Why Côte d’Ivoire’s capital is Yamoussoukro

The president’s village

Félix Houphouët-Boigny led Côte d’Ivoire from independence in 1960 until 1993. Yamoussoukro was his birthplace, home and unofficial headquarters, and for more than three decades it served as a “second capital”, home to the assembly hall of the ruling party. It grew into a major town largely through his influence, with a dense network of roads and utilities.^[2]

The village was N’Gokro, and over the 20th century it became a city named after Yamousso, a Baule queen who was Houphouët-Boigny’s great-aunt.^[1]

Capital by law

On 21 March 1983 Yamoussoukro was made the capital of Côte d’Ivoire.^[1] According to Jean-Noël Loucou of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Foundation, the president wanted to correct the colonial legacy of everything being concentrated in Abidjan, and to show African genius in a green city without big buildings.^[1]

Its best-known building is the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, built in 1986–89, ostensibly at the president’s own expense, and consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1990. Modelled roughly on St Peter’s in Rome, it holds 18,000 worshippers and is by some measures the largest church in the world.^[3]

“Yamoussoukro is not yet in fact the capital of Côte d’Ivoire.”^[1]

A capital in name

The transfer of government went slowly, and Abidjan, 274 km away on the coast, remained the de facto capital into the 21st century.^[2] By 2023 only the Senate and the National Chamber of Traditional Kings and Chiefs had moved. Laurent Gbagbo, president from 2000 to 2011, began building a National Assembly and a presidential palace there, but both sites were abandoned and overgrown.^[1]