France's conquest of the Baoulé country stretched over some twenty years, from 1891 to about 1911. Baoulé communities defended their independence, their control of trade and their own internal rivalries against a better-armed army. This period has often been left out of national memory, and historians are working to bring it back to light.
Blalè, "the Man of Iron"
Akafou Boularé, known as Blalè (or Appiah Akafou), born around 1833, was chief of the Ngban of the South, a Baoulé family renowned for its independence. He was nicknamed "the man of iron". His first contacts with French forces date from September 1893; from 1894 to about 1910 the Ngban waged a war of resistance. Blalè was killed in July 1902, at nearly seventy. His resistance has become a symbol of the struggle for freedom and identity.
The 1899–1900 Revolt
The late 1890s saw a wider revolt in the Baoulé country, linked in particular to the demands of the colonial administration. Commandant Maurice Delafosse, one of the region's administrators, was directly confronted by this revolt in 1899–1900. Meanwhile, France founded Bouaké in 1899 as a military post (see Baoulé Country: Regions & Towns).
Consequences
- Loss of political independence: the kingdom and chieftaincies were brought into the colony of Côte d'Ivoire.
- Weakening of traditional authorities, whose role was redefined by the administration.
- Cultural change: at the same time the goli dance spread among the Baoulé (around 1900–1910), sometimes read as a response to the upheavals of colonisation.
A Puzzling Opponent: the N'vle
The French expected a pyramid-shaped kingdom to sign a protectorate with, as with the Agni kings of Sanwi and Djuablin. But each tribe — often each village — was an autonomous military unit refusing any imposed authority: no single signature could deliver submission. During the Kong column (Colonel Monteil, 1894–1895) the Baoulé, described as "undeniably skilled marksmen", answered abuses (requisitions, destroyed granaries, forced portering) with guerrilla war: ambushes and felled-tree barricades on the paths, never a frontal fight. Among the leaders: Kouakoffi N'guessan, king of the Aïtou.
Kouadio Okou and Delafosse (1899)
In 1899 the Toumodi district commander, Maurice Delafosse (later a renowned ethnographer), irritated by Ouarébo chief Kouadio Okou's refusal to answer his summons, had the village of Lomo looted and burned. Two days later, in September 1899, Okou burned the Toumodi post and, allied with Akafou, chief of the N'gban, rose in open revolt. Delafosse's superiors judged his first move "absurd and imprudent". It took three columns to reduce the fortified camp at Gbohua; Okou's body was found in September 1899.
Salékro (1902) and the Angoulvant Method (1908–1911)
In 1902 the Nanafoué-Kpri blockaded the Salékro post; Lieutenant Dessuze was killed in October and Captain Maillard evacuated the post. The rebels said: "We no longer want Whites, we no longer want to carry for them." In 1908 Governor Gabriel Angoulvant imposed the "oil-spot method": villages destroyed, crops burned, chiefs deported, total disarmament and heavy fines. Chiefs such as Yao Djè fought on until arrested around 1910; the "Baoulé war" ended around 1911. The people emerged weakened, but had given up neither their cohesion nor their cultural identity.