May 14, 2024 • 32 mins
This episode of the Anthems podcast explores the national anthem of Cote d'Ivoire, known as "La Bageunaise," which reflects the country's rich history and cultural identity. Patrick delves into the significance of cacao in the Ivorian economy, as the country produces a substantial portion of the world's cacao beans. The discussion touches on colonial history, including the French influence on the region and the eventual path to independence in 1960. Listeners will learn about the anthem's creators, Pierre Marie Cody and Pierre Michel Pingo, and how their contributions were recognized only decades later. The episode also highlights the patriotic and unifying themes present in the anthem's lyrics, celebrating the spirit of the Ivorian people and their commitment to their nation.
- https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=11500+miles
- https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/cote-divoire/
- https://www.rfi.fr/fr/contenu/20100301-histoire-meconnue-hymnes-nationaux-africains
- https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36260719
- https://www.france24.com/en/20100214-1960-year-independence
- https://www.nytimes.com/1960/07/12/archives/4-african-states-attain-freedom-france-gives-independence-to-ivory.html
- https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200302180100.html
- Walckenaer, Charles-Athanase (1827). Histoire générale des voyages ou Nouvelle collection des relations de voyages par mer et par terre (in French). Vol. 8. Paris: Lefèvre.
- https://worldrainforests.com/20cotedivoire.htm
- https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&glossary=yes&alpha=C
- https://academic.oup.com/afraf/article-abstract/45/180/152/30285?redirectedFrom=PDF
- https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2223-03862012000200002#:~:text=In%201879%20a%20blacksmith%2C%20Tetteh,sold%20to%20local%20African%20farmers.
- https://bantuchocolate.com/our-journey/history-of-cacao-from-south-america-to-west-africa/
- https://books.google.com/books?id=JO3n-ui4VvEC&pg=PA210#v=onepage&q&f=false
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:14):
Hello and welcome to theAnthems podcast. I'm Patrick and
I'm here to tell you the story of
a song that helps to tell the story
of a nation. Today we are heading
backto Africa, and this is a mighty leap
of 11,500 miles, or 18,507 km. There
are two things about this distance
thatin combination, I find to be incredible.
One is that it's only 90% of the
length of the Great Wall of China,
andtwo is that 90% of the length of
the Great Wall of China is 46% of
the planet's circumference. I had
no idea the Great Wall of China was
so deserving of the name. It's fun.
Even if you've never heard of this
country, you've almost certainly
partakenof its main export. And I'm not talking
about oil, despite so much of the
world's oil coming out of Africa.
Nope.I'm talking about chocolate, or rather,
the raw material for it, cacao beans.
Cote d'Ivoire, officially, the Republic
of Cote d'Ivoire produced 38% of
the world's crop in 2012, and the
nation's current output is more than
the rest of Africa combined. You
might have guessed that talking about
cacao was a diversion, and that had
little to do with the reason I picked
this country. It's not really that
much of a diversion, but we'll get
there. I just finished a book called
Dictator the Men who stole Africa
byPaul Kenyon, and while I have some
criticisms of the book, nothing's
perfect. I mostly enjoyed reading
it.It certainly got me thinking about
Cote d'Ivoire, but even that isn't
what got me here. I asked my wife
for a suggestion, and she mentioned
thiscountry, and I was surprised that,
coincidentally, it was the next section
of the book I was reading. Or at
least that's what I remember happening.
Atany rate, it has given me an excuse
totell you about La Bajeunaise or the
song of Abidjan. In my reading for
this episode, I learned that Cote
d'Ivoire has had many names. It's
been referred to as the Cote de quince,
the coast of teeth for its past ivory
trade, Cote de coquat, after the
name the Dutch gave the local people.
It was the coast of five or six stripes
after a particular cotton fabric
fromthe region, and honestly, my favorite,
the cote du vent, or the windward
coastafter the perennial offshore winds.
Sometime in the 19th century, it
settled into Cote d'Ivoire, and as
I write this, I don't actually know
why? And I suspect we will not address
that in this story, but I'm also
wrong, like all the time, so maybe
wewill all the coats make me think
ofme in my twenties a bit. I was once
called the man of many coats because
Ihad like 20 coats. I wore them at
really specific times because I like
purpose driven stuff that has a niche
use, and it might offer some insight
into my drive to do a podcast about
national anthems. But more to the
point, we'll talk about the reason
behind all the coats sometime after
two minutes of the anthem, and you
recover from a surprisingly smooth
segway. Well, I definitely like the
song, and I know I'm veering away
from official versions of the anthems,
but we are a work in progress at
this podcast, and I may end up back
there sometimes. For now, though,
wegot to hear Ajoe, an artist out of
Paris, and she does a nice job with
La Baggiones. It feels very like
ananthem, to be plain about it. I mean,
this version, at least, it's on my
playlist. You might have noticed
thatthis anthem is in french, and it
is also the anthem of an african
country. So we will in fact be hearing
more about colonialism and possibly
identifying another nexus point,
although I'm rethinking that term
altogether. And someday we'll have
that longer discussion about meta
stuff like that. But not today. Moving
on as I must we do need to know where
in the world we are. I guess that
for show purposes it's not really
strictly necessary, but geographies
provides a certain context to things
for me, and I'm hoping it does for
you guys too. Assuming we all know
what Africa looks like and where
thecontinent is now envision, it's got
that sort of lobe looking area up
in the northwestern corner of it,
and if you go about a thousand miles
along the equator west from the coast
and then head north roughly 360 miles,
you'll reach the coast of Cote d'Ivoire.
