Music Events and Festival in Ivory Coast

The fetes des Masques (festival of Masks) that is held in November in the place of Man which is one of the Ivory Coast’s biggest and famous festival, the competitions between each village are held in order to find the best dancers and to pay homage to the forest spirits embodied in the intricate masks also another important event is the week long carnival in Bouake in every March.

In April, there is a fete du Dipri in Gomon, near Abidjan, the festival begins around midnight, when women and children who are naked sneak out of their huts, and carried out night rites to eliminate the village of the evil spell before the sunrise, and the chief appears, drums pound, and the villagers go into the dreamers and the passion continued until the next day.

The major Muslim holiday is known as the Ramdan, which is a month which everyone fasts between sunrise and sunset in accordance with the fourth pillar of the Islam, the Ramadan ends with a huge feast Eid al-Fitr where everyone prays together, visits friends and gives a present and also food stuff.

The traditional food in Ivory Coast is very similar with that of the neighbouring in its reliance on grains and tubers, but the Ivorian have a particular type of small, open-air restaurant, which is known as maquis and is special to them, attieke (which is a grated cassava) that is well-known in Ivorian side dish.

The maquis is normally the feature of braised chicken and fish that is smothered with onions and tomatoes, served with attieke, or kedjenou, a cheicken dish made with a vegetables and a mild sauce. One of the tastiest street-vended food is the aloko which comprise of rip banana in palm oil spiced with steamed oinions and chilli, and then eaten alone or with a grilled fish and Bangui is a local palm wine.

The masks are rampant art from the Ivory Coast, the change and difficulty of the masks created by the people of the Ivory Coasts is rivalled by none. The maskas have several purposes, they are used mainly for representation reasons; it can be symbolized as lesser deities, the souls of the deceased, and even the caricatures of the animals. They are seen scared and very dangerous.

The Baoule, the Dan (or Yacouba) and the Senoufo are all known for their wooden carving; the current art is well established in the Ivory Coast which some of the major artists like;

·         Ananias Leki Dago (photographer, 1970): Winner of the First Prize of PhotoAfrica context in Spain in 2009, and Distinction Award from the Critical Photography French Kodak Price in 2004.

·         Christian Lattier (sculptor, 1925–1978): Winner of the grand prize of "World Festival of Black Arts" in Dakar. 19 pieces of Lattier's sculptures are currently in the collection of the Musée National de Ivory Coast in Abidjan.

·         Yacouba Konaté (curator, writer, art critic, professor of philosophy, 1953): In 2000, he served as a Director of the National Institute of Arts and Culture, and as a Director of the Cabinet of Ministers of Culture and Francophony. He is also head ofl'Institut national supérieur des Arts et de l'action culturelle of Abidjan. He was one of the curators of individual exhibitions of 6thDak'Art in 2004, and he was the Artistic Director of the Dakar Biennale in 2006.

·         Jems Robert Koko Bi (sculptor, 1966)

·         Ouattara Watts (painter, 1957): Watts is an internationally recognized neo-expressionist painter. Watts is a jazz enthusiast, who merged music and art in paintings and collages, by using recycled everyday materials.

·         Paul Sika (fashion and advertising photographer/creative director/artist, 1985)

·         Mathilde Moraeau (painter): Director of the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts in Abidjan

·         Sidiki Bakaba (actor, scenario writer, director, 1949): Awarded for his entire career in 2nd Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiersin 2009, and Best Actor for West Africa by la Fondation des artistes de Ivory Coast (FONDACI) in 2008

·         Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (painter, 1923): Many of his paintings are in the collection of Jean Pigozzi