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119-495: Leader of Ivory Coast political career ideology Government local elections parliamentary election general election Legacy Félix Houphouët-Boigny ( French: [feliks ufwɛ(t) bwaɲi] ; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first president of Ivory Coast from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief , he worked as

238-481: A Hindu text , has a Sanskrit language shloka (hymn), which explains the importance of reverence of ecology. It states: "A pond equals ten wells , a reservoir equals ten ponds, while a son equals ten reservoirs, and a tree equals ten sons." Indian religions worship trees such as the Bodhi Tree and numerous superlative banyan trees , conserve the sacred groves of India , revere the rivers as sacred , and worship

357-459: A medical assistant . As he never completed his studies in medicine, he could qualify only as a médecin africain , a poorly paid doctor. On 26 October 1925, Houphouët began his career as a doctor's aide at a hospital in Abidjan , where he founded an association of indigenous medical personnel. This undertaking proved short-lived as the colonial administration viewed it unsympathetically, considering it

476-571: A United States-supported, anti-communist rebel movement in Angola . Houphouët-Boigny maintained a strong anti-communist foreign policy, which resulted in, among other things, severing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in 1969 (after first establishing relations in 1967) and refusing to recognise the People's Republic of China until 1983. He re-established relations with the Soviet Union in 1986. In

595-484: A belief that natural objects other than humans have souls. This formulation was little different from that proposed by Auguste Comte as " fetishism ", but the terms now have distinct meanings. For Tylor, animism represented the earliest form of religion, being situated within an evolutionary framework of religion that has developed in stages and which will ultimately lead to humanity rejecting religion altogether in favor of scientific rationality. Thus, for Tylor, animism

714-533: A communist group; he was not believed until the RDA's 1952 affiliation with UDSR. On the 24th of that same month, Boigny delivered a statement in the Assembly contesting the result of the elections, which he declared tainted by fraud. He also denounced what he saw as the exploitation of overseas deputies as "voting machines", who, as political pawns, supported the colonial government's every action. Thereafter, Houphouët-Boigny and

833-678: A communist?" As the Cold War set in, the alliance with the Communists became increasingly damaging for the RDA. The French colonial administration showed itself increasingly hostile toward the RDA and its president, whom the administration called a "Stalinist". Repression against his party, the PDCI, was increasing in Ivory Coast. Activists are regularly arrested and beaten by police officers, sometimes with acts of torture; others are fired from their jobs. One of

952-420: A controversy regarding the ethical claims animism may or may not make: whether animism ignores questions of ethics altogether; or, by endowing various non-human elements of nature with spirituality or personhood, it in fact promotes a complex ecological ethics . Animism is not the same as pantheism , although the two are sometimes confused. Moreover, some religions are both pantheistic and animistic. One of

1071-451: A doctor and his involvement in local politics. The choice was quickly made for him: his brother died in 1939, and Houphouët became the chef de canton (an office created by the colonial administration to collect taxes). Due to this, Houphouët ended his medical career the next year. In 1930, Houphouët married Kady Racine Sow (1913–2006) in Abengourou ; their union was controversial because he

1190-756: A founding congress to be held in October at Bamako in French Sudan . The French government did all it could to sabotage the congress, and in particular the Socialist Overseas Minister was successful in persuading the African Socialists, who were originally among the promoters, from attending. This ultimately backfired, radicalizing those convened; when they founded the African Democratic Rally (RDA) as an inter-territorial political movement, it

1309-501: A means of being constantly on guard against potential threats. His suggested explanation, however, did not deal with the question of why such a belief became central to the religion. In 2000, Guthrie suggested that the "most widespread" concept of animism was that it was the "attribution of spirits to natural phenomena such as stones and trees." Many anthropologists ceased using the term animism , deeming it to be too close to early anthropological theory and religious polemic . However,

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1428-611: A medical aide, union leader, and planter before being elected to the French Parliament in 1945. He served in several ministerial positions within the Government of France before leading Ivory Coast following independence in 1960. Throughout his life, he played a significant role in politics and the decolonisation of Africa . Under Houphouët-Boigny's politically moderate leadership, Ivory Coast prospered economically. This success, uncommon in poverty-ridden West Africa, became known as

1547-459: A modern religion and an obstacle to the spread of Islam . He chose to be christened Félix. First in his class, Houphouët was accepted into the École normale supérieure William Ponty in 1919, and earned a teaching degree. In 1921, he attended the École de médecine de l'AOF (French West Africa School of Medicine) in French Senegal , where he came first in his class in 1925 and qualified as

1666-458: A movement of farmers against the influential white landowners and for the economic policies of the colonial government, who favoured the farmers. On 22 December, he published an article titled "On nous a trop volés" (They have stolen too much from us), in the Trait d'union , an Ivorian socialist newspaper. It was published under a pseudonym. The following year, Houphouët was called by his tribe to assume

1785-506: A multi-ethnic all-African roll with both non-citizens and citizens (mostly Senegalese with French citizenship). As a result, most of the African contenders withdrew and a large number of the French protested by abstaining, thus assuring a decisive victory for his African Bloc. In October 1945, Houphouët moved onto the national political scene; the French government decided to represent its colonies in

1904-412: A native of the N'Zipri of Didiévi tribe, N'Doli Houphouët died shortly after the birth of his son Augustin, although no reliable information regarding his death exists. Houphouët-Boigny had two elder sisters, Faitai (1898?–1998) and Adjoua (d. 1987), as well as a younger brother Augustin (d. 1939). The French colonial administration recognised tribal leaders; they arranged to have Houphouët go to school at

