Land, Tutorat & Migration

Baoulé influence on modern Côte d'Ivoire grew sharply at independence (1960), driven by state economic choices that relied on customary dynamics. This page summarises the analysis of a reference study of these migrations and their tensions.

From "Miracle" to Pioneer Front

The Ivorian model rests on export agriculture, chiefly cocoa and coffee (see Land, Gold & Trade). As land in the "cocoa loop" wore out, from the 1960s–70s the state encouraged migration to the forests of the West and South-West, backed by agencies such as ARSO. The Baoulé, leaving an overcrowded savanna, were the main spearhead in regions populated by Bété, Kroumen, Bakoué and Guéré.

Tutorat: a Moral Economy

To access land, Baoulé, Burkinabé and Malian migrants relied on tutorat, analysed by researcher Jean-Pierre Chauveau. It is not a sale: a native (the tutor) grants a right of use to a "stranger" in exchange for recognition of his land sovereignty, through initial gifts (drinks, sacrifices) and obligations of gratitude open-ended in time (help in the fields, attending funerals). With annual crops the system was fluid. But perennial crops (a cocoa tree produces for decades) froze land use: the temporary right became in practice an inheritable one, blurring property boundaries.

Land Crisis and Ivoirité

Over time the balance of power reversed: migrants accumulated capital from cocoa income, fuelling frustration among natives who felt dispossessed. When the 1998 Rural Land Law promoted registration of customary land, the contradictions exploded: natives argued a concession is not a transfer, while planters showed "little papers" and decades of labour. From the 1990s, with the end of the single-party state and the ideology of ivoirité, these local tensions were exploited nationally and put the Baoulé farming diaspora at the centre of the political-military crisis of the 2000s. This page describes complex social dynamics; it does not imply responsibility on the part of a people.