Post-prophetism and Post-Houphouëtism in Ivory Coast

Abstract

In the course of an analysis of contemporary post-prophetism in Ivory Coast, the author shows that these religious phenomena are a remarkable guiding thread through a properly national history. During the Houphouët-Boigny period, the country's identity seemed to waver between economic prosperity and a real lack of development, while prophetic movements remained ambiguous figures, promoting modernity while perpetuating structures of traditional dependence. The decade of the 1980s was marked by a double (socio-political and prophetic) break with the past. The plantation economy fell into crisis, and religious movements began to rail against Western consumer lifestyles, crying for a return to traditional values and to a traditional balance of social forces—a position which brought them into conflict with established authority. A scarcity of agricultural land gave rise to an ideology of “Ivorians first”. The decade of the 1990s has been characterized by convergence between neo-traditionalism, us-first ideology and a cult of Ivorian-ness. Finally, in the present worsening context of the country, the author shows how religious movements, especially pentecostal importations, have learned to thrive even in a social and economic crisis.

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