame", unmarried women are called "Mademoiselle", and women whose marital status is unknown are called "Madame", and women whose marital status is unknown are called "Madame". For unmarried women, they are called "Miss", and for those whose marital status is unknown, they are called "Ms". These titles may also be used in conjunction with a name, position, title or rank. For example, "Mr. Bedi", "Mrs. Bedi", "Mr. Director", "Mr. Colonel", "Miss Nurse". Senior government officials above the rank of minister are generally addressed as "Your Excellency", which can also be combined with the title or Mr., such as "His Excellency the Prime Minister", "His Excellency Mr. Prime Minister". Doctors, lawyers, professors, judges, etc. may be addressed by their surname, degree, Mr., or by their degree and surname, e.g., "Mr. Prof. Bedi", "Prof. Bedi". In the case of a religious person, one may refer to the person's position, or may combine it with the person's family name, position or Mr., e.g., "Father", "Father Bedi", "Mr. God", "Alon", "Bedi Alon", "Mr. Alon". In C?te d'Ivoire, it is necessary to contact a friend beforehand to determine the time and place of an appointment and to be on time. If you are invited to a friend's house, the host will be waiting for you at home or outside. When entering a host's home, it is best to remove your shoes as soon as you enter the living room if there is a carpeted floor. If you are going to a banquet, you usually bring some gifts. Ivorians often serve coffee, tea, juice and other beverages to their guests. At banquets, Muslim families generally use mineral water and other beverages to entertain guests, while non-Muslim families mostly use beer, whiskey and other alcohol to entertain guests. Ivorians generally do not persuade people to drink, but the method of toasting is rather special. The host opens the cap of the bottle, pours eight minutes of wine into the glass, offers the glass to the guest, then puts the bottle next to the guest and says "please". The host then returns to his or her seat, opens another bottle of wine, pours an eighth of the bottle into the glass, sits down, and says, "Please! Cheers". The host and the guest have a friendly conversation while drinking. In the drinking process, you do not give me a pour, I give you a pour of the scene, but a bottle of wine to the guests, by the guests to drink their own self-pouring, the guests to drink more or less by their own decision. If you are drinking wine with ice or cold water, the guests do not have to do it themselves. It would be a rude gesture if the guest did it himself.

In C?te d'Ivoire, people talk, generally pay attention to listen to each other's words, do not want to interrupt each other are talking about the topic, do not hastily comment on each other's content of the conversation, if you do not understand the place to be politely put forward, so as to obtain each other's trust, win each other's goodwill. In C?te d'Ivoire, people often use humor in conversation. However, for officials or elders who meet for the first time, it is generally prudent to use humorous language, otherwise the other party will feel abrupt, or think that you are playing smart or deliberately creating jokes, and think that you are not real. In addition, Ivorians generally do not talk about each other's salaries, each other's age, each other's wife's situation and the special relationship between men and women.