2023-423: A person". Hallowell's approach to the understanding of Ojibwe personhood differed strongly from prior anthropological concepts of animism. He emphasized the need to challenge the modernist, Western perspectives of what a person is, by entering into a dialogue with different worldwide views. Hallowell's approach influenced the work of anthropologist Nurit Bird-David , who produced a scholarly article reassessing

2142-646: A policy known as Françafrique , and he built a close friendship with Jacques Foccart , the chief adviser on African policy in the regimes of Charles de Gaulle and Georges Pompidou . He aided the conspirators who ousted Kwame Nkrumah from power in Ghana in 1966, took part in the failed coup against Mathieu Kérékou in Benin in 1977, was suspected of involvement in the 1987 coup d'état that removed Thomas Sankara from power in Burkina Faso and provided assistance to UNITA ,

2261-534: A precondition of religion now, in all its variants." Tylor's definition of animism was part of a growing international debate on the nature of " primitive society " by lawyers, theologians, and philologists. The debate defined the field of research of a new science: anthropology . By the end of the 19th century, an orthodoxy on "primitive society" had emerged, but few anthropologists still would accept that definition. The "19th-century armchair anthropologists" argued that "primitive society" (an evolutionary category)

2380-405: A religion he named totemism . Primitive people believed, he argued, that they were descended from the same species as their totemic animal. Subsequent debate by the "armchair anthropologists" (including J. J. Bachofen , Émile Durkheim , and Sigmund Freud ) remained focused on totemism rather than animism, with few directly challenging Tylor's definition. Anthropologists "have commonly avoided

2499-453: A result, according to Robert Mundt, author of Côte d'Ivoire: Continuity and Change in a Semi-Democracy , he was never seriously challenged after 1963. While Houphouët-Boigny's Ivory Coast lacked political democracy in the Western sense, it was somewhat more tolerant and open than became the case in post-colonial Africa. In order to foil any plans for a coup d'état , the president took control of

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2618-449: A rule, approach their environment as an external world of nature that has to be 'grasped' intellectually ... indeed the separation of mind and nature has no place in their thought and practice. Rane Willerslev extends the argument by noting that animists reject this Cartesian dualism and that the animist self identifies with the world, "feeling at once within and apart from it so that the two glide ceaselessly in and out of each other in

2737-476: A sealed circuit". The animist hunter is thus aware of himself as a human hunter, but, through mimicry, is able to assume the viewpoint, senses, and sensibilities of his prey, to be one with it. Shamanism , in this view, is an everyday attempt to influence spirits of ancestors and animals, by mirroring their behaviors, as the hunter does its prey. Cultural ecologist and philosopher David Abram proposed an ethical and ecological understanding of animism, grounded in

2856-519: A single list of PDCI candidates was returned to the National Assembly. For all intents and purposes, all of them were appointed by the president, since in his capacity as leader of the PDCI he approved all candidates. He and the PDCI believed that national unity and support for the PDCI were one and the same, and that a multiparty system would waste resources and harm the country's unity. For this reason, all adult citizens were required to be members of

2975-634: A small party composed of Communist sympathizers but not formal members of the Communist Party . He was appointed a member of the Commission des territoires d'outre-mer (Commission of Overseas Territories). During this time, he worked to implement the wishes of the SAA, in particular proposing a bill to abolish forced labor—the single most unpopular feature of French rule. The Assembly adopted this bill, known as Loi Houphouët-Boigny , on 11 April 1946, greatly enhancing

3094-716: A total of 31,081. At this point, he decided to add "Boigny" to his surname, meaning "irresistible force" in Baoulé and symbolizing his role as a leader. In taking his seat at the National Assembly in the Palais Bourbon alongside compatriots Daniel Ouezzin Coulibaly and Zinda Kaboré , Houphouët-Boigny had to first decide with which group to side, and he opted for the Mouvements unis de la Résistance ( Unified Resistance Movements ),

3213-463: A trade union. As a consequence, they decided to move Houphouët to a lesser hospital in Guiglo on 27 April 1927. After he proved his considerable talents, however, he was promoted on 17 September 1929 to a post in Abengourou , which until then had been reserved for Europeans. At Abengourou, Houphouët witnessed the mistreatment of indigenous cocoa farmers by the colonists. In 1932, he decided to act, leading

3332-607: Is considered holy in several religious traditions of India. The Ficus benghalensis is the national tree of India. Vat Purnima is a Hindu festival related to the banyan tree, and is observed by married women in North India and in the Western Indian states of Maharashtra , Goa , Gujarat . For three days of the month of Jyeshtha in the Hindu calendar (which falls in May–June in

3451-484: Is inherently animistic in that it discloses a material field that is animate and self-organizing from the beginning. David Abram used contemporary cognitive and natural science , as well as the perspectival worldviews of diverse indigenous oral cultures, to propose a richly pluralist and story-based cosmology in which matter is alive. He suggested that such a relational ontology is in close accord with humanity's spontaneous perceptual experience by drawing attention to

3570-556: Is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion"). The term "animism" is an anthropological construct . Largely due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinions differ on whether animism refers to an ancestral mode of experience common to indigenous peoples around

3689-498: Is sustained only by intensely animistic participation between human beings and their own written signs. For instance, as soon as someone reads letters on a page or screen, they can "see what it says"—the letters speak as much as nature spoke to pre-literate peoples. Reading can usefully be understood as an intensely concentrated form of animism, one that effectively eclipses all of the other, older, more spontaneous forms of animistic participation in which humans were once engaged. To tell

