Babimania
Fashion, music, slang... All eyes are on Côte d'Ivoire's economic capital to spot the next big trend. Because Babi is definitely where it's at!
What is fascinating about Côte d'Ivoire is the extent to which its rapid development in less than fifteen years has made the country a key player in West Africa and beyond. Not only for its appeal to business visitors, the privileged few and artists who flock there to do business and party in the hundreds of restaurants, bars and hotels that have sprung up like mushrooms in Babi.
But because the Ivorian touch is exportable, spreading and spawning offshoots in all spheres of life. Babi has become the benchmark, the epitome of chic. And Babimania has infected everyone – rich, poor and middle class alike. Throughout the sub-region, if you want to be trendy, to be somebody, you have to do as they do in Abidjan.
In fashion, for starters. Babi s clearly setting the tone for African pagne (printed fabric) patterns and their transfer to trainers, high heels, shirts and handbags. For sculpted, colourful boubous in flowing fabrics. For elaborate hairstyles and hairpieces, or the return of the Afro, proudly proclaiming its African identity.
In music too, of course. Nightclubs in Ouagadougou and Bamako are pulsating to the beat of coupé-décalé and the latest Ivorian rap flows from Didi B, Suspect 95 and, more recently, Himra with his hardcore nouchi (language mixing Ivorian slang and English) lyrics.
Nouchi is incredibly creative, mixing English with words from local languages or French. All over Africa, people show off by using expressions such as ‘y'a pas drap’ (no problem) or ‘je vais enjailler le coin’ (I'm going out to party). Proof of the incredible influence of this language, as everyone knows, is that most of its words have entered the pantheon of the Petit Robert French dictionary. A ‘go’, for example, referring to a girl, is a word so common in everyday language, from Cotonou to Kinshasa via Yaoundé, that we hardly remember that it originated in Abidjan. The same goes for ‘gros taux’, or rich guys that the ‘go’ girls are after. Or ‘gaous’, the slightly dim-witted guys who get taken advantage of, immortalised by the global hit ‘Premier Gaou’ by the group Magic System released in 2000, but still going strong today – no ceremony, wedding or birthday is complete without it!
The Ivorian touch also extends to a popular lifestyle habit that has spread to most of the countries surrounding Côte d'Ivoire: the maquis tradition. A maquis is an open-air bar-restaurant where friends get together in the evening to put the world to rights. Often, it's a bar where you order a crate of beer before choosing chicken or fish from the stall of a braiseuse (street grill chef) conveniently located just in front. The two-in-one formula can now be found almost everywhere else, from Douala to Lomé. More broadly, the habit of eating a braisé-attiéké (grilled meat with ground cassava) or rice with okra sauce at a maquis before going home has spread to places where people usually go out for a drink, but not to eat. Even the little tomato and onion marinade for poulet bicyclette (chicken on a bicycle), a dish from Côte d'Ivoire, has become popular beyond the country's borders. As for the famous alloco (traditional fried plantain dish), do people who eat it in Brazzaville, accompanied by saka saka (cassava leaves) remember that they were invented in Côte d'Ivoire? In short, Babimania has taken over the whole of Africa. Mark my words! Slowly but surely. And that's what real soft power is all about!