Africa 2000

Côte d’Ivoire

Capital’s special page devoted to lending the third new Ethiopian millennium an African perspective.

History
Cote d’Irone was once the richest country in West Africa and still retains some of its economic potential. This is despite a decade of turmoil which had effectively partitioned the country into a rebel north and a government held south.
The Ivory Coast, as it was known until 1985, became an independent nation in 1960 under Felix Houphouet-Boigny, an African elder statesman and the pillar behind the three and half decades of peace and prosperity enjoyed by Ivoirien from 1960 to the late 90’s.
The country is blessed with a fairly large land area by West African standards and a dynamic multi-tribal population which had established a unity forged out of economic prosperity. Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa, a commodity that has enjoyed high prices thanks to eager chocolate producers worldwide. The nation is also one of Africa’s top coffee exporters, not to mention its ample timber, oil, gold, diamonds, iron ore and other mineral reserves.
The country has achieved its apex in the eighties when its then capital Abidjan was the most modern city in Africa after Johannesburg. In fact, Houphouet-Buigny’s death in 1993 unshered in an era of instability that still persists despite a 2003 power sharing agreement. The country remains divided along a green line separating the opposing forces. The ceasefire is monitored by 7600 UN and 4000 French peacekeepers.

Cocody Rasta

The most famous Côte d’Ivoirien is not Didier Drogba of Chelsea fame but the great Alpha Blondy – the core of Solar System – one of the world’s best reggae bands.
Alpha Blondy is CI’s best export, a household name in world music and especially of African reggae. The artist began his musical journey on the Abidjan waterfront. Blondy’s inspiration draws on pan-African ideals, Ivoirian social themes and more profoundly by his Rastafarian faith which he embraced as a teenager.
Like many of Francophone Africa’s artists Blondy is based in Paris but is on permanent tour with his sizzling Solar System. They play a slick reggae with complex guitar work bordering on pure rock rifts to infectious one-drop beats generated by a robust drums and percussions unit.
The songs are not formulaic and each of the albums is a testament to the wide range of Blondy’s lyrics and to the instrumental prowess of the Solar System.
Among the most popular of Blondy tracks is ‘Jerusalem’ a tribute to the city and faiths that regard it as holy. Sung in a mix of Hebrew, Arabic, English and French, ‘Jerusalem’ established Blondy worldwide as a messenger of peace- continuing in Bob Marley’s tradition of songs of freedom and universal redemption.

Facts and Figures
Location-Between Ghana and Burkina Faso on East and North, Liberia, Guinea and Mali to its southwest, west and northwest
Area = 322,000sq km
Topography = Extensive Atlantic coastline, fertile forested interior, arid north
Population = 17,646,813
Distribution - 44.9% urban
Principal Ethnic Groups = Akan 42%, Voltaques (gur) 18%, NMandes 17%, Krous 10%, S.Mandes 10%
Principal Languages –French (official), Dioula, many other dialects
Main Religions – Muslim 35-40%, Christian 20-30%, Indigenous beliefs 25-40%
Capital City – Yamoussoukro (official), pop 186,000
Other Cities – Abidjan (defacto) pop – 3,570,000, Bouake, Korhago
Government Type – In Transition
Head of State and Government – President Laurent Gbao, since 2000
Economy – Cocoa, timber,coffee, rice, cassava, palm, Food products, oil refining, vehicle assembly oil, natural gas, diamonds, manganese, iron ore, copper, hydropower
Currency –CAF, Franc (XAF) 512.27= 1USD
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – $28.5 bln
Per Capita GDP -$1,600 USD
Electricity Production – 4.6 bln kwh
Literacy – 48.7%
Life Expectancy – 46.2 male, 51.5 female
HIV Rate – 7.1%
Telephones – 238,000 lines
Vehicles – 162,000 units
Radios – 161 per 1000 persons
Daily Newspaper Circulation – 15.6 per 1000 persons
TV sets – 65 per 1,000 person
Railroads – 659 kms
Internet – 300,000 users
Facts and figures are the latest available at time of publication and may not necessarily be the most accurate.

Asian furniture is in town

Gigi’s Afro-Asian and Fine Interiors, located around Olympia, is a trailblazer in bringing such designs. The business is run through the collaboration of three-sisters. owner and designer, Yemeserach Sebsibe (Yemi), Interior Decorator Gigi Sebsibe and the famous Ethiopian songstre, Kuku Sebsibe.
“We had opened the business three years ago and worked for one year as a marketing study and reopened it last June.” Yemeserach said to Capital.
Most of our displays are vernacular furniture that is primitive and originally Asian, said Yemeserach, who is a psychology major and also trained in furniture desig.
The firm brings antique furniture from Asian countries by traditional artisans and makes it ready for the local market. “Ethiopians and foreign diplomats participated at the opening. Following that we have been able to receive very helpful feedback,” stated Gigi Sebsibe, the interior decorator.
Interior design, the process of shaping the experience of interior space, through the manipulation of spatial volume as well as surface treatment, is not that accustomed to us who by our interest make the designing. Not to be confused with interior decoration, interior design draws on aspects of environmental psychology, architecture, and product design in addition to traditional decoration. The other western has a long-standing trend of decorating its home with the hands of professional interior design.
Ii is Gigi’s plan to mix and create fusion of African and Asian plus Ethiopian interior design for the millennium.
According to the owner, it took her a long time and required great efforts to collect these materials. She also aims at increasing the showroom into a workshop by recruiting more employees than the current eight.
“We are conscious of what we buy by becoming environmentally aware. So we will be replanting trees that we are going to use,” was the sister’s last message.