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3808-407: Is the inverse of scientism , and hence, is deemed inherently invalid by some anthropologists. Drawing on the work of Bruno Latour , some anthropologists question modernist assumptions and theorize that all societies continue to "animate" the world around them. In contrast to Tylor's reasoning, however, this "animism" is considered to be more than just a remnant of primitive thought. More specifically,

3927-577: The African Democratic Rally , who backed Ahmed Sékou Touré and Modibo Keïta , placing Houphouët-Boigny in the minority at the 1957 congress in Bamako . Following the adoption of the Loi Cadre reform on 23 June 1956, a territorial election was held in Ivory Coast on 3 March 1957, in which the PDCI—transformed under Houphouët-Boigny's firm control into a political machine—won many seats. Houphouët-Boigny, who

4046-577: The Bhagavat Gita , Krishna said, "There is a banyan tree which has its roots upward and its branches down, and the Vedic hymns are its leaves. One who knows this tree is the knower of the Vedas." (Bg 15.1) In Buddhism's Pali canon , the banyan (Pali: nigrodha ) is referenced numerous times. Typical metaphors allude to the banyan's epiphytic nature, likening the banyan's supplanting of a host tree as comparable to

4165-532: The Gregorian calendar ) married women observe a fast, tie threads around a banyan tree, and pray for the well-being of their husbands. Thimmamma Marrimanu , sacred to Indian religions, has branches spread over five acres and was listed as the world's largest banyan tree in the Guinness World Records in 1989. In Hinduism, the leaf of the banyan tree is said to be the resting place for the god Krishna . In

4284-584: The Kerma culture display Animistic elements similar to other Traditional African religions . In contrast, the later polytheistic Napatan and Meroitic periods, with displays of animals in Amulets and the esteemed antiques of Lions, appear to be an Animistic culture rather than a polytheistic culture. The Kermans likely treated Jebel Barkal as a special sacred site, and passed it on to the Kushites and Egyptians who venerated

4403-625: The United States Constitution in establishing a powerful executive branch , and from the Constitution of France , which limited the capacities of the legislature. He transformed the National Assembly into a mere recording house for bills and budget proposals. On 27 November 1960, Houphouët-Boigny was elected unopposed to the Presidency of the Republic , while a single list of PDCI candidates

4522-465: The assemblée constituante ( Constituent Assembly ) and gave Côte d'Ivoire and Upper Volta two representatives in Parliament combined. One of these would represent the French citizens and another would represent the indigenous population, but the suffrage was limited to less than 1% of the population. In an attempt to block Houphouët, the governor de Mauduit supported a rival candidature, and provided him

4641-618: The heads of state of Ivory Coast , officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire , since the country gained independence from France in 1960. Alassane Ouattara has been serving as President of Ivory Coast since 4 December 2010. There is a two-term limit for the president in the new 2016 Constitution of Ivory Coast . This limit has been lifted for Alassane Ouattara , allowing him to run for third and fourth terms. Elected unopposed Died in office Animism Although each culture has its own mythologies and rituals, animism

4760-508: The mesa . In North Africa , the traditional Berber religion includes the traditional polytheistic, animist, and in some rare cases, shamanistic, religions of the Berber people. In the Indian-origin religions , namely Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism , and Sikhism , the animistic aspects of nature worship and ecological conservation are part of the core belief system. Matsya Purana ,

4879-510: The phenomenology of sensory experience. In his books The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal, Abram suggests that material things are never entirely passive in our direct perceptual experience, holding rather that perceived things actively "solicit our attention" or "call our focus", coaxing the perceiving body into an ongoing participation with those things. In the absence of intervening technologies, he suggests that sensory experience

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4998-484: The " ensemble français " because, according to him, political independence without economic independence was worthless. He also invited Nkrumah to meet up with him in 10 years to see which one of the two had chosen the best approach toward independence. On 28 September 1958 Charles de Gaulle proposed a constitutional referendum to the Franco-African community : the territories were given the choice of either supporting

5117-476: The "Ivorian miracle"; it was due to a combination of sound planning, the maintenance of strong ties with the West (particularly France) and development of the country's significant coffee and cocoa industries. However, reliance on the agricultural sector caused difficulties in 1980, after a sharp drop in the prices of coffee and cocoa. Throughout his presidency, Houphouët-Boigny maintained a close relationship with France,

5236-440: The "animism" of modernity is characterized by humanity's "professional subcultures", as in the ability to treat the world as a detached entity within a delimited sphere of activity. Human beings continue to create personal relationships with elements of the aforementioned objective world, such as pets, cars, or teddy bears, which are recognized as subjects. As such, these entities are "approached as communicative subjects rather than

5355-469: The "old animist" definition had been problematic, the term animism was nevertheless "of considerable value as a critical, academic term for a style of religious and cultural relating to the world." The new animism emerged largely from the publications of anthropologist Irving Hallowell , produced on the basis of his ethnographic research among the Ojibwe communities of Canada in the mid-20th century. For

5474-634: The "self". Instead of focusing on the essentialized, modernist self (the "individual"), persons are viewed as bundles of social relationships ("dividuals"), some of which include "superpersons" (i.e. non-humans). Stewart Guthrie expressed criticism of Bird-David's attitude towards animism, believing that it promulgated the view that "the world is in large measure whatever our local imagination makes it." This, he felt, would result in anthropology abandoning "the scientific project." Like Bird-David, Tim Ingold argues that animists do not see themselves as separate from their environment: Hunter-gatherers do not, as