So it's an equatorial tropical place
that's bordered by Liberia and Guinea
to the west, Mali and Burkina Faso
to the north, and Ghana to the east.
The country is approximately square
shaped and covers 322,463 sq. Mi,
or 124,000 thousand, 500 km², making
it the 68th largest country in the
world and just a little bit bigger
than New Mexico. That's a us state.
Abit more than 64% of that land is
agricultural, and Cote d'Ivoire has
the distinction of being the most
biologically diverse place in western
Africa, with more than 1200 animal
species, 4700 plants, given the heavy
emphasis on agriculture in the country
and the tropical climate. The biggest
cash crop, and indeed the largest
partof the economy, is cacao, given that
chocolate is so central to the modern
development of Cote d'Ivoire. My
geography term for the episode is
actually a botanical term that I
thought was interesting. It's called
cauliflory. It refers to plants and
that flower or fruit directly from
the trunk of the plant, like a cacao
tree. And they don't grow new growth
or shoots. It has nothing to do with
cauliflower, apparently, because
whywould science name stuff like that?
The term comes from latin words colis
and flor, which respectively means
stem and flower. What I find more
interesting, and certainly more frustrating
once you get to know more about it,
is that the cacao tree is not native
to western Africa. How it got there
involves, as you might have guessed
from past episodes and the french
language national anthem, colonial
meddling in the affairs of native
people. But funnily enough, it has
nothing to do with the French and
also isn't actually where I'm going
to jump into the timeline. So put
apin there because we will get back
to chocolate. I'm just going to pick
up the tale. With the first french
voyage to western Africa sometime
in1483, there were no convenient, sheltered
harbours, and this meant that unlike
most of the rest of Africa, seaborne
trade did not figure into the eventual
conquest of the country. It further
meant that Cote d'Ivoire was largely
spared of the effects of the slave
trade, but not entirely, if I'm being
honest about cacao farming, even
today. It also meant that the first
french settlement in the area did
not occur until mid 17th century
inmodern day Senegal. And that's like
a thousand miles away from Cote d'Ivoire,
because Africa is actually really,
really big. A few years later, in
1687, the French established the
first european settlement in the
area, along the border with the Gold
coast, which is modern day Ghana.
Butnot a lot happened on the west coast
of Africa for the French until almost
the middle of the 19th century. And
we're gonna take the long way there.
Imean, it's not that long. I just
want to detour a little bit to talk
about how the cacao tree ended up
across the ocean. The short answer,
obviously, is us, like people. I
mean, humans move plants around the
world all the time and just completely
fail to consider the long term implications.
Most of the time here, though, those
were mostly economical and cultural
consequences that I'm sure have led
to large ecological consequences,
because ofall the farming in pre colonial spanish
America, cacao was made into beverages,
some alcoholic, some not, as well
asbeing made into chocolate. Based
onmy reading, no one seems to know
howit got domesticated, but it's always
been important to people and almost
certainly started getting cultivated
inMesoamerica sometime well before
thebeginning of its written history,
whichis mid third century of the common
era. The tree finally made its way
to Africa from Brazil via the small
island nation of so tome and Principi
in1822. Through the Portuguese, not
the French. A gaudian farmer returned
home with some seeds in 1876 and
was able to cultivate them. They
flourished in the equatorial climate
and from there spread into the rest
of western Africa, including Cote
d'Ivoire. And we will hear a bit
more about chocolate a bit later
on.In the first half of the 18th century,
Cote d'Ivoire was invaded by a couple
of groups of akan people. When I
say first half, this is over the
course of like 60 years or so, but
we're thumbnailing a bunch of the
history here. I'm not sure if we're
going to hear more about that as
my episodes trek across the continent,
butwe won't hear for sure. I just wanted
to mention it because it moved the
story along and prompted a french
admiral to make treaties with local
kings and place the region under
aprotectorate. This was the proverbial
footin the door for the French, but at
first things happened slowly. Over
time, they were able to develop permanent
trading posts through almost certainly
exploitive treaties and agreements.
Sourcesdescribed them as frustrating for
all parties involved due to limited
trade and constant misunderstandings.
Despitethis, France kept things plodding
alongall the way up to 1871 because they
were hopeful for more trade and certainly
could not let the British be there.
Instead, then for a moment, there
could have been an independence movement
in Cote d'Ivoire and likely a very
different story for the region. And
this episode that was because in
1871 France got trounced in the Franco
Prussian War. Part of the terms involved
withdrawing military colonial interests
in the region and leaving it to merchant
representatives. I got the railed
fora long time reading about this war
for something that was barely a year
long. It had some serious consequences
forEurope that we might hear about again
over there. I'm not sure yet, though,
but somehow the influence in this
part of the world meant that the
french disinterest in the country
onlylasted until 1885. In the Berlin
conference, I have said several times
and will say again that empires ar
Gana empire. And that is what happened
at the conference where England,
France,and Germany got together and just
sort of rationalized taking that
part of Africa away from the people
that live there. So in 1886, they
reasserted direct french colonial
control and started in aggressive
landexploration through a new mix of
exploitative treaties and people
thinking occasionally about the benefits
of allying with the european power,
they soon had the region established
as thefull colony of Cote d'Ivoire. That
meant applying french colonial policies
of assimilation and association.
Theyassumed the superiority of the french
culture to all of the other cultures.