Science Village delights thousands

Theoretical education has been with us for many decades. Few or no labs were in the country although some do exist as of late. Pedagogically, it is rule that if students are educated with experiments and practical knowledge in addition to theoretical work, they can better retain what they are taught.
It was with this aim that “The Science Village” exhibition opened for the first time ever. The exhibition at the Alliance Ethio-Francise premiered on May 7th, 2007 and will remain open till May 15, 2007 and targets children between 6 to 15, it was learnt.
“The Science Village” is designed to promote awareness of science and technology in an appealing way. It is a high- impact and original creation, suitable to a variety of uses and fits into museums as it is a mobile across.
In seven years of its touring the science village has across –Europe, Africa and Asia.
Six hundred and forty thousand children through out the world have already enjoyed its entertaining scientific content.
The exhibition delivers non-abstract knowledge; providing answers to real questions. Through young peoples’ involvement with exhibition facilitators, they become active players in their visit, building up knowledge at their own pace and abilities.
The four main topics of this exhibition are: the living world, the others, communication techniques, and how things work. The exhibition has also studied the accessibility of the instruments to the disabled also, as there were arrangements of two languages with texts in Braille.
High schools of Addis Ababa are given priority and are invited to visit during the school week, so far the number of visiting high school students is about 7000 with many this more adult and visitors.
“The exhibition has been visited by students from 49 schools, 42 of the coming from the capital while the rest from regional schools. Around 240 each day” Marseema ______-, Public Relations Head told Capital.
The scientific structure of giant ants, electronic magnifiers, X-rays, hand paint, talking tubes, computer assisted finger drawings, gears and other items feature in the ‘village’.

From Ethiopia to the catwalks of Milan & New York Liya Kebede revealed on CNN

Born and raised in Addis Ababa, long legged beauty Liya Kebede has done Africa proud! She’s featured on some of the world’s top catwalks and has proved that models are more than just a pretty face with a fantastic body. Join CNN this month as they talk to the Ethiopian supermodel when she reveals a whole other side…
Tune in for REVEALED – LIYA KEBEDE on Sunday June 10 at 09:30, 15:30 & 20:30 CAT and on Monday June 11 at 15:30 & 19:30 CAT, as CNN profiles Kebede who is not only a WHO Goodwill Ambassador, or the first ethnic face of Estée Lauder but is also the face of Vanity Fair’s African-themed June issue.
In March 2007 the WHO re-appointed the Ethiopian beauty as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health after a successful first two years in the role. Liya was initially appointed in advance of World Health Day 2005, which focused on the health of mothers and their children.
REVEALED introduces audiences to Liya’s glamorous lifestyle in New York City where she lives and works. Highlights include the Vanity Fair shoot and a teen Vogue dinner in her honour. The program then follows her to Bolivia where she launches her new WHO campaign.
As a WHO Goodwill Ambassador, Liya will continue to highlight the fact that each day on average 1 600 mothers die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth and nearly 11 million children die each year before they reach their fifth birthday, including four million who die within the first 28 days of life. Almost all these deaths occur in developing countries, although millions of lives could be saved using the knowledge we have today.
Since 2005, Liya has worked hard to advocate on behalf of women and children through media and other events. Since her appointment, she has taken part in several key events organized by WHO and other UN partners. This year, she will be working on a Global Mother’s Day campaign called ‘Every Day is Mother’s Day’ Reducing the number of women dying in childbirth by three quarters and reducing child mortality by two thirds by 2015 is one of the key goals of the Millennium Declaration.
The gorgeous Kebede graduated from the French Lycée Guebremariam School in Addis. She subsequently moved to Paris to pursue her modelling career. She currently lives in New York City with her husband and their two children.
Liya has appeared on the covers of American, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish Vogue, as well as Time Style and Design. She has a global appeal, as well as a passionate desire to use her success as a means to benefit the lives of people from her homeland and beyond. She speaks English and Amharic, as well as fluent French and some Italian. She has also been featured in ad campaigns including Gap, YSL, Emanuel Ungaro, Tommy Hilfiger, Dolce & Gabbana and ads for Escada and Louis Vuitton.
In February of 2003, Liya became the newest face of Esteé Lauder cosmetics – the first woman of colour to serve as a representative of its brand’s 59-year history, joining Carolyn Murphy and Elizabeth Hurley as the third member of the model trio.