5593-848: The Eburnian Movement, was formed and Houphouët-Boigny accused its leader Kragbé Gnagbé of wishing to secede. Houphouët-Boigny married the much younger Marie-Thérèse Brou in 1952, having also divorced his first wife of twenty-two years earlier in 1952. The couple had no children of their own, but they adopted one child, Olivier Antoine, in 1981. Hélène Houphouët-Boigny – Abla Pokou - was legally recognized in 1960 by her father Mister Felix Houphouët-Boigny who came to Court along with his three witnesses: his sisters Ms Faitai and Adjoua Houphouët-Boigny and his cousin Yao Simon Yamoussoukro 's chief of Canton (Judgement Supplétif numsber1261 – 26 AOUT 1960 – Tribunal of Toumodi – A Court Session opened to

5712-466: The French and the Africans, and because in the 20th century, people have become interdependent, we considered that it would perhaps be more interesting to try a new and different experience than yours and unique in itself, one of a Franco-African community based on equality and fraternity. Unlike many African leaders who immediately demanded independence, Houphouët-Boigny wished for a careful transition within

5831-680: The Inter-African conference in Dakar on 31 December 1958, which was intended to lay the foundation for the Federation of Francophone African States. Although that federation was never realised, Senegal and Mali (known at the time as French Sudan ) formed their own political union, the Mali Federation . After de Gaulle allowed the Mali Federation independence in 1959, Houphouët-Boigny tried to sabotage

5950-465: The Ojibwe encountered by Hallowell, personhood did not require human-likeness, but rather humans were perceived as being like other persons, who for instance included rock persons and bear persons. For the Ojibwe, these persons were each willful beings, who gained meaning and power through their interactions with others; through respectfully interacting with other persons, they themselves learned to "act as

6069-482: The PDCI. The media were tightly controlled, and served mainly as outlets for government propaganda. While Houphouët-Boigny's regime was authoritarian, it was much milder than had already became the norm for African regimes of the time. Once he had consolidated his power, he freed political prisoners in 1967. Under his "unique brand of paternalistic authoritarianism", Houphouët-Boigny subdued dissent by offering government positions instead of incarceration to his critics. As

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6188-498: The RDA were briefly unsuccessful before their success was renewed in 1956; at that year's elections , the party received 502,711 of 579,550 votes cast. From then on, his relationship with Communism was forgotten, and he was embraced as a moderate. Named as a member of the Committees on Universal Suffrage (distinct from the aforementioned committee regulating said suffrage), Constitutional Laws, Rules and Petitions. On 1 February 1956, he

6307-411: The SAA brought together African farmers who were dissatisfied with their working conditions and worked to protect their interests against those of European planters. Anti-colonialist and anti-racist , the organisation demanded better working conditions, higher wages, and the abolition of the forced labour . The union quickly received the support of nearly 20,000 plantation workers, together with that of

6426-780: The Sahara. He said nothing against the First Indochina War or against Guy Mollet's vote for special powers to repress the insurrection of the National Liberation Front in Algeria. On 6 November 1957, Houphouët-Boigny became Minister of Public Health and Population in the Gaillard administration and attempted to reform the public health code. He had previously served as Minister of State under Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury (13 June – 6 November 1957). Following his Gaillard ministry, he

6545-531: The West, Houphouët-Boigny was commonly known as the "Sage of Africa" or the "Grand Old Man of Africa". Houphouët-Boigny moved the country's capital from Abidjan to his hometown of Yamoussoukro and built the world's largest church there, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace , at a cost of US$ 300 million. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving leader in Africa's history and the third longest-serving leader in

6664-577: The abnormal phenomena of disease could be traced to spiritual causes. The origin of the word comes from the Latin word anima , which means life or soul. The first known usage in English appeared in 1819. Earlier anthropological perspectives , which have since been termed the old animism, were concerned with knowledge on what is alive and what factors make something alive. The old animism assumed that animists were individuals who were unable to understand

6783-518: The administration of Akouè, a canton which comprised 36 villages. He also took charge of the family plantation—at the time one of the most important in the country—and worked to diversify its rubber, cocoa and coffee crops. He soon became one of Africa's richest farmers. On 3 September 1944, he established, in cooperation with the colonial administration, the African Agricultural Union ( Syndicat agricole africain , SAA). Under his presidency,

6902-687: The alliance because it seemed, at the time, to be the only way for his voice to be heard: "Even before the creation of RDA, the alliance had served our cause: in March 1946, the abolition of compulsory labour was adopted unanimously, without a vote, thanks to our tactical alliance." During his stays in Paris, he travelled in a black limousine to the PCF executive school. On the strength of this contrast, he defends himself from any communist sympathy: "Can I, Houphouet, traditional leader, doctor, big owner, Catholic, can we say that I am

7021-527: The ancestors, who provide the basis to life. Certain indigenous religious groups such as the Australian Aboriginals are more typically totemic in their worldview, whereas others like the Inuit are more typically animistic. From his studies into child development, Jean Piaget suggested that children were born with an innate animist worldview in which they anthropomorphized inanimate objects and that it

7140-569: The animist perspective in line with Martin Buber 's " I-thou " as opposed to "I-it". In such, Harvey says, the animist takes an I-thou approach to relating to the world, whereby objects and animals are treated as a "thou", rather than as an "it". There is ongoing disagreement (and no general consensus) as to whether animism is merely a singular, broadly encompassing religious belief or a worldview in and of itself, comprising many diverse mythologies found worldwide in many diverse cultures. This also raises

