General shots taken by Sarah Teague in Abidjan from the summer of 2018 to the spring of 2019.
The staple of everyday for the wealthy and the poor: bread. Found on every street corner, French baguettes feed the country during all times — in conflict and in peace.
Two women chat as another strolls by after purchasing bread in Cocody. Bread is the cheapest form of food offered on the street. Because of this, many households provide baguettes for every meal as a side, and the poor sometimes eat bread alone when times get tough.
A construction worker passes by a large Catholic parish in Cocody off the main highway. Catholicism is still a driving force of the country, with a majority of Ivorians claiming Catholicism as their faith system, even if they still practice animistic traditions of their ethnic groups.
In addition to bread, fruit is another cheap way to eat in the Ivory Coast. Many living in Abidjan claim random spots of green space behind houses and in alleyways to plant, