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Until 1990 there was only one political party, the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire (Parti Démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire) which dominated the Ivorian media. Nonetheless, newspapers allocated pages to book reviews and interviews with authors; television and radio also produced programmes with the writers. Today, there is an increasing number of bookshops all over the country where the population can buy literary work in French (from Côte d'Ivoire, France and other Francophone countries). Nevertheless, Ivorian and African male writers' books are still outnumbered by Francophone literature from Europe and North America. Although a survey has not been conducted among the population to assess the size of the reading public, we can consider the 44% literate population (Ministry of Education, 1996, 57% men and 32% women) as the potential readers. It is worth mentioning that it was political will which allowed more and more women to be educated and trained, either in Côte d'Ivoire or abroad. Since Independence, Côte d'Ivoire has been a welcoming land for people of various origins. This phenomenon extends itself to the literary scene which is a multicultural melting pot.

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Designed by Assamala Amoi - 29 July 99
https://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/AFLIT/Amoipres04.html