7259-511: The assembly he was appointed to the Commission du règlement et du suffrage universel (Commission for Regulation of Universal Suffrage); as secretary of the commission from 1947 to 1948, he proposed on 18 February 1947 to reform French West Africa (AOF), French Equatorial Africa (AEF), and the French territories' federal council to better represent the African peoples. He also called for the creation of local assemblies in Africa so that Africans could learn how to be politically autonomous. During

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7378-424: The author's prestige beyond his country. On 3 April 1946, Houphouët-Boigny proposed to unify labour regulations in the territories of Africa; this would eventually be completed in 1952. Finally, on 27 September 1946, he filed a report on the public health system of overseas territories, calling for its reformation. Houphouët-Boigny in his parliamentary tenure supported the idea of a union of French territories . As

7497-547: The communists, Houphouët-Boigny replied: "I, a bourgeois landowner, I would preach the class struggle? That is why we aligned ourselves with the Communist Party, without joining it." A 1954 report from the French military authorities points out that Houphouët-Boigny "conducted his game alone with great flexibility, procrastination and Machiavellian roueries, refraining from convening either the Coordination Committee or

7616-493: The conditions that made the future "Ivorian miracle" possible, since between 1957 and 1959, budget revenues grew by 158%, reaching 21,723,000,000 CFA francs . Houphouët-Boigny officially became the head of the government of Ivory Coast on 1 May 1959. Although he faced no opposition from rival parties and the PDCI became the de facto party of the state in 1957, he was confronted by opposition from his own government. Radical nationalists, led by Jean-Baptiste Mockey , openly opposed

7735-464: The constitution or proclaiming their independence and being cut off from France. For Houphouët-Boigny, the choice was simple: "Whatever happens, Côte d'Ivoire will enter directly to the Franco-African community. The other territories are free to group between themselves before joining." Only Guinea chose independence; its leader, Ahmed Sékou Touré, opposed Houphouët-Boigny, stating that his preference

7854-449: The corporeal, sensuous world that sustains it. Religious studies scholar Graham Harvey defined animism as the belief "that the world is full of persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is always lived in relationship with others." He added that it is therefore "concerned with learning how to be a good person in respectful relationships with other persons." In his Handbook of Contemporary Animism (2013), Harvey identifies

7973-579: The crisis, Prime Minister René Pleven entrusted the France's Minister for Overseas Territories, François Mitterrand , with the task of detaching the RDA from the PCF, and in fact an official alliance between the RDA and Mitterrand's party, the UDSR, was established in 1952. Knowing he was at an impasse, in October 1950, Houphouët-Boigny agreed to break the Communist alliance. Asked in an undated interview why he worked with

8092-467: The difference between persons and things . Critics of the old animism have accused it of preserving "colonialist and dualistic worldviews and rhetoric." The idea of animism was developed by anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor through his 1871 book Primitive Culture , in which he defined it as "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general." According to Tylor, animism often includes "an idea of pervading life and will in nature;"

8211-557: The drafting and adoption of the framework of the Defferre Loi Cadre , a French legal reform which, in addition to granting autonomy to African colonies, would break the ties that bound the different territories together, giving them more autonomy by means of local assemblies. The Deffere Loi Cadre was far from unanimously accepted by Houphouët-Boigny's compatriots in Africa: Léopold Sédar Senghor , leader of Senegal,

8330-508: The executive could govern by decree, and supervision over the colonial administration remained weak. Reacting to what they felt was a betrayal of the MRP 's and the Socialists ' promises, the African deputies concluded they needed to build a permanent coalition independent from the French parties. Houphouët-Boigny was the first to propose this to his African colleagues, and obtained their full support for

8449-485: The federation's efforts to wield political control; in cooperation with France, he managed to convince Upper Volta , Dahomey , and Niger to withdraw from the Mali Federation, before it collapsed in August 1960. Two months after the 1958 referendum, seven member states of French West Africa, including Ivory Coast, became autonomous republics within the French Community. Houphouët-Boigny had won his first victory against those supporting federalism . This victory established

8568-599: The first constitution proposed by the Constituent Assembly was rejected by the voters , new elections were held in 1946 for a second constituent assembly. For these elections Houphouët-Boigny organized on 9 April 1946, with the help of the Communist Study Groups , the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast – African Democratic Rally (PDCI), whose structure closely followed that of the SAA. It immediately became

8687-482: The first successful independent African party when the new party Houphouët-Boigny easily swept the elections with 21,099 out of 37,888 votes, his opponents obtaining only a few hundred votes each. In this he was helped by the recall of Governor Latrille, whose predecessor had been fired by the Overseas Minister Marius Moutet for his opposition to the abolition of the indigénat . With his return to

8806-452: The full backing of the administration. Despite that and thanks to the SAA's strong organization, Houphouët, running for the indigenous seat, easily came first with a 1,000-vote majority. He failed, however, to obtain a majority , due to the large number of candidates running. Houphouët emerged victorious again in the second round of elections held on 4 November 1945, in which he narrowly defeated an Upper Voltan candidate with 12,980 votes out of

8925-496: The government's Francophile policies. In an attempt to solve this problem, Houphouët-Boigny decided to exile Mockey in September 1959, claiming that Mockey had attempted to assassinate him using voodoo in what Houphouët-Boigny called the " complot du chat noir " (black cat conspiracy). Houphouët-Boigny began drafting a new constitution for Ivory Coast after the country's independence from France on 7 August 1960. It drew heavily from

