Catholic Nationalism in Cote d’Ivoire, and other stories of Religion, Race, and Nation

In 1983, the first president of independent Cote d’Ivoire, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, moved the nation’s official capital from the coastal city of Abidjan to his rural hometown, Yamoussoukro. There, he commissioned Our Lady of Peace, a massive and controversial Basilica that marked the new capital as a site of both Catholic piety and economic power. The art and architecture of Our Lady of Peace reveal Houphouet Boigny’s strategic efforts to conflate national, religious, and racial identity in 20^th century Cote d’Ivoire.

As a Constellations Happening on the topic of mobility and circulation, this session introduces the Ivoirian case as a jumping off point for a broader community conversation on approaching intertwined histories of world religion, race, and nationalism.

Image: Kouamé Youssef, 1996, Title Unknown (Felix Houphout Boigny presenting Our Lady of Peace to Pope John Paul II). Panel from mural cycle painted in Our Lady of Peace Basilica (Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire).