President Houphouët's Report

For example, in Ivory Coast, President Houphouët was instrumental in passing the 1964 Civil Code, which created statewide laws pertaining to marriage, property, divorce, paternity, and inheritance. A long-time French collaborator, Houphouët’s interest in “improving the status of wives/mothers was motivated by western notions of gender and by economic concerns. He declared monogamy the only legal form of marriage because he thought that a stronger emphasis on the conjugal unit would weaken kinship ties and allow married couples to participate more freely in the economic development process (i.e., he wanted an independent, unattached labor force) (Toungara, 56). In looking at other aspects of the Civil Code, it becomes clear that the President did not consider the actual concerns of married women or how his measures would affect traditional communities: 1) his proposition of “a single marital regime” simply shifted the wife’s subordinate status from her lineage to her husband, 2) he made divorce difficult and favorable to men, 3) he eliminated matrilineal inheritance and all practices related to bride wealth (Toungara, 58-61).

As a result, indigenous societies largely disregarded the Civil Code and continued to follow customary law. Although elite women were successful in amending certain aspects of the Civil Code in 1983 (i.e., wives could now control wealth and have more economic freedom), it continues to suffer from its original flaws. As a result, wives/mothers remain in a position of subordination (albeit slightly closer to their customary status) and traditional communities still habitually disregard the law (Toungara,