Côte d'Ivoire

West-African republic independent from France in 1960; Islam, carried by Dyula (Juula) traders and the 19th-century state of Samori Ture, gives a Muslim plurality — roughly two-fifths — concentrated in the north and among immigrant communities.

☾ The Coming of Islam

Dyula traders and the state of Samori Ture

Islam came to the north of modern Côte d'Ivoire with Dyula (Juula) Muslim traders linked to the wider Mande commercial world, and was carried further in the 19th century by the conquests of Samori Ture; the southern forest peoples largely kept their traditional religions until the colonial era.

☾ Religious Composition

A Muslim plurality concentrated in the north

Muslims — roughly two-fifths of the population, predominantly Sunni — form the largest religious community, concentrated in the north and among immigrants from neighbouring Sahelian countries, alongside large Christian and traditional-religion communities.

Demographic shares are approximate and much debated.

At a glance