What assimilation meant was that
where the French went is where France
went. So they tried to crowbar Paris
into the african rainforest. There's
some actually pretty cool looking
cities and places in Cote d'Ivoire
thatresulted from this. And association
meantif you worked really hard, then you
could almost be treated like a person
by being nearly french. There were
completely different social and justice
systems for people who are citizens
andpeople who are subjects. And that
was true at least up until 1930,
whenassimilation had progressed enough
that a narrow pathway to citizenship
hadallowed a small number of evo rians
to become officially french, which
I'm sure would be very interesting
for meto talk about. But I have finally
steered the narrative ship aft enough
to be sort of aimed at the point
ofthe show. In other words, at this
point in the timeline, the three
people involved in the anthem's creation
are alive. So now I can talk about
them. The earliest born of the three
will be the last man to get mentioned,
andthat won't happen for a little bit
yet. So I'm gonna start in the middle,
specifically on November 22 in 1927,
in a small town about 10 km north
ofAbidjan. That is the birthday and
place of Pierre Marie Cody, and I'm
pretty sure he is the guy who wrote
the lyrics. I say pretty sure because
one source is very sure that a minister
named Joaquim Boney was the writer,
butput a pin in that. You might hazard
aguess that Pierre Marie was not a
guy with a lot of a historical footprint,
because that is, in fact, the case.
Ican say for sure that according to
the Catholic Church's records, he
was born in 1927 and ordained a priest
in 1955. Then when he was just barely
48, in 1975, he became the appointed
andordained bishop of Deloah. He retired
in 2005 and died at the age of 92
in the very contemporary year of
2020. There is some minutiae in there
about birthplace, death place, and
that kind of thing, but nothing of
any consequence for the story. The
sources are clear, though, that he
wrote the anthem, and here we come
to a startlingly abrupt end to his
part. I've fairly quickly gotten
tothe point where I'm not going to
be surprised until we get to know
aton of stuff about the writers and
composers. Did we get to hear more
about the person born most recently
andimmediately counter my expectations?
We doactually get to know a bit more about
Pierre Michel Pingo, not buckets
more,but more than about the writer. To
start, he was born similarly to Pierre
Marie in a small town about 6 km
east of Abidjan on September 17,
1928. He was the fifth of nine children
in a family that had a princely descent
from ancient people on both sides,
momand daddy. He was raised Catholic
andsteered on an early pathway to the
seminary during his primary and secondary
studies at a minor seminary, and
then was put into a six year program
ofphilosophy and theology. By 28 he
was an ordained priest and worked
atseveral parishes and went on to find
a couple of schools. Pierre Marie
wasalso the founder and co founder of
two impressively named choirs, the
artistic and cultural Vocal union
ofCote d'Ivoire or the Uvaci and the
Vox Magna in English, that is the
great voice of Abidjan. He died on
October 30 in 1993 of unspecified
causes,and also at some point in his life
he composed the music for the national
anthem of the country. But these
twoguys named Pierre didn't get proper
credit for their work for quite a
while. In fact, it took until 2013
for it to be officially recognized
that itwas completely their song. Sometime
thatyear a conference was held to collect
and sort out all of the scholarship
regarding the history and authorship
oflabagines. What they ended up verifying
was that the anthem was, like many
others, chosen by competition. This
one was in 1959, and for quite a
long time the official credit for
writing the song went to a couple
ofEvo Rian ministers named Matthew
Ekraand Joachim Boni, while credit for
the composition was jointly noted
forthe priestly pierres. How that happened,
it's a detail that I'm sure is there
and exists, but it's deeper into
mysources than I was able to get. I
did try to find it, though, because
itis something that we should know
fora story about how the song came about.
My guess? Likely it has something
to dowith Matthieu making a modification
or twoto the lyrics before it was written
into the constitution. As always,
ifsomeone knows more like somebody
fromCote d'Ivoire, please share with
meI can amend this. The meetings resulted
in a report that was handed over
tothe authorities that confirmed that
Pierre Marie Cody wrote the words
andPierre Michel Pingo composed the
music for the anthem on July 27,
1960, Cote d'Ivoire became independent
andarticle 29 of the constitution named
Labaginese as the official anthem
ofthe second Evworian Republic. So
how did the country get from allowing
enhanced quasi french citizenship
for asmall number of people in 1930 to
promulgating a fully independent
constitution a mere 30 years later?
Simple terms. It's mostly because
oftwo people, two guys. Charles de
Gaulle and Felix Huffay Boyni. There
was no great revolutionary movement
orindependence movement in coats of
war, but there was chocolate in World
War Two. I told you I'd get back
toCacao because Felix Fei li got his
start as a very successful farmer
ofcacao. More importantly, though,
washis massive efforts at labor organization
and workers rights that got him elected
to the first constituent assembly.
Thatbody was part of Charles de Gaulle's
post war reorganization of France
thatbrought it from an empire to a union
to a community by 1958. In December
ofthat same year, the nation became
autonomous. And on the 7 August in
1960, France agreed to make Cote
d'Ivoire an independent nation. And
you know how we got our anthem. So
now I'm going to tell you about the
song itself. Musically speaking,
labagineis a composition in b flat major
andit is typically played in four four
time as a moderate march. So like
96beats per minute, we get an uplifting
andactually pretty patriotic melody.
It'stypically begun with a flourish and
soars off long intervals and contours
that seek to evoke pride and unity.
Itis strongly possible that it achieves
this feeling of being an anthem quality
tune by using the french anthem La
Marseillaise as a fairly direct model.
You have not heard that here yet,
but it's a good story and I'll get
there. We will run into the french
anthem in their formal colonial interests
again, though they had a pretty heavy
footprint where they went in Africa.
And that song is actually very good.
