What Do You Call Someone From The Ivory Coast? (Helpful Content!)

Someone from the Ivory Coast is called an Ivorian. This is a nationality in the modern sense and anyone within the confines of the modern Ivory Coast can be called this. However, the country is home to more than sixty distinct ethnic groups, any one of whom may feel their ethnicity more important than nationality.

So, there is a short answer and a long answer.

The short answer is that someone from the Ivory Coast can be called an Ivorian in the sense of their citizenship and nationality.

The long answer requires a much more nuanced look at the demographics of the country and the different ethnic groups that live there today.

Let’s dive into it.

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What is someone from the Ivory Coast called?

The short way of putting it is that someone from the Ivory Coast is called an Ivorian.

This is a designation based on their modern nation state, the citizenship they hold, and the country they are from.

But of course this modern sense of a nation state is a far more recent invention than we tend to remember, and so the actual answer is a lot longer and more complex than this.

But to clarify, there are doubtless many people from the Ivory Coast who would consider themselves to be Ivorian.

The question more specifically, though, is one of ethnicity.

As mentioned, the modern confines of the Ivory Coast are home to more than sixty different ethnicities, usually split into five different groups: the Akan, the Krou, the Southern and Northern Mandé, and the Sénoufo or Lobi people.

To put the ethnic diversity of the country into perspective, the single largest ethnic group is probably the Baoulés, one of the Akan peoples, who represent around 15-20% of the population. T

hese people mostly live in the central region of Bouaké.

Next largest Is the Bétés in the Krou division, who represent around 10-15% of the population.

The Akan, then, represent around 28% of the population, the Northern Mande 14%, and so on.

No one ethnicity really dominates in any major way as you tend to find in other countries.

There are also considerable populations of European and Lebanese people living in the Ivory Coast, plus as many as five million non-Ivorian Africans living in the country.

So, there really is no simple way to look at the question.

Ivorian is a term for someone with legal citizenship in the Ivory Coast, but this is very unlikely to be an adequate description of their identity.

Where does the name “Ivory Coast” come from?

During the exploration of African by colonialists, primarily from Portugal and France, the west coast of Africa was divided into regions based on the available resources there.

The French originally called the Ivory Coast Cote d’lvoire, a name the country still uses today.

The country was a French colony before it gained independence in 1960, and so the official government of the Ivory Coast prefers the French term.

You also had the Gold Coast, the Pepper Coast, and the Slave Coast.

Naturally, the name for the Ivory Coast came from the abundance of ivory and the fact that it was a hub for the trade of ivory.

Though rightly illegal now, elephants and rhinos were hunted for their ivory here which was in huge demand around the world for its beauty and for products made of ivory.

Was the Ivory Coast British?

The Ivory Coast was not a British colony but a French one.

It officially became a French colony in 1893, though it had first been explored by Portuguese settlers.

Before colonial rule, the Ivory Coast as we know it certainly did not exist as a nation.

People of course always lived there and in the modern area we now call the Ivory Coast was always an important place to the people who lived there, but again the modern nation state was a concept imposed on it by French rule.

Treaties were established across the Ivory Coast for French protectorates and French influence was complete.

The Ivory Coast finally became an autonomous republic within French hegemony in 1958, and in July of 1960 the French government finally agreed to let the country become fully independent of French rule.

Where do Ivorians live?

It’s also important to note in all this that there are also many Ivorians who have spread throughout the world and the way this influences the country’s national identity even further.

Naturally, given the country’s colonial history, the largest population of Ivorians outside of the Ivory Coast itself can be found in France.

There are around 63,440 people in France today who are of Ivorian descent.

There are also around 22,000 in Canada, primarily in the French speaking regions of Canada.

A further 28,000 Ivorians can be found in Italy, 7,500 in the U.S., and more in the U.K., Belgium, and Switzerland.

All of this is to say that Ivorian identity may be even more complicated when you get so many of them living in and identifying with other countries.

So, again, realistically there is no simple answer.

Ivorian is a word that is widely accepted as a term to describe someone of citizenship of the modern nation of the Ivory Coast, but in reality the picture is far more complicated.

People of the Ivory Coast are part of countless different ethnic groups and identities, and any one of them may feel one part or another of their identity to be more important than their legal citizenship and nationality.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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