The Baoulé are first of all a people of farmers. The yam and cassava are the staple foods, and the yam carries great ritual prestige (see Festivals & Rituals). Over time, cash crops — coffee, cocoa, rubber — took a large place.
A Craft of Gold, Wood and Thread
The Baoulé are renowned for their work in gold: jewellery, decorated objects and gold weights, in the Akan tradition (see Art, Masks & Sculpture). Pagne weaving and woodcarving complete this picture of crafts, with certain villages, such as Sakiaré for weaving, especially well known.
Plantations and Migrations
In the twentieth century the growth of coffee and cocoa pushed many Baoulé to migrate west and south-west to create plantations. This movement, backed by state agricultural policy under Houphouët-Boigny — himself a planter and founder of an African farmers' union in 1944 — deeply reshaped Côte d'Ivoire's human geography.
Bouaké, a City of Trade and Industry
Bouaké long prospered on textiles and agricultural processing. After the difficult years of the 2002–2010 conflict, recovery began from 2011, for example with a cashew-processing plant opened in 2012 that created nearly 2,400 jobs (see Baoulé Country: Regions & Towns).
baoule.ciLocal economy, resources and internal migration in the Baoulé country on baoule.ci →Houphouët-Boigny and the Pioneer Front
Félix Houphouët-Boigny, first president (of Baoulé aristocracy, a physician, large planter and founder of the African Agricultural Union that became the PDCI), built the "Ivorian miracle" on cocoa and coffee. From the 1960s–70s, as land in the original "cocoa loop" was exhausted, the state encouraged migration to the forests of the West and South-West, notably through ARSO (South-West Region Development Authority). The Baoulé were the spearhead of this pioneer front, among the Bété, Kroumen, Bakoué and Guéré. The sequel is told in Land, Tutorat & Migration.