9044-439: The holding of the second Constituent Assembly the African representatives witnessed a strong reaction against the colonial liberalism that had been embedded in the rejected constitution drafted by the previous assembly. The new text, approved by the voters on 13 October 1946, reduced the African representatives from 30 to 24, and reduced the number of those entitled to vote; also, a large number of colonial topics were left in which

9163-399: The idea of animism in 1999. Seven comments from other academics were provided in the journal, debating Bird-David's ideas. More recently, postmodern anthropologists are increasingly engaging with the concept of animism. Modernism is characterized by a Cartesian subject-object dualism that divides the subjective from the objective, and culture from nature. In the modernist view, animism

9282-448: The inert objects perceived by modernists." These approaches aim to avoid the modernist assumption that the environment consists of a physical world distinct from the world of humans, as well as the modernist conception of the person being composed dualistically of a body and a soul. Nurit Bird-David argues that: Positivistic ideas about the meaning of 'nature', 'life', and 'personhood' misdirected these previous attempts to understand

9401-405: The issue of animism and even the term itself, rather than revisit this prevalent notion in light of their new and rich ethnographies ." According to anthropologist Tim Ingold , animism shares similarities with totemism but differs in its focus on individual spirit beings which help to perpetuate life, whereas totemism more typically holds that there is a primary source, such as the land itself or

9520-587: The left-wing French administrators placed in office by the Provisional Government . Its success irritated colonists to the extent that they took legal action against Houphouët, accusing him of being anti-French for never seeking French citizenship. However, Houphouët befriended the Inspector Minister of the Colonies, who ordered the charges dropped. They were more successful in obtaining the replacement of

9639-437: The local concepts. Classical theoreticians (it is argued) attributed their own modernist ideas of self to 'primitive peoples' while asserting that the 'primitive peoples' read their idea of self into others! She explains that animism is a "relational epistemology " rather than a failure of primitive reasoning. That is, self-identity among animists is based on their relationships with others, rather than any distinctive features of

9758-444: The main differences is that while animists believe everything to be spiritual in nature, they do not necessarily see the spiritual nature of everything in existence as being united ( monism ) the way pantheists do. As a result, animism puts more emphasis on the uniqueness of each individual soul. In pantheism, everything shares the same spiritual essence, rather than having distinct spirits or souls. For example, Giordano Bruno equated

9877-530: The military and police, reducing their numbers from 5,300 to 3,500. Defence was entrusted to the French armed forces that, pursuant to the treaty on defence cooperation of 24 April 1961, were stationed at Port-Bouët and could intervene at Houphouët-Boigny's request or when they considered French interests to be threatened. They subsequently intervened during attempts by the Sanwi monarchists to secede in 1959 and 1969, and again in 1970, when an unauthorised political group,

9996-475: The military post in Bonzi, not far from his village, to prepare for his future as a leader, despite strenuous objections from relatives, especially his great-aunt Queen Yamousso. In 1915, he was transferred to the école primaire supérieure (secondary) at Bingerville in spite of his family's reluctance to have him go to boarding school. The same year, at Bingerville, Houphouët converted to Christianity; he considered it

10115-645: The mountains and their ecology. Panchavati are the sacred trees in Indic religions, which are sacred groves containing five type of trees, usually chosen from among the Vata ( Ficus benghalensis , Banyan), Ashvattha ( Ficus religiosa , Peepal), Bilva ( Aegle marmelos , Bengal Quince), Amalaki ( Phyllanthus emblica , Indian Gooseberry, Amla), Ashoka ( Saraca asoca , Ashok), Udumbara ( Ficus racemosa , Cluster Fig, Gular), Nimba ( Azadirachta indica , Neem) and Shami ( Prosopis spicigera , Indian Mesquite). The banyan

10234-471: The natural environment. Examples include water sprites , vegetation deities , and tree spirits , among others. Animism may further attribute a life force to abstract concepts such as words, true names , or metaphors in mythology . Some members of the non-tribal world also consider themselves animists, such as author Daniel Quinn , sculptor Lawson Oyekan , and many contemporary Pagans . English anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor initially wanted to describe

10353-399: The number of seats was reduced from three to two; while Houphouët-Boigny still won a seat, the other RDA candidate, Ouezzin Coulibaly , did not. All in all, the RDA only garnered 67,200 of 109,759 votes in that election, and the party in direct opposition to it captured a seat. On 8 August 1951, Boigny, speaking at René Pleven's inauguration as president of the board, denied being the leader of

10472-600: The organization, the PDCI became the Ivoirian branch of the RDA. Too small to form their own parliamentary group, the African deputies were compelled to join one of the larger parties to sit together in the Palais Bourbon. Thus, the RDA soon joined the French Communist Party (PCF) as the only openly anti-colonialist political faction and soon organised strikes and boycotts of European imports. Houphouët-Boigny justified

10591-432: The original animism of early humanity. The term ["animism"] clearly began as an expression of a nest of insulting approaches to indigenous peoples and the earliest putatively religious humans. It was and sometimes remains, a colonialist slur. In 1869 (three years after Tylor proposed his definition of animism), Edinburgh lawyer John Ferguson McLennan , argued that the animistic thinking evident in fetishism gave rise to

10710-671: The party congress, which could have opposed this volte-face and gradually became a pro-administrative party. The secretary general of the RDA, Gabriel d'Arboussier , denounced this new line and left the party. Similarly, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon , the Union démocratique sénégalaise and the Niger Democratic Union refuse to sever their relations with the PCF and the CGT". In the 1951 elections ,