Moving on to the lyrics, lyrically,
wehave a five verse song with a refrain
after each of the verses. And while
most official events play the short
version that you heard, or something
close to that anyway, and it's the
only version that I've actually been
able to find that isn't a pretty
terrible recording. I don't want
toplay a terrible recording for you
folks. We have two alternating refrains
and in the song we get verse one
refrain one, verse two, refrain two,
verse three, refrain three, four,
two, verse five and refrain one.
Afinal time I will read the refrains
thefirst time they come up only and
read through the anthem in English.
Butas previously noted, this anthem
issung and written in French. And now
onto the song itself. I think just
reading right through and then talking
about it as a whole is what's going
to work for labagines. Hello. O land
of hope, country of hospitality,
yourlegions with valour have raised your
dignity. Your sons, dear Ivory coast
proud artisans of your greatness,
allgathered together and for your glory,
all will build you in happiness.
Proudavorians, the country calls us. If
we have in peace brought back freedom,
our duty will be a model of the hope
promised to humanity by forging.
Unitedin new faith, the homeland of true
fraternity. To you, noble ivory Coast,
o great country of good people, we
bring in victory the homage of our
ardent hearts in the friendship of
brother peoples. God guides us towards
the ideal, submissive to the cherished
motto, union, discipline, work for
your greatness, rich and noble homeland,
we will march forward, full of love
and full of faith, with united hearts
during our lives. We will work in
honor for the just right with the
United hearts during our lives. At
your calls, we will all be present
toyour traveling companions at the
dawn of this fallen day, so that
doubt no longer reigns, but faith,
fraternity, to all our elite battalions
inthe grave today lying, o entire people,
say again, love, honor, loyalty.
Thenthe first refrain, and may your flag
unite us, may your love strengthen
us, andfor you alone we want to live, and
for you to fight and die. And for
you, proud and noble youth, from
allknown horizons, always follow this
wisdom from our elders who are no
more. And then the second refrain.
To uswho are inspired by hope in your
bright future, always restore the
assurance to lead us as happy people,
and we will go through the world
sowing your name and your benefits.
Proclaim on all the airwaves that
peace reigns on your soil. And then
the first refrain. It's a song that
was again written by a man that knew
the assignment and could actually
writewell. It opens with a praise for
the country and the people's sacrifice,
explicitly acknowledging the contribution
that they make to the greatness of
the nation. After the first refrain.
ButI'll get to that in a moment, we
get another praise for the people
verse that acknowledges great achievements.
Then the anthem advises good relations
with other nations through divine
guidance and national unity. That
tracks for an anthem written by a
couple of priests in a country that
is 42.5% Muslim and 39.8% Christian.
So avery religious place. Then we get
to the first instance of the second
refrain, and it is a directly patriotic
verse that follows. The first half
is on message and we get an allusion
tofaith and brotherhood with allied
nations. But there is also a dedication
tothose who have fallen in the pursuit
ofliberty. I'm assuming that Pierre
wastalking directly about World War
Two here, because in the late 1950s,
for a guy born in 1928, is probably
inhis mind. Then we get the second
instance of the first refrain, followed
by the fourth verse, and it's very
anthem esque. We get the symbol of
the flag, the country loving its
people, and an exclamation that the
people will live and possibly die
for the country. The song reminds
people in Cote d'Ivoire to follow
thisadvice because it's from the people
that came before them. Again, we
get the second chorus and then the
final verse. It is a verse filled
withthe right kind of optimism and hope,
the sort of stuff I like in an anthem.
It ought to look forward for the
nation and assure the people of happiness
and marching through the world proclaiming
their peacefully obtained prosperity.
Thenthe song ends with a final repeat
ofthe first refrain. The refrains do
what they ought to do. For me, that
is a combination of moving things
along and tying the verses together.
Thefirst refrain calls the avorian people
to take pride in their national identity
and be ready to be of service. They
are reminded of the actually fairly
remarkable and peaceful transition
toindependence that they enjoyed. It's
well written to emphasize the importance
of unity and cooperation in a stable
nation. The second chorus is a not
quite over the top patriotic verse
that does its best to evoke a deep
commitment to the country for its
people. Overall, it's a very anthem
kind of a song. I think there is
abit of non specific religion stuff,
but not a ton of it this time. But
we do get the overt patriotism that
you would expect from a song that
celebrates the nation. It's almost
jingoistic, actually. The Baggiennese
manages that with ease, and it does
it in an astonishingly non specific
way.That said, it all kind of works,
and Ilike the song quite a bit and it's
got a universality and a not quite
ear warm tune. The overarching themes
of patriotism, unity of the people,
andthe bond between the citizens and
the country make it do what it's
supposed to do. I understand why
itwon the competition and it was chosen
as the anthem. Of Cote d'Ivoire.
So nowwe get to hear the credits. Another
time. The writing, recording and
production for the show are done
byme and I wrote and played the theme
music. The music was used with my
permission. Unless otherwise noted,
the anthems I play are public domain
or some other equivalently free to
play stuff. This time I am noting
thatI did receive specific permission
from thesinger to use her song. So a special
thanks to ajeway. That is according
toher YouTube channel a D J O I E.
They are an artist, singer and writer
out of France and they got a great
voice. My sources and the specific
itemsI mentioned in the show are contained
inthe show notes, and the most direct
way to get to those show notes is@anthemspodcast.com
you can find me on Facebook and WhatsApp
as the Anthems podcast, but you should
follow me on Facebook. I know it's
social media for old people, but
TikTok seems like a lot of work for
a monthly show and they're probably
gonna ban it in my country anyway,
soit seems like I have missed the train
to cool town there. For now, I try
to get the episode shared onto different
media platforms wherever I can with
the hashtag anthemspod and it would
be cool if you hashtagged a post
like that too. And I am also sure
ithas some nebulous health benefits
if youdo it. As always, you can email me
corrections, comments, suggestions,
ideas,instructions on how to do awesome
things and ask me questions. Give
meadvice on how to drive a car. I probably
won't listen to that though. You
can do all that@anthemspodmail.com
for better or forworse, you can still call me and
text me even though nobody does.
