Culture of Ivory Coast

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Culture of Ivory Coast" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The diverse culture of Ivory Coast, a coastal West African country bordered by Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea, is exemplified by a multitude of ethnic groups, events, festivals, music, and art.

More than sixty indigenous ethnic groups are often cited, although this number may be reduced to seven clusters of ethnic groups, by classifying small units together on the basis of their cultural and historical characteristics, which differ somewhat from one to the next.^[1] These may be further reduced to four major cultural regions – the East Atlantic (primarily Akan), West Atlantic (primarily Kru), Voltaic, and Mandé – differentiated in terms of environment, economic activity, language, and overall cultural characteristics.^[1] In the southern half of the country, the East Atlantic and West Atlantic cultures, separated by the Bandama River, each make up almost one-third of the indigenous population. Roughly one-third of the indigenous population lives in the north, including Voltaic peoples in the northeast and Mandé in the northwest.^[1]