10829-538: The party's main leaders, Senator Biaka Boda, was found hanging and shredded in the forest while wanted by the police. Houphouët-Boigny was afraid for his life and for the existence of the movement. Tensions reached their height at the beginning of 1950, when, following an outbreak of anti-colonial violence, almost the entire PDCI leadership was arrested; Houphouët-Boigny managed to slip away shortly before police arrived at his house. Although Houphouët-Boigny would have been saved by his parliamentary immunity , his missed arrest

10948-419: The phenomenon as spiritualism, but he realized that it would cause confusion with the modern religion of spiritualism , which was then prevalent across Western nations. He adopted the term animism from the writings of German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl , who had developed the term animismus in 1708 as a biological theory that souls formed the vital principle , and that the normal phenomena of life and

11067-429: The politician's photograph "was in all the huts, on the lapels of coats, on the corsages of African women and even on the handlebars of bicycles". On 7 April 1957, the prime minister of Ghana , Kwame Nkrumah , on a visit to Ivory Coast, called on all colonies in Africa to declare their independence; Houphouët-Boigny retorted to Nkrumah: Your experience is rather impressive ... But due to the human relationships between

11186-574: The president of the Supreme Court Ernest Boka —were implicated. There was discontent in the army, as the generals grew restive following the arrest of Defense Minister Jean Konan Banny , and the president had to intervene personally to pacify them. For the next 27 years, almost all power in Ivory Coast was centered in Houphouët-Boigny. From 1965 to 1985, he was reelected unopposed to five successive five-year terms. Also every five years,

11305-564: The public). Madame Helene Houphouët-Boigny is the granddaughter of the Bouale's King Nanan Kouakou Anougble II, her Mother being Madame Akissi Anougble. They both died in 1958. The marriage was not without scandal: in 1958, Marie-Thérèse went on a romantic escapade in Italy, while in 1961, Houphouët-Boigny fathered a child (Florence, d. 2007) out of wedlock by his mistress Henriette Duvignac. List of heads of state of Ivory Coast This article lists

11424-466: The responsibilities of village chief. Preferring to pursue his medical career, he relinquished the office to his younger brother Augustin. Wishing to live closer to his village, he obtained a transfer to Dimbokro on 3 February 1934 and then to Toumodi on 28 June 1936. While Houphouët had displayed professional qualities, his attitude had chafed those around him. As a result, in September 1938, his clinical director demanded that he choose between his job as

11543-466: The senses, and to the primacy of sensuous terrain, enjoining a more respectful and ethical relation to the more-than-human community of animals, plants, soils, mountains, waters, and weather-patterns that materially sustains humanity. In contrast to a long-standing tendency in the Western social sciences, which commonly provide rational explanations of animistic experience, Abram develops an animistic account of reason itself. He holds that civilised reason

11662-480: The story in this manner—to provide an animistic account of reason, rather than the other way around—is to imply that animism is the wider and more inclusive term and that oral, mimetic modes of experience still underlie, and support, all our literate and technological modes of reflection. When reflection's rootedness in such bodily, participatory modes of experience is entirely unacknowledged or unconscious, reflective reason becomes dysfunctional, unintentionally destroying

11781-511: The sympathetic Governor André Latrille with the hostile Governor Henry de Mauduit. Houphouët entered electoral politics in August 1945, when elections for the Abidjan city council were held for the first time. The French electoral rules established a common roll: half of the elected would have to be French citizens (who were mostly Europeans) and the other half non-citizens. Houphouët reacted by creating

11900-455: The term had also been claimed by religious groups—namely, Indigenous communities and nature worshippers —who felt that it aptly described their own beliefs, and who in some cases actively identified as "animists." It was thus readopted by various scholars, who began using the term in a different way, placing the focus on knowing how to behave toward other beings, some of whom are not human. As religious studies scholar Graham Harvey stated, while

12019-425: The village chief, Kouassi N'Go. When N'Go was murdered in 1910, Dia was named to succeed him as chief. Due to his young age, his stepfather Gbro Diby ruled as regent until Dia came of age; Dia's father had already died. Houphouët-Boigny descended from tribal chiefs through his mother, Kimou N'Dri (also known as N'Dri Kan). She died much later in 1936. Doubts remain as to the identity of his father, N'Doli. Officially

12138-587: The world after Fidel Castro of Cuba and Kim Il Sung of North Korea . In 1989, UNESCO created the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize for the "safeguarding, maintaining and seeking of peace". After his death, conditions in Ivory Coast quickly deteriorated. Between 1994 and 2002, there were a number of coups, a devaluation of the CFA franc and an economic recession; a civil war began in 2002. According to his official biography, Houphouët-Boigny

12257-584: The world or to a full-fledged religion in its own right. The currently accepted definition of animism was only developed in the late 19th century (1871) by Edward Tylor . It is "one of anthropology 's earliest concepts, if not the first." Animism encompasses beliefs that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no categorical distinction between the spiritual and physical world, and that soul , spirit, or sentience exists not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features (such as mountains and rivers), and other entities of

12376-417: The world soul with God and espoused a pantheistic animism. In many animistic world views, the human being is often regarded as on a roughly equal footing with other animals, plants, and natural forces. Traditional African religions : most religious traditions of Sub-Saharan Africa are basically a complex form of animism with polytheistic and shamanistic elements and ancestor worship . In East Africa

12495-599: Was "freedom in poverty over wealth in slavery". The referendum produced the French Community , an institution meant to be an association of free republics which had jurisdiction over foreign policy, defense, currency, common ethnic and financial policy, and strategic raw materials. Houphouët-Boigny was determined to stop the hegemony of Senegal in West Africa and a political confrontation ensued between Ivorian and Senegalese leaders. Houphouët-Boigny refused to participate in

