A look at Abidjan, an African metropolis
A stranger met a local at the edge of the lagoon and asked, «What is the name of this place?» The local did not understand the stranger’s language and believed that he was asked to explain what he was doing. He said, «T’chan m’bi djan,» which meant: I have just cut leaves. The stranger mistakenly understood «Abidjan» - according to legend, this is how this place came to its name.
Today, Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast has become a mega-city. Its ambitions are reflected in epithets such as the «Paris of Africa» or the «Manhattan of Africa». With its shiny restaurants, large garbage dumps and glass skyscrapers, conflicts between tradition and modernity, between poor and rich, Abidjan shares the same contrasts with many other global metropolises.
These contrasts are all the more impressive as one approaches the city from the savannah with its evergreen fauna and fiery red soil, its villages with palm thatch roofs and large termite mounds. And the city continues to grow, incessantly eating up land and lagoon, in all those places where not so long ago people had wandered around and unhurriedly cut leaves…