Orbetter still, leave me a review wherever
you can so I can find out what you
think. Give me a rating on your podcast
app. Ratings and reviews do matter
tothe algorithms. Or maybe the next
time somebody comes door to door
sales at your house, invite them
inand play this very episode of the
show for them before kindly asking
them to leave and offering them some
juice. If you have any suggestions
forfuture episodes, the best way to
get them to me is to email anthemspodmail.com.
buteven if you just keep listening every
now and again, thank you so much
cause that matters to me more than
anything else and I hope you enjoyed
the show. I'll be back.
Hello and welcome to theAnthems podcast. I'm Patrick and
I'm here to tell you the story of
a song that helps to tell the story
of a nation. Today we are heading
backto Africa, and this is a mighty leap
of 11,500 miles, or 18,507 km. There
are two things about this distance
thatin combination, I find to be incredible.
One is that it's only 90% of the
length of the Great Wall of China,
andtwo is that 90% of the length of
the Great Wall of China is 46% of
the planet's circumference. I had
no idea the Great Wall of China was
so deserving of the name. It's fun.
Even if you've never heard of this
country, you've almost certainly
partakenof its main export. And I'm not talking
about oil, despite so much of the
world's oil coming out of Africa.
Nope.I'm talking about chocolate, or rather,
the raw material for it, cacao beans.
Cote d'Ivoire, officially, the Republic
of Cote d'Ivoire produced 38% of
the world's crop in 2012, and the
nation's current output is more than
the rest of Africa combined. You
might have guessed that talking about
cacao was a diversion, and that had
little to do with the reason I picked
this country. It's not really that
much of a diversion, but we'll get
there. I just finished a book called
Dictator the Men who stole Africa
byPaul Kenyon, and while I have some
criticisms of the book, nothing's
perfect. I mostly enjoyed reading
it.It certainly got me thinking about
Cote d'Ivoire, but even that isn't
what got me here. I asked my wife
for a suggestion, and she mentioned
thiscountry, and I was surprised that,
coincidentally, it was the next section
of the book I was reading. Or at
least that's what I remember happening.
Atany rate, it has given me an excuse
totell you about La Bajeunaise or the
song of Abidjan. In my reading for
this episode, I learned that Cote
d'Ivoire has had many names. It's
been referred to as the Cote de quince,
the coast of teeth for its past ivory
trade, Cote de coquat, after the
name the Dutch gave the local people.
It was the coast of five or six stripes
after a particular cotton fabric
fromthe region, and honestly, my favorite,
the cote du vent, or the windward
coastafter the perennial offshore winds.
Sometime in the 19th century, it
settled into Cote d'Ivoire, and as
I write this, I don't actually know
why? And I suspect we will not address
that in this story, but I'm also
wrong, like all the time, so maybe
wewill all the coats make me think
ofme in my twenties a bit. I was once
called the man of many coats because
Ihad like 20 coats. I wore them at
really specific times because I like
purpose driven stuff that has a niche
use, and it might offer some insight
into my drive to do a podcast about
national anthems. But more to the
point, we'll talk about the reason
behind all the coats sometime after
two minutes of the anthem, and you
recover from a surprisingly smooth
segway. Well, I definitely like the
song, and I know I'm veering away
from official versions of the anthems,
but we are a work in progress at
this podcast, and I may end up back
there sometimes. For now, though,
wegot to hear Ajoe, an artist out of
Paris, and she does a nice job with
La Baggiones. It feels very like
ananthem, to be plain about it. I mean,
this version, at least, it's on my
playlist. You might have noticed
thatthis anthem is in french, and it
is also the anthem of an african
country. So we will in fact be hearing
more about colonialism and possibly
identifying another nexus point,
although I'm rethinking that term
altogether. And someday we'll have
that longer discussion about meta
stuff like that. But not today. Moving
on as I must we do need to know where
in the world we are. I guess that
for show purposes it's not really
strictly necessary, but geographies
provides a certain context to things
for me, and I'm hoping it does for
you guys too. Assuming we all know
what Africa looks like and where
thecontinent is now envision, it's got
that sort of lobe looking area up
in the northwestern corner of it,
and if you go about a thousand miles
along the equator west from the coast
and then head north roughly 360 miles,
you'll reach the coast of Cote d'Ivoire.
So it's an equatorial tropical place
that's bordered by Liberia and Guinea
to the west, Mali and Burkina Faso
to the north, and Ghana to the east.
The country is approximately square
shaped and covers 322,463 sq. Mi,
or 124,000 thousand, 500 km², making
it the 68th largest country in the
world and just a little bit bigger
than New Mexico. That's a us state.
Abit more than 64% of that land is
agricultural, and Cote d'Ivoire has
the distinction of being the most
biologically diverse place in western
Africa, with more than 1200 animal
species, 4700 plants, given the heavy
emphasis on agriculture in the country
and the tropical climate. The biggest
cash crop, and indeed the largest
partof the economy, is cacao, given that
chocolate is so central to the modern
development of Cote d'Ivoire. My
geography term for the episode is
actually a botanical term that I
thought was interesting. It's called
cauliflory. It refers to plants and
that flower or fruit directly from
the trunk of the plant, like a cacao
tree. And they don't grow new growth
or shoots. It has nothing to do with
cauliflower, apparently, because
whywould science name stuff like that?
