Korhogo

Region

Korhogo is the capital of the administrative region Savanes in the West African Ivory Coast. Korhogo is the most populous city in the north of the country and the settlement center of the Senufo.

Cityscape and population

Savanes is the largest of the 19 administrative regions and subdivided into four departments. To Korhogo part of the same department. The city is situated about 600 kilometers north of Abidjan and about 50 kilometers from each of the borders with Mali and Burkina Faso to about 380 meters. The northern part of Ivory Coast belongs to the savannah belt. In the area, the basement is some small but steep island mountains that rise above the level of an up to 60 -meter-thick layer of residual soils. Highest peak is declared as a protected area and in half an hour to besteigende Mont Korhogo with 567 meters height. The hill is located in the southwest of the center of its dome can be seen in intensively managed agricultural land within several irrigation lakes.

For Korhogo 206 340 inhabitants (2009 ) are given. The city center is dominated by the large, partially covered market, which is on the edge of a densely populated residential area of the sub- layer with corrugated iron roofs. The main road from here to the south leads to the only roundabout around which to group most of the administrative building and towards the Mount Korhogo by Residential, the residential quarter of the center staff and the upper class.

The historic district of Jula traders and artisans in the north is called Koko. Few of the roads are paved. The most famous building is the Great Mosque in the Mughal style with a separate minaret, four corner towers and filigree patterns in the white plaster of the exterior walls. The majority of the Senufo and Jula in Korhogo are Muslims, a large number are animists. There is a Roman Catholic diocese ( Notre Dame de Fatima, are since 1905, Catholic missionaries in the city), and since the 1950s, some Baptist missionaries.

The domestic airport has a 2100 -meter-long paved runway.

History

Korhogo to have been founded in the 14th century by the Senufo elders Nangui of Kong. In the 17th century mandingsprachige peoples from the north ( Jula ) immigrated into the room Korhogo, where they met with local Senufos. By mutual cultural acquisitions was an extensive mixing, as categories they remained separate. End of the 19th century Korhogo was the control of the Malinke military leader Samory Touré, the French first, then their power militarily to 1898 stretched from the negotiations in the North. After consolidating their colonial rule, the French started with the obligation of forced labor for road building, begun in 1893 the railway line and the rubber plantations in the southern parts of the country. Korhogo was at the beginning of the 20th century not only a leader in the export of cotton to the colonial masters, but also in the provision of labor. 1918 1200 men from Korhogo were spent in the South, 1928 8000 Senufo had left their fields and were led to forced labor. In the region of Korhogo, labor shortages, which led along with a drought to a financial emergency arose. This was accompanied by a loss of authority of tribal leaders, who could no longer guarantee the safety of the people. From the original system of many clans jointly cultivated fields originated from labor shortage around 1930 a segmented social structure, edited at the individual clans their own fields.

1932 France began to pay individual Chiefs ( clan elders ) to perform administrative tasks on a monthly basis. The Paramount Chief of Korhogo Gbon Coulibaly, who had welcomed the French in the 1890s, presented the forced laborers available and was willing to put in the service of the French. 1942-1943, there were local famines. Gbons support for France ended in 1945, when he began openly to support the resistance movement of Félix Houphouët- Boigny, which he remained faithful until his death in 1962. His son Dramane Coulibaly supported Houphouët -Boigny, was a regional leader of his party RDA and remained Paramount Chief until 1970.

With attacks of a rebel movement under the name Mouvement patriotique de Côte d'Ivoire ( MPCI ) Korhogo and Bouaké on began in September 2002, the civil war against the government of the Christian south under Laurent Gbagbo. In a first reaction, the French army flew 130 Western foreigners from the city. In May 2003, while a ceasefire was agreed, however, until the signing of the Peace Agreement in July 2007 there was a state of emergency. In the city the rebels took over the command. The market of Korhogo became a transit point for contraband. As of 2006, the rebels withdrew, took to the criminal violence. The security responsibilities have now been taken over by a Dozos called traditional hunter group; a Brotherhood, claiming to have magical abilities.

Economy

The surrounding area of Korhogo is relatively densely populated with about 75 inhabitants per square kilometer. The annual rainfall is 1200-1300 mm. Senufo, partly Diula, mainly cultivate yams, peanuts, corn and rice. Cotton is the main export item. Senufo operated earlier subsistence farming with hoe since the 1960s come to the large new cotton fields increased Ochsenpflüge used. The previous sheep farming was supplemented by extensive cattle breeding. In the period between about 1960 and 1980 were multiplied by the cotton harvest in 1982, almost half of the cultivated area around Korhogo cotton.

Senufo and Jula are known for their handicrafts. In the city and the surrounding villages wooden masks and Stoffwebearbeiten be made ​​. The villages have specialized in weaving, basket-making or forging. In traditional way Koni iron ore is in a few kilometers away in the village mined and processed to agricultural equipment.

To the 100 kilometers south to Tortiya diamonds are mined in alluvial fields. Production is relatively low.