12614-647: Was Minister-Counsellor in the Michel Debré government, from 23 July 1959 to 19 May 1961. Until the mid-1950s, French colonies in west and central Africa were grouped within two federations: French Equatorial Africa (AEF) and French West Africa (AOF). Côte d'Ivoire was part of the AOF, financing roughly two-thirds of its budget. Wishing to free the country from the guardianship of the AOF, Houphouët-Boigny advocated an Africa made up of nations that would generate wealth rather than share poverty and misery. He participated actively in

12733-418: Was a practising Catholic and she was the daughter of a wealthy Muslim from Senegal . The families of the two eventually overcame their opposition and accepted the interfaith union, the first ever celebrated in Ivory Coast. The couple had five children: Felix (who died in infancy), Augustine, Francis, Guillaume and Marie, all raised as Catholics. By becoming chef de canton , Houphouët assumed responsibility for

12852-601: Was again appointed Minister of State from 14 May 1958;– 20 May 1959. In this capacity, he participated in the development of France's African policy, notably in the cultural domain. At his behest, the Bureau of French Overseas Students and the University of Dakar were created. On 4 October 1958, Houphouët-Boigny was one of the signatories, along with de Gaulle, of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic . The last post he held in France

12971-562: Was already serving as a minister in France, as President of the Territorial Assembly and as mayor of Abidjan , chose Auguste Denise to serve as Vice President of the Government Council of Ivory Coast , even though Houphouët-Boigny remained, the only interlocutor in the colony for France. Houphouët-Boigny's popularity and influence in France's African colonies had become so pervasive that one French magazine claimed that by 1956,

13090-654: Was appointed Minister Discharging the Duties of the Presidency of the Council in the government of Guy Mollet , a post he held until 13 June 1957. This marked the first time an African was elected to such a senior position in the French government. His principal achievement in this role was the creation of an organisation of Saharan regions that would help ensure sustainability for the French Union and counter Moroccan territorial claims in

13209-572: Was elected to the National Assembly. 1963 was marked by a series of alleged plots that played a decisive role in ultimately consolidating power in the hands of Houphouët-Boigny. There is no clear consensus on the unfolding of the 1963 events; in fact, there may have been no plot at all and the entire series of events may have been part of a plan by Houphouët-Boigny to consolidate his hold on power. Between 120 and 200 secret trials were held in Yamoussoukro, in which key political figures—including Mockey and

13328-499: Was far more sympathetic in regard to "primitive" populations than many of his contemporaries and that Tylor expressed no belief that there was any difference between the intellectual capabilities of "savage" people and Westerners. The idea that there had once been "one universal form of primitive religion" (whether labelled animism , totemism , or shamanism ) has been dismissed as "unsophisticated" and "erroneous" by archaeologist Timothy Insoll , who stated that "it removes complexity,

13447-418: Was fundamentally seen as a mistake, a basic error from which all religions grew. He did not believe that animism was inherently illogical, but he suggested that it arose from early humans' dreams and visions and thus was a rational system. However, it was based on erroneous, unscientific observations about the nature of reality. Stringer notes that his reading of Primitive Culture led him to believe that Tylor

13566-496: Was only later that they grew out of this belief. Conversely, from her ethnographic research, Margaret Mead argued the opposite, believing that children were not born with an animist worldview but that they became acculturated to such beliefs as they were educated by their society. Stewart Guthrie saw animism—or "attribution" as he preferred it—as an evolutionary strategy to aid survival. He argued that both humans and other animal species view inanimate objects as potentially alive as

13685-628: Was ordered by kinship and divided into exogamous descent groups related by a series of marriage exchanges. Their religion was animism, the belief that natural species and objects had souls. With the development of private property, the descent groups were displaced by the emergence of the territorial state. These rituals and beliefs eventually evolved over time into the vast array of "developed" religions. According to Tylor, as society became more scientifically advanced, fewer members of that society would believe in animism. However, any remnant ideologies of souls or spirits, to Tylor, represented "survivals" of

13804-561: Was popularly attributed to his influence and his prestige. In the ensuing chaos, riots broke out in Ivory Coast; the most significant of which was a clash with the police at Dimbokro in which 13 Africans were killed and 50 wounded. According to official figures, by 1951 a total of 52 Africans had been killed, several hundred wounded and around 3,000 arrested (numbers which, according to an opinion reported by journalist Ronald Segal in African Profiles , are certainly underestimated). To defuse

13923-471: Was probably born on 18 October 1905, in Yamoussoukro to a family of hereditary chiefs of the Baoulé people . Unofficial accounts, however, place his birth date up to seven years earlier. Born into the animist Akouès tribe, he was named Dia Houphouët: his first name Dia means "prophet" or "magician". His father was N'Doli Houphouët. Dia Houphouët was the great-nephew through his mother of Queen Yamousso and

14042-427: Was the first to speak out against this attempted " Balkanization " of Africa, arguing that the colonial territories "do not correspond to any reality: be it geographical, economic, ethnic, or linguistic". Senghor argued that maintaining the AOF would give the territories stronger political credibility and would allow them to develop harmoniously as well as emerge as a genuine people. This view was shared by most members of

14161-423: Was the pro-Communist Gabriel d'Arboussier who dominated the congress. The new movement's goal was to free "Africa from the colonial yoke by the affirmation of her personality and by the association, freely agreed to, of a union of nations". Its first president, confirmed several times subsequently, was Houphouët-Boigny, while d'Arboussier became secretary-general. As part of the bringing of the territorial parties in

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