The term comes from latin words colis
and flor, which respectively means
stem and flower. What I find more
interesting, and certainly more frustrating
once you get to know more about it,
is that the cacao tree is not native
to western Africa. How it got there
involves, as you might have guessed
from past episodes and the french
language national anthem, colonial
meddling in the affairs of native
people. But funnily enough, it has
nothing to do with the French and
also isn't actually where I'm going
to jump into the timeline. So put
apin there because we will get back
to chocolate. I'm just going to pick
up the tale. With the first french
voyage to western Africa sometime
in1483, there were no convenient, sheltered
harbours, and this meant that unlike
most of the rest of Africa, seaborne
trade did not figure into the eventual
conquest of the country. It further
meant that Cote d'Ivoire was largely
spared of the effects of the slave
trade, but not entirely, if I'm being
honest about cacao farming, even
today. It also meant that the first
french settlement in the area did
not occur until mid 17th century
inmodern day Senegal. And that's like
a thousand miles away from Cote d'Ivoire,
because Africa is actually really,
really big. A few years later, in
1687, the French established the
first european settlement in the
area, along the border with the Gold
coast, which is modern day Ghana.
Butnot a lot happened on the west coast
of Africa for the French until almost
the middle of the 19th century. And
we're gonna take the long way there.
Imean, it's not that long. I just
want to detour a little bit to talk
about how the cacao tree ended up
across the ocean. The short answer,
obviously, is us, like people. I
mean, humans move plants around the
world all the time and just completely
fail to consider the long term implications.
Most of the time here, though, those
were mostly economical and cultural
consequences that I'm sure have led
to large ecological consequences,
because ofall the farming in pre colonial spanish
America, cacao was made into beverages,
some alcoholic, some not, as well
asbeing made into chocolate. Based
onmy reading, no one seems to know
howit got domesticated, but it's always
been important to people and almost
certainly started getting cultivated
inMesoamerica sometime well before
thebeginning of its written history,
whichis mid third century of the common
era. The tree finally made its way
to Africa from Brazil via the small
island nation of so tome and Principi
in1822. Through the Portuguese, not
the French. A gaudian farmer returned
home with some seeds in 1876 and
was able to cultivate them. They
flourished in the equatorial climate
and from there spread into the rest
of western Africa, including Cote
d'Ivoire. And we will hear a bit
more about chocolate a bit later
on.In the first half of the 18th century,
Cote d'Ivoire was invaded by a couple
of groups of akan people. When I
say first half, this is over the
course of like 60 years or so, but
we're thumbnailing a bunch of the
history here. I'm not sure if we're
going to hear more about that as
my episodes trek across the continent,
butwe won't hear for sure. I just wanted
to mention it because it moved the
story along and prompted a french
admiral to make treaties with local
kings and place the region under
aprotectorate. This was the proverbial
footin the door for the French, but at
first things happened slowly. Over
time, they were able to develop permanent
trading posts through almost certainly
exploitive treaties and agreements.
Sourcesdescribed them as frustrating for
all parties involved due to limited
trade and constant misunderstandings.
Despitethis, France kept things plodding
alongall the way up to 1871 because they
were hopeful for more trade and certainly
could not let the British be there.
Instead, then for a moment, there
could have been an independence movement
in Cote d'Ivoire and likely a very
different story for the region. And
this episode that was because in
1871 France got trounced in the Franco
Prussian War. Part of the terms involved
withdrawing military colonial interests
in the region and leaving it to merchant
representatives. I got the railed
fora long time reading about this war
for something that was barely a year
long. It had some serious consequences
forEurope that we might hear about again
over there. I'm not sure yet, though,
but somehow the influence in this
part of the world meant that the
french disinterest in the country
onlylasted until 1885. In the Berlin
conference, I have said several times
and will say again that empires ar
Gana empire. And that is what happened
at the conference where England,
France,and Germany got together and just
sort of rationalized taking that
part of Africa away from the people
that live there. So in 1886, they
reasserted direct french colonial
control and started in aggressive
landexploration through a new mix of
exploitative treaties and people
thinking occasionally about the benefits
of allying with the european power,
they soon had the region established
as thefull colony of Cote d'Ivoire. That
meant applying french colonial policies
of assimilation and association.
Theyassumed the superiority of the french
culture to all of the other cultures.
What assimilation meant was that
where the French went is where France
went. So they tried to crowbar Paris
into the african rainforest. There's
some actually pretty cool looking
cities and places in Cote d'Ivoire
thatresulted from this. And association
meantif you worked really hard, then you
could almost be treated like a person
by being nearly french. There were
completely different social and justice
systems for people who are citizens
andpeople who are subjects. And that
was true at least up until 1930,
whenassimilation had progressed enough
that a narrow pathway to citizenship
hadallowed a small number of evo rians
to become officially french, which
I'm sure would be very interesting
for meto talk about. But I have finally
steered the narrative ship aft enough
to be sort of aimed at the point
ofthe show. In other words, at this
point in the timeline, the three
people involved in the anthem's creation
are alive. So now I can talk about
them. The earliest born of the three
will be the last man to get mentioned,
andthat won't happen for a little bit
yet. So I'm gonna start in the middle,
specifically on November 22 in 1927,
in a small town about 10 km north
ofAbidjan. That is the birthday and
place of Pierre Marie Cody, and I'm
pretty sure he is the guy who wrote
the lyrics. I say pretty sure because
one source is very sure that a minister
named Joaquim Boney was the writer,
butput a pin in that. You might hazard
aguess that Pierre Marie was not a
guy with a lot of a historical footprint,
because that is, in fact, the case.