5. Marriage customs

C?te d'Ivoire is a multi-ethnic country, each ethnic group has its own unique wedding customs, so the Ivorian wedding customs like a colorful kaleidoscope, colorful. Now give one or two examples to do an introduction. The Ebrié, who live on the southeast coast of C?te d'Ivoire, practise polygamy, and it is customary to consider multiple wives as a sign of wealth. If a man has only one wife, it is a sign that his family is not well off. In addition to showing off their wealth, the Ebrière people practise polygamy because of the need for farming and domestic work. Ebrié women are not only capable of hard work, but also enjoy doing heavy labor. They do this themselves, believing that they can free up their husbands' time so that they can participate in and deal with village and even tribal politics. According to custom, the one who has lived with her husband the longest is the one who is most favored by her husband, and her status and power is also the first among all wives, becoming the "first lady". If her husband marries again, he must ask for her consent. The marriage of Ebrié children is usually decided by the father or uncle. If there are several daughters, the father has the right to betroth the eldest daughter to his best friend. Once the girl's father or uncle agrees to the marriage, the young man can send an engagement. The betrothal is usually sent in two installments. The first is on the girl's birthday, when the young man personally delivers a pair of anklets and some potatoes to the girl's father; the second is on the day the wedding date is chosen, when the young man delivers the dowry to the girl's family. The dowry usually consists of 5 CFA francs and a few pieces of fabric to make a "panne" dress. After the wedding, the boy and the girl become legally married. If the girl does not agree to the marriage, the young man has the right to ask the girl's father for the dowry back. When the dowry is returned, usually only the dowry is returned, not the money. The Ebrié prohibit consanguineous marriages, underage marriages and forced marriages. Generally, men and women from different regions and tribes may marry, but marriage is prohibited if one of the parties is a Muslim or comes from a tribe that follows a patrilineal clan system. In practice, there is no fixed pattern to the marriage customs of the Ebrié people. After paying the bride price, and especially the dowry, the young man can take the girl away to be married on a certain date. According to the current custom, both parents and members of the family of the couple must be present at the wedding ceremony. At the beginning of the wedding ceremony, the bridegroom announces that he wants so-and-so to be his wife and that he has paid the dowry in full. The groom then hosts a banquet for all the guests attending the wedding. At the banquet, ginger wine is an essential and auspicious drink.

After marriage, if one of the spouses is unfaithful to the other, this will in principle lead to divorce. However, this is not entirely true in real life. Most of the cases, such as the husband had an affair, as long as the cheated wife to deliver a confession of fault compensation can be settled, but if the wife is unfaithful to her husband, most of them end in divorce. Even if the husband insists on not divorcing, the whole village is called to inform their peers of the fact that they have been cheated. The peers criticize and ask the unfaithful wife to correct her misbehavior. If the location of the improper gender relations is not in their own homes, the peers will ask the woman who has misbehaved to buy ginger wine to treat the guests to apologize; if the incident occurs in their own homes, the unfaithful wife in addition to buy ginger wine, but also to buy a goat and a few chickens, in front of the door of the house in front of the public slaughter, in order to snow shame. But the man who seduced the woman is at large, no one to hold him responsible, and no one asked him to compensate for the damage caused .

Customarily, no matter what the reason, the Ebrié people generally do not allow repudiation, only one of the following cases are allowed to divorce: First, the husband and wife, one party has been unfaithful to the other party's misbehavior, atonement and compensation is not enough to repair the feelings thus broken; Second, both husband and wife have expressed their agreement to no longer maintain the relationship between the husband and wife, and the husband has agreed to not ask the woman for the return of dowries; Third, the husband abuses his wife, and the wife's husband is the only one to be able to get away with this. Customarily, this means mainly that the husband poisons his wife. Under normal circumstances, neither spouse will be the first to request a divorce. This is because if the woman asks for a divorce first, she must repay her husband's dowry before she can remarry; if the man asks for a divorce first, the woman will not return the dowry. After the divorce, the children are left entirely with the father, but the mother has the right to visit them regularly. In the area of marriage, the Dan, who live in the western part of C?te d'Ivoire, contrary to the custom of other tribes which prohibits marriages with other tribes, make it compulsory for a man to choose a woman from a different totem tribe as his spouse before the marriage is consummated. After marriage, when a wife is found to have committed an act of misconduct, she is often punished with material compensation, and in some cases divorce is the result. After the incident, it is up to the husband to decide whether to penalize or divorce. If the husband is looking for an opportunity to abandon his unsatisfactory wife, and the wife's misbehavior is discovered by the husband at that time, the misbehaving wife is sent back to her mother's family, which must also return the dowry. The wife's lover is also penalized by paying to the deceived husband a sum equal to the full cost of the husband's support for his wife. If the deceived husband does not hold the unfaithful wife responsible and wants to keep her, her family is not required to return the dowry, but the bad man who has seduced her is required to send some clothes to the couple and some wine and chickens to the elders who have mediated the dispute as a token of appreciation.

