Abbé people

The Abbé (or Abbey or Abbay), are an Akan people who live predominately in the Ivory Coast, and number 580,000.[1][2] Abbés speak the Akan dialect Abé.[3]

Abbé
Total population
~580,000
Regions with significant populations
Ivory Coast
Languages
Abé language
Related ethnic groups
Akan

Abbés populations or Abbeys (or Béssouffouè in the Akan language dialect Baoulé) were the warriors of the left wing of the army of Queen Pokou. The Abbés are an Akan people originating in Ghana, from where they migrated to Ivory Coast in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Abbés live mainly in the Ivorian region of Agboville, 79 km north of Abidjan.

History of settlement

According to legend, the Abbés are descendants of the Anyi.

It was during the reign of the Abbés Akossou threatened by their neighbors, Ashanti, decided to leave for peaceful lands. Their exodus in the 18th century and led by Patchibo son of Akossou and Nana Yah Abobia. The Abbés cross the Tanoé and the Comoé and stood between Adzopé and Agboville, where Patchibo created Douda village, now called Grand Morié.

Continuing on their way, Abbés settled about fifteen miles from the Agnéby to create Allahin the village now known as the Loviguié. From Douda Allahin and the Abbés grow back the Attiés, their eastern neighbors. This is what explains the existence of villages Abbeys in the Ivory Coast sub-prefecture, Bingerville. They also evolved to the West side of the river Bandama. This is what justifies the presence of more than eight villages Abbés in the sub-prefecture Tiassalé. The story goes that other Abbés, left the village of Douda, then had settled beyond Tiassalé to form the Didas in the center-west of Ivory Coast. This subgroup Didas made an alliance undeniable, irremovable and immortal nature which is calledtoukpè and which means covenant of peace. This would explain the memory of that ethnic separation.[4]

The revolt of 1910

During the colonial era, a revolt of the Abbé in January 1910 (early 1905, late 1918), led to the deportation from Ivory Coast of several citizens of ethnic groups from Central African Republic and Congo - Brazzaville. Indeed, the Abbés, tired of the excesses committed by settlers in the Ivorian port, forced labor, injustices and being constantly victims (confiscation of weapons immediately after the payment of heavy taxes required for their transport, arbitrary acts, trampling of human dignity, etc. ..), the Abbés revolted. They rolled around mercilessly with 1,400 skirmishers from Senegal, and decapitated a French commander named Rubino in the process.[5]
Three descendants of the deportees were known by the following exceptional destinies:

Language and location

The Abbés speak the Akan language dialect Abbé, and are an Akan subgroup. The Abbés are reflected in the Ivorian prefectural departments Agboville, Azaguié, Rubino, Grand Morié, Loviguié, Guessiguié, Ottopé, Offoumpo, Grand-Yapo, Attobrou, Blida etc., then around Abidjan in the sub-prefecture N’douci, Tiassalé, Sikensi, Bingerville, Lakota, Divo, and around M'bahiakro, Ouellé, Ananda Koidiokro etc. The Abbés cantons in Ivory Coast are the canton Tchoffo, and the canton Morié.

References
  2. people. habitat of 21 million in Ivory Coast, year 2011.
  3. Ivory Coast (Laval University) / africa / cotiv.htm tlfq.ulaval.ca Archived September 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  4. sources: archives, publications
  5. See history of the French West Africa

Bibliography
  • (in English) James Stuart Olson, « Abé », in The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, p. 3-4
  • (in French) Guy Cangah and Simon-Pierre Ekanza, « Rise of the Abbey » in Ivory Coast texts: The dawn of colonization to the present day, African News Publishing, Abdidjan, 1978, p. 105-106
  • (in French) Jean-Louis Chaléard, Agrarian structures and plantation economy in Abé: Department d'Agboville – Ivory Coast, University of Paris-Nanterre, 1979, 529 p. (thesis of cycle)
  • (in French) Gérard Dumestre and Laurent Duponchel, Proverbs Ivory Coast : fascicle 1: Proverbs abé and Avikam, University of Abidjan, Institut of linguistics applied, Abidjan, 1972, 122 p.

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