Ican say for sure that according to
the Catholic Church's records, he
was born in 1927 and ordained a priest
in 1955. Then when he was just barely
48, in 1975, he became the appointed
andordained bishop of Deloah. He retired
in 2005 and died at the age of 92
in the very contemporary year of
2020. There is some minutiae in there
about birthplace, death place, and
that kind of thing, but nothing of
any consequence for the story. The
sources are clear, though, that he
wrote the anthem, and here we come
to a startlingly abrupt end to his
part. I've fairly quickly gotten
tothe point where I'm not going to
be surprised until we get to know
aton of stuff about the writers and
composers. Did we get to hear more
about the person born most recently
andimmediately counter my expectations?
We doactually get to know a bit more about
Pierre Michel Pingo, not buckets
more,but more than about the writer. To
start, he was born similarly to Pierre
Marie in a small town about 6 km
east of Abidjan on September 17,
1928. He was the fifth of nine children
in a family that had a princely descent
from ancient people on both sides,
momand daddy. He was raised Catholic
andsteered on an early pathway to the
seminary during his primary and secondary
studies at a minor seminary, and
then was put into a six year program
ofphilosophy and theology. By 28 he
was an ordained priest and worked
atseveral parishes and went on to find
a couple of schools. Pierre Marie
wasalso the founder and co founder of
two impressively named choirs, the
artistic and cultural Vocal union
ofCote d'Ivoire or the Uvaci and the
Vox Magna in English, that is the
great voice of Abidjan. He died on
October 30 in 1993 of unspecified
causes,and also at some point in his life
he composed the music for the national
anthem of the country. But these
twoguys named Pierre didn't get proper
credit for their work for quite a
while. In fact, it took until 2013
for it to be officially recognized
that itwas completely their song. Sometime
thatyear a conference was held to collect
and sort out all of the scholarship
regarding the history and authorship
oflabagines. What they ended up verifying
was that the anthem was, like many
others, chosen by competition. This
one was in 1959, and for quite a
long time the official credit for
writing the song went to a couple
ofEvo Rian ministers named Matthew
Ekraand Joachim Boni, while credit for
the composition was jointly noted
forthe priestly pierres. How that happened,
it's a detail that I'm sure is there
and exists, but it's deeper into
mysources than I was able to get. I
did try to find it, though, because
itis something that we should know
fora story about how the song came about.
My guess? Likely it has something
to dowith Matthieu making a modification
or twoto the lyrics before it was written
into the constitution. As always,
ifsomeone knows more like somebody
fromCote d'Ivoire, please share with
meI can amend this. The meetings resulted
in a report that was handed over
tothe authorities that confirmed that
Pierre Marie Cody wrote the words
andPierre Michel Pingo composed the
music for the anthem on July 27,
1960, Cote d'Ivoire became independent
andarticle 29 of the constitution named
Labaginese as the official anthem
ofthe second Evworian Republic. So
how did the country get from allowing
enhanced quasi french citizenship
for asmall number of people in 1930 to
promulgating a fully independent
constitution a mere 30 years later?
Simple terms. It's mostly because
oftwo people, two guys. Charles de
Gaulle and Felix Huffay Boyni. There
was no great revolutionary movement
orindependence movement in coats of
war, but there was chocolate in World
War Two. I told you I'd get back
toCacao because Felix Fei li got his
start as a very successful farmer
ofcacao. More importantly, though,
washis massive efforts at labor organization
and workers rights that got him elected
to the first constituent assembly.
Thatbody was part of Charles de Gaulle's
post war reorganization of France
thatbrought it from an empire to a union
to a community by 1958. In December
ofthat same year, the nation became
autonomous. And on the 7 August in
1960, France agreed to make Cote
d'Ivoire an independent nation. And
you know how we got our anthem. So
now I'm going to tell you about the
song itself. Musically speaking,
labagineis a composition in b flat major
andit is typically played in four four
time as a moderate march. So like
96beats per minute, we get an uplifting
andactually pretty patriotic melody.
It'stypically begun with a flourish and
soars off long intervals and contours
that seek to evoke pride and unity.
Itis strongly possible that it achieves
this feeling of being an anthem quality
tune by using the french anthem La
Marseillaise as a fairly direct model.
You have not heard that here yet,
but it's a good story and I'll get
there. We will run into the french
anthem in their formal colonial interests
again, though they had a pretty heavy
footprint where they went in Africa.
And that song is actually very good.
Moving on to the lyrics, lyrically,
wehave a five verse song with a refrain
after each of the verses. And while
most official events play the short
version that you heard, or something
close to that anyway, and it's the
only version that I've actually been
able to find that isn't a pretty
terrible recording. I don't want
toplay a terrible recording for you
folks. We have two alternating refrains
and in the song we get verse one
refrain one, verse two, refrain two,
verse three, refrain three, four,
two, verse five and refrain one.
Afinal time I will read the refrains
thefirst time they come up only and
read through the anthem in English.
Butas previously noted, this anthem
issung and written in French. And now
onto the song itself. I think just
reading right through and then talking
about it as a whole is what's going
to work for labagines. Hello. O land
of hope, country of hospitality,
yourlegions with valour have raised your
dignity. Your sons, dear Ivory coast
proud artisans of your greatness,
allgathered together and for your glory,
all will build you in happiness.
Proudavorians, the country calls us. If
we have in peace brought back freedom,
our duty will be a model of the hope
promised to humanity by forging.
