Musée des Civilisations de Côte d'Ivoire — Attraction in Le Plateau

Museum of Civilizations of Ivory Coast

Masks, wooden statues, musical instruments, objects of worship: in total, no less than 15,210 pieces reflecting the country's different ethnic groups or religions through the exhibitions in this ethnographic, archaeological and iconographic museum created by the French colonial administration in 1942 and located in Abidjan.

Planted at the foot of the skyscrapers of the Plateau, the Ivorian business district, the Museum of Civilizations is more colorful, more welcoming, it now gives pride of place to contemporary creations with a room devoted to artists from the continent and a garden enriched with recent works. Considered the largest in the country,

The Museum of Civilizations of Côte d'Ivoire is a government museum, dependent on the Ministry of Culture and La Francophonie. It was originally a craft center created by the colonial administration. Built on an area of ​​2 hectares, the Museum of Civilizations of Côte d'Ivoire is bounded to the East by the Administrative City, to the West by the General Staff of the Armed Forces (Camp Gallieni) and to the North by the...

Quite a small museum but we'll worth the visit. One can learn about the Ivorians and their interesting culture. It is divided into three different rooms, which showcase items such as instruments, types of houses around the country, types of coins used throughout time, among other items. These rooms connect to the lobby, where we can see several items in cases, an elephant skull and femur, and, on the walls, several Ivorian proverbs, which, as explained on the boards, are teachings that are passed on from generation to generation. One is not allowed to take pictures of the items, but it is fine of the boards. All labeling and texts are unfortunately only in french. I consider that the labeling should always include the date if the item because it helps visitors understand what it is, and where and when it was used. Some of the items are very frail and are starting to show some wear; these need to be repaired so they can live on for future...

This museum continues the tradition of equating Western African culture and history mainly with masks (sarcasm). It could almost be interchangeable with the museum's in Dakar and Bamako except they both have a second floor dedicated to textiles.

Granted, the masks are interesting and high quality, but they are completely decontextualized with cryptic captions an little explanation tying anything together.

There is one table showing the evolution of money that was nice.

It's one of the few times I wished there was a museum gift shop with some books.

Weirdly they don't allow photography either, as if history should be hidden.

Avoid the restaurant out back it is way overpriced and there are better...