Christophe Wondji’s scientific contributions

C. Wondj—Bingerville : Birth of a Capital (1899-1909). The decision of building the administrative capital of the Ivory Coast on the relatively healthy plateau, north of the lagoon, was taken after the 1899 yellow fever outbreak which almost wiped out the European population of Grand-Bassam. It was strongly opposed by the local Ebrie population, leading to the 1903 insurrection which took three years to quell. Even then, the European settlers and traders demanded that the government seat remain in the economic capital in Grand-Bassam. This lead to a three sided competition between single-function towns : Bassam, Abidjan, and Bingerville. In 1909, it seemed that the latter had won, but a quarter of a century later it lost Abidjan. This was a return to the dominant French colonial tradition of having both the political and the economie function carried out in the same place.