Secondly, Roman Catholicism is a dominant religion in both France and Cote D’Ivoire today, and the spread of Catholicism through Cote D’Ivoire continues to create religious conflicts with Muslim citizens who resided in Cote D’Ivoire before colonization. Lastly, the French forced the Ivoirians into an agricultural lifestyle, where their economic value was and still is solely dependent on their production of cocoa, coffee, and palm oil. This paper will explore how these aspects of French impact Cote D’Ivoire today, and why these influences have an overall negative impact on their development. The French language is extremely prevalent in the Cote D’Ivoire, seeing as French is the official language and is used in education and commerce. Those native Ivoirians who never had the means to learn the French language are naturally at a disadvantage because of this. The influence of French language and culture has contributed to the deterioration of African language and culture in Cote D’Ivoire, seeing as “most Ivoirians speak two or more languages fluently, but no single African language is spoken by a majority of the population” (A Country Study …show more content…
Still today, 5% of Cote D’Ivoire’s exports and 11% of their imports are tied to France, which shows their lasting presence within Cote D’Ivoire despite their independence. Cote D’Ivoire was so dependent on France’s economic contributions that when they became an independent nation and France no longer demanded their resources, their GDP took a massive drop. Even with rapid economic growth in agriculture, 1998 statistics indicate, “at least 60 percent of the country's active population is unemployed and most of those who have jobs earn wages that are not enough to cover their basic monthly expenses.” (World Culture