Around CI: Exploring Grand Bassam

This past weekend, we took a trip down to Grand Bassam, a coastal city about 30 miles outside of Abidjan. John, Dominique, and I drove from Yamoussoukro, through Abidjan to pick up another ETA, Mallory, and then onto Bassam. While the drive should take around 4 hours, it ended up taking more like 6 because we hit a very bad (and very typical) traffic jam just outside of Abidjan.

Darlene, an English Language Fellow who lives in Bassam, coordinated for us to rent the apartment next to hers in the historic French Quarter for the weekend. Her apartment is a beautiful, bright pink building that Rosalinda, a native New Yorker who came to CI 42 years ago, has restored and built up. It's an open, bungalow-type layout, with huge doors that open onto a balcony overlooking the neighborhood.

Once we settled in, Darlene took us for a walk around the neighborhood, Quartier Francais (French Quarter) and gave us a brief history of Bassam. When the French colonized CI and West Africa, they made Bassam the first capital of their colonies in the region, so there are many historic buildings that are somewhat rundown but hold a lot of charm and history.

We ate dinner at Les Moutons de la Pizza with Unglid, the ETA in Bassam. We then went back to Darelene's to have some wine, beer, and chat.

Saturday we explored Bassam a bit. We went to the Museum of Costumes, an art gallery, a ceramic workshop, and an artisanal market. Bassam is a town brimming with art, history, culture, and joy in a way that I have not quite yet experienced here in CI. As Bassam is a beach town, there is a relaxed atmosphere that exists only outside of the hustle and bustle of Abidjan. Additionally, Bassam has more recently become a hub for emerging artists and musicians to share culture and art with the community.

After we explored, and I bought a new bag from the artisanal market, we made our way over to the beach to find Darlene and Unglid’s local friends who were hosting a bonfire. We walked down the beach, through the crowds of locals from Abidjan visiting for the weekend as they danced and sang and called out to us. We finally found our spot on the beach where we were greeted by a large group of locals, including the ‘chef’ (the head), Priva, and some of his right hand men.

We sat on twine rugs on the sand as we watched men riding horses around the beach. Eventually they came up to us and asked if we wanted to go for a ride. I was extremely wary of getting on one of these horses, but Dominique and Unglid both eagerly hopped up. I eventually found myself riding a white horse with a very bad rash on its face up and down the beach. This was one of those moments where I all of a sudden looked at myself and realized ‘woah, I’m riding a horse, on a beach, in Africa right now.”

The rest of the night consisted of music, dancing, and a full feast of roasted chicken, cassava, yams, plantains, and onions. Priva was so excited to host us and cook for us, it felt like almost too much attention and effort. They set up tables and chairs on the beach and served us all our food, and it was delicious. The night finally winded down, and after such a long day, we all went home and crashed under our bug nets.

Sunday was the start of a local cultural festival called Abissa. Abissa is a week-long festival marking a time of forgiveness and rebirth, with music, dancing, and spiritual celebrations. We were lucky enough to be in Bassam for the opening ceremonies. As we woke up on Sunday morning, it was clear that Abissa was about to begin because of the crowds forming and the traffic arriving into Grand Bassam. Priva came to meet us and take us into the heart of the festival, and I have never been so happy to have a local person guiding and looking out for me. While Abissa is such an exciting and joyous time for locals, filled with people in makeup, masks, and fancy clothes, as a foreigner, it is incredibly overwhelming.

We were walking as a group into the heart of the festival where they set up stands, an area for performers and participants, and barriers to form a queue for the general public. As we were walking in, all of a sudden a huge crowd of people came stampeding towards us. We all jumped out of the way, not knowing why they all were running. Priva eventually got us through the barriers right into the middle of the festival. Here we saw a swarm of people dancing in a circle, barefooted and stomping their feet. This was the heart of Abissa. On a raised platform were musicians banging on the drums and singing, and everyone else in the crowd was either dancing or watching it all unfold. At one point we even tried to join in on the dancing. While I definitely lacked rhythm, it was so incredible to be surrounded by such joy, excitement, and spirit.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay at Abissa for long because we had to drive back to Abidjan, but I’m so glad I was able to experience this festival and be immersed in culture, music, and joy. On our way out of Abissa, though, we did run into a small situation…

As we exited, there was a very rowdy crowd of festival goers, pushing against the police and the barricades trying to make their way in. We managed to circumvent the big line and start to walk out, when again, all of a sudden, another huge swarm of people started stampeding in our direction. At first, I hopped out of the way to literally avoid being crushed, and I was going to wait until the crowd had passed. However, then everyone started coughing and gagging, myself included, so we all started running, too. The road we were on was essentially a sand road, so I thought the big crowd running caused the sand and dust to circulate in the air and was causing everyone to cough. But when I finally reconnected with my group, they all told me that it was in fact tear gas that the police had sprayed at the crowd trying to push into the festival.

We were all ok, definitely a little caught off guard, but once we got out of the big crowds, we started laughing about it. Abissa and Bassam turned out to be a wonderful trip, with a great story to tell, and I am so happy I got to experience just a little bit of the festival. It’s definitely interesting feeling the difference in culture from Yakro to Bassam, and I know we had such a good time because we were welcomed by a group of locals who made sure to show us all that Bassam has to offer.