Unitedin new faith, the homeland of true
fraternity. To you, noble ivory Coast,
o great country of good people, we
bring in victory the homage of our
ardent hearts in the friendship of
brother peoples. God guides us towards
the ideal, submissive to the cherished
motto, union, discipline, work for
your greatness, rich and noble homeland,
we will march forward, full of love
and full of faith, with united hearts
during our lives. We will work in
honor for the just right with the
United hearts during our lives. At
your calls, we will all be present
toyour traveling companions at the
dawn of this fallen day, so that
doubt no longer reigns, but faith,
fraternity, to all our elite battalions
inthe grave today lying, o entire people,
say again, love, honor, loyalty.
Thenthe first refrain, and may your flag
unite us, may your love strengthen
us, andfor you alone we want to live, and
for you to fight and die. And for
you, proud and noble youth, from
allknown horizons, always follow this
wisdom from our elders who are no
more. And then the second refrain.
To uswho are inspired by hope in your
bright future, always restore the
assurance to lead us as happy people,
and we will go through the world
sowing your name and your benefits.
Proclaim on all the airwaves that
peace reigns on your soil. And then
the first refrain. It's a song that
was again written by a man that knew
the assignment and could actually
writewell. It opens with a praise for
the country and the people's sacrifice,
explicitly acknowledging the contribution
that they make to the greatness of
the nation. After the first refrain.
ButI'll get to that in a moment, we
get another praise for the people
verse that acknowledges great achievements.
Then the anthem advises good relations
with other nations through divine
guidance and national unity. That
tracks for an anthem written by a
couple of priests in a country that
is 42.5% Muslim and 39.8% Christian.
So avery religious place. Then we get
to the first instance of the second
refrain, and it is a directly patriotic
verse that follows. The first half
is on message and we get an allusion
tofaith and brotherhood with allied
nations. But there is also a dedication
tothose who have fallen in the pursuit
ofliberty. I'm assuming that Pierre
wastalking directly about World War
Two here, because in the late 1950s,
for a guy born in 1928, is probably
inhis mind. Then we get the second
instance of the first refrain, followed
by the fourth verse, and it's very
anthem esque. We get the symbol of
the flag, the country loving its
people, and an exclamation that the
people will live and possibly die
for the country. The song reminds
people in Cote d'Ivoire to follow
thisadvice because it's from the people
that came before them. Again, we
get the second chorus and then the
final verse. It is a verse filled
withthe right kind of optimism and hope,
the sort of stuff I like in an anthem.
It ought to look forward for the
nation and assure the people of happiness
and marching through the world proclaiming
their peacefully obtained prosperity.
Thenthe song ends with a final repeat
ofthe first refrain. The refrains do
what they ought to do. For me, that
is a combination of moving things
along and tying the verses together.
Thefirst refrain calls the avorian people
to take pride in their national identity
and be ready to be of service. They
are reminded of the actually fairly
remarkable and peaceful transition
toindependence that they enjoyed. It's
well written to emphasize the importance
of unity and cooperation in a stable
nation. The second chorus is a not
quite over the top patriotic verse
that does its best to evoke a deep
commitment to the country for its
people. Overall, it's a very anthem
kind of a song. I think there is
abit of non specific religion stuff,
but not a ton of it this time. But
we do get the overt patriotism that
you would expect from a song that
celebrates the nation. It's almost
jingoistic, actually. The Baggiennese
manages that with ease, and it does
it in an astonishingly non specific
way.That said, it all kind of works,
and Ilike the song quite a bit and it's
got a universality and a not quite
ear warm tune. The overarching themes
of patriotism, unity of the people,
andthe bond between the citizens and
the country make it do what it's
supposed to do. I understand why
itwon the competition and it was chosen
as the anthem. Of Cote d'Ivoire.
So nowwe get to hear the credits. Another
time. The writing, recording and
production for the show are done
byme and I wrote and played the theme
music. The music was used with my
permission. Unless otherwise noted,
the anthems I play are public domain
or some other equivalently free to
play stuff. This time I am noting
thatI did receive specific permission
from thesinger to use her song. So a special
thanks to ajeway. That is according
toher YouTube channel a D J O I E.
They are an artist, singer and writer
out of France and they got a great
voice. My sources and the specific
itemsI mentioned in the show are contained
inthe show notes, and the most direct
way to get to those show notes is@anthemspodcast.com
you can find me on Facebook and WhatsApp
as the Anthems podcast, but you should
follow me on Facebook. I know it's
social media for old people, but
TikTok seems like a lot of work for
a monthly show and they're probably
gonna ban it in my country anyway,
soit seems like I have missed the train
to cool town there. For now, I try
to get the episode shared onto different
media platforms wherever I can with
the hashtag anthemspod and it would
be cool if you hashtagged a post
like that too. And I am also sure
ithas some nebulous health benefits
if youdo it. As always, you can email me
corrections, comments, suggestions,
ideas,instructions on how to do awesome
things and ask me questions. Give
meadvice on how to drive a car. I probably
won't listen to that though. You
can do all that@anthemspodmail.com
for better or forworse, you can still call me and
text me even though nobody does.
Orbetter still, leave me a review wherever
you can so I can find out what you
think. Give me a rating on your podcast
app. Ratings and reviews do matter
tothe algorithms. Or maybe the next
time somebody comes door to door
sales at your house, invite them
inand play this very episode of the
show for them before kindly asking
them to leave and offering them some
juice. If you have any suggestions
forfuture episodes, the best way to
get them to me is to email anthemspodmail.com.
buteven if you just keep listening every
now and again, thank you so much
cause that matters to me more than
anything else and I hope you enjoyed
the show. I'll be back.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!