Ivory Coast "Richest city of man"

It is the richest city of man, located in a mountain 590 kilometers to Abidjan. The traditional loincloth ‘Dan’ is the inescapable remembrance of those who visit the flamboyant market of the regional capital of Tonkpi, west of Ivory Coast.

But if the traditional loincloth ‘Dan’ attracts the curiosity of tourists, it is mostly a loaded attribute, a symbol for local communities.

“ The holding of that door is holding a year. Dan is the Yacouba, it is a traditional dress which expresses the culture of Yacouba that we carry with pride, it holds a lot of qualities, there are clothes designed typically for Kings, there are some for chiefs, for women and their followers,” said Keani Sound Eugène, Education Counsellor.

The difference is their remarks in the attire and prices.

The traditional loincloth Dan is manufactured in a craft workshops in full air by tisserrands. An ancestral profession who requests a large control and which continue to be transmitted from father to son.

“I started at the age of 18 years. I started first by making the coils. I was up to the age of 22 years when I started to weave, when my father leaves the machine I take his place and I started very gently to weave. Thank God, today, he is not here and I have replaced him,” said one of the trainees.

The transmission of this from generation to generation is managed to rejuvenate considerably the profession of Weaver to man and also to make it a tourist attraction.

However, the work of these young people would be incomplete without the intervention of tailors who are the last link in this chain to make the traditional loincloth Dan a genuine cultural wealth of the West of Ivory Coast.