Long after the precolonial gold city of Timbuktu faded from glory and Dakar’s status as the capital of French West Africa expired, even after Monrovia’s cosmopolitanism crumbled and the lights went out of Lomé’s once thriving nightlife, there was Abidjan. Ivory Coast’s largest city and commercial center, Abidjan was a port and a destination for millions of West African strivers. For more than 30 years after independence, Ivory Coast’s autocratic founding president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, kept the doors wide open to French business interests and turned the country into the world’s largest cocoa exporter. The towering Hôtel Ivoire, overlooking the steamy lagoons that course through the city, was a symbol of the aspirations of a modern West African republic. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.