6. Mourning customs

C?te d'Ivoire has some 60 tribes, each of which has its own traditional mourning customs, which vary from one tribe to another. One or two examples are given here. The Ebrié, who live on the south-east coast of C?te d'Ivoire, notify and gather people from their own and neighboring villages by beating a drum when a person dies in their village. After the family of the deceased announces the "news of death" to the villagers, the women begin to cry in front of the body and the men beat tambourines around the house.

If the deceased is a person of high status such as a village headman or chief, a gun will be fired to mark the occasion, and the women will cry and dance in front of the body as a sign of prayer. If the deceased is a reputable person, his legal successor must be in his death when the big, in front of the face of the mourners to kill a cow, hand cut off the cow to accompany the mourning women, used to drive away flies stinging on the body. After the corpse when the coffin, the coffin should be parked at home for 8 days. On the 8th day, the deceased's family and close friends concentrated in the village square, presided over by the chief of the "class sacrifice" ceremony. Holding a cup full of palm wine in his hand, the patriarch faces the door of the deceased's house and prays, "This is the last cup of wine that God has given you (the deceased), please accept it. In return, I beg you to bless the palm tree to bring us more palm oil and the grain fields to bring us more grain." After the "Ban Sacrifice" ceremony, the family of the deceased can propose to the chief a specific date for the funeral. Once approved, the funeral is held on the same day. On the evening of the first day of the funeral, the villagers announce the official start of the funeral by beating drums. The family of the deceased, with the help of the villagers, cooks some cassava and big potatoes and prepares some ginger wine so as to reward the guests who come to the funeral the next day. On the day of the funeral, the whole village walks to the home of the deceased to say goodbye to the coffin with the rhythm of the tambourine. The mourning ceremony lasts from sunrise to sunset. The heirs of the deceased, surrounded by their families and villagers, send the spirit center to the cemetery for burial, and then they thank the funeral attendees with cooked cassava, potatoes, and ginger wine. Wealthier families also slaughter cows to thank the people. During the funeral, all female members of the deceased's family wear white "Panay" mourning clothes and are not allowed to go out of their homes for three months in order to observe filial piety.

Senufo living in the northern savannah, when a person dies in the family, the family puts the body of the deceased on a single board, and immediately ask the priests to hold a ceremony to send the soul. The mages surround the body, place a large tambourine over the remains, and set up a large brass bell next to the body. When one of the masters swung a hammer and struck the tambourine on the body, another master shook the bell vigorously, and the rest of the masters blew trumpets, beat the tambourine, and recited incantations. At one time, the drums and incantations were loud, in order to force the ghosts lingering in the human world to leave the human world and walk into the netherworld. After the soul-sending ceremony, the pujaris place the remains on a stretcher, which is carried by the villagers around the village, and then sent to the grave for burial. Subway Digging. The Insever believe that the blacksmith is immensely powerful and drives away all bulls and demons. The size of the grave is limited to just enough to fit the body on its side. The body's head faces south, feet face north, faces east, and is turned to the right side of the body. Before the burial, the priest will also make a last offering of food and drink to the deceased. After the offering ceremony, the priest breaks up the offerings and the pots containing the offerings and throws them into the grave. Finally, a blacksmith buries the body.

The Guro people of C?te d'Ivoire choose to hold their funerals in the village square. The dead lie on the ground on a straw mat, a few elders for the dead face, a group of children take turns in the dead body on the foot, and from time to time with the foot a few times, it is said that this can promote the soul of the deceased as soon as possible out of the body. Villagers holding a variety of drums around the dead drumming, singing and dancing. After the grooming, the dead are carried to the middle of nowhere to be buried. The young are buried during the day and the old at night, but the heads of all the dead face east. The day after the burial, the relatives of the deceased come to the cemetery with all the deceased's possessions and say goodbye to the deceased. After the ceremony, the deceased's estate is divided among the relatives. In the case of a husband's death, the wife shaves her head and serves in mourning for one year.