Côte d'Ivoire / IVORY COAST: AN IRRITATING ANACHRONISM IN WESTERN AFRICA

Ivory Coast / Côte d'Ivoire (adopt and adapt Sassandrie; Bandamia or Komeostan to be Africanized)

In an attempt to reply to your inquiry I wish to draw you attention and those of our dear readers to the following fact about the place name IVORY COAST, many do not know. Ivory Coast whose present generation would like to impose its French appellation Cote d'Ivoire on English-speaking peoples for lack of a proper African or indigenized regionym, was at the epoch of slavery and slave trade (1400-1900) a very lucrative region in Western Africa in the supply of slaves. Western Africa was variously known as Guinea, Western Sudan, Negroland or Nigritia. In those days (1400-1900) slave dealers could buy white or black ivories. The white ivories were elephant tusks and black ivories were sadly, black skinned Africans. In consequence, the designation Ivory Coast is a way European slavers and to some extent Arabs immortalized the despicable lucrative trade in human beings and not only ivory tusks as must of you erroneously believe.

Some Ivoirians are of the opinion that by masking the phrase regionym Ivory Coast with the gallicized Côte d'Ivoire they could get away with the past opprobrium of slavery and slave harvesting in the region. They are wrong. Peter in English or Pierre in French still stands for the scriptural 'rock' and nothing more. By playing with words, you do NOT alter the meaning.

In my book published in 2009 entitled Origins of African Place Names: An Introduction to Toponymy and Politics in Africa, Ottawa: Bianco Publishing, 699 pages, I have underscored shameful colonial legacies in place names on African maps that must be expurgated to give Africans a new face-lift and Ivory Coast is one of them. I suggested to the citizens of that country to adopt Songhay as Gold Coast once adopted Ghana on the eve of their independence. Alternatively, I suggested names of major natural features in that country that could be adopted and adapted, among which were Sassandria, Bandamia and Komoestan.

I considered these more authentic than the opprobrious Côte d'Ivoire/Ivory Coast that remains us each time we pronounce it of the shame of slavery and slaver trade that hitherto put African as inferior humans in the eyes of rosy and yellow races. I went on that IVORY COAST or translated into any language was and is still and 'irritating anachronism or a misnomer' that Africans of good will at home and in the Diaspora had to do all they could to expurgate from all maps and atlases of the world.

So Marika Sherwood, Ivory Coast was not and cannot be exonerated from the debasing human trade, slave trade that laid the seed of colonialism, neocolonialism and what is subtly known as globalization today. Historical evidence to substantiate this is overwhelming. In fact, a sensitive person from this region who is aware of this should even be ashamed of calling himself or herself an Ivorian. It is another way of saying SLAVE. Exhuming slavery and any that reminds us of that appalling phrase in the history of man must be locked and keyed. Furthermore, if my first language is German and we have a way of calling a place name in German, I do not see the reason why citizens of that country or place would want me to leave my language and use theirs when I want to write or call the name of that country. In the French atlas map, Ivory Coast will be Cote d'Ivoire but in an English atlas or map as had been before we do not see any scientific season why all of a sudden the English would be corrected to call Ivory Coast, COTE D'IVOIRE. That name is humiliating to those who know its origin. Are Africans not ashamed of being last lots of developments in the world.

Dr. Viban Ngo,
The author is a toponymist and writer of the following books: Before You Leave For Europe and North America: A Rough Companion Guide for -African- Students (2007) AuthorHouse, Indiana, USA and Origins of African Place Names (2009), Bianco Publishing, Ottawa, Canada; etc.
> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 22:17:43 +0000
> From: beckerleschar@ORANGE.SN
> Subject: Ivory Coast Elections: REPLY
> To: H-WEST-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
>
> From: "Marika Sherwood"
> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 17:57:05 -0000
>
> -------------------
>
> So colonialism has much to do with what goes on today. But did the trade in
> the enslaved to the North also exclude today's Ivory Coast?


Addendum for French speakers. It has been observed that it took so long for some persons to read texts in English owing to the fact that it took so long for intellectuals to translate them from English into their languages, French, Chinese, Russian or whatever language or dialects. Am I suggesting a global scientific language for everyone? If the above comments were published in French there would have been reaction from the predominantly ex-French speaking colony of Ivory Coast sadly that is not so. Since it is in English no one from the said country has posted any comment or those who read it do not just bother. Let us try a Google Translation which is never all that right but could give the readers in French a gist of what is being discussed. Perhaps they will tell their head of state or members of parliament to seriously think over their country's name.  Interested French readers may be encouraged to read and comment:

Côte d'Ivoire / ou IVORY COAST (adoptent et adaptent Sassandrie ; Bandamia ou Komeostan être africanisée pour tenter de répondre à votre demande, que je tiens à vous attirer l'attention et celles de nos chers lecteurs sur le fait suivant sur la Côte d'Ivoire nom lieu, beaucoup ne savent pas. Côte d'Ivoire dont la génération actuelle voudraient imposer son appellation Français Côte d'Ivoire sur les peuples anglophones par manque d'un bon africain ou locaux regionym, était à l'époque de l'esclavage et la traite négrière (1400-1900), une région très lucrative en Afrique de l'Ouest dans l'approvisionnement en esclaves. Afrique de l'Ouest était diversement appelée de Guinée, de l'ouest du Soudan, de Negroland ou de Nigritia. En ce temps-là, marchands d'esclaves (1400-1900) pouvaient acheter ivoires blancs ou noirs. Les ivoires blancs étaient des défenses d'éléphant et ivoires noirs malheureusement, noir peau africains. En conséquence, la désignation de Côte d'Ivoire est une voie européenne esclavagistes et dans une certaine mesure les Arabes immortalisé le méprisable lucratif commerce des êtres humains et pas seulement Ivoire défenses comme nécessité de vous croient par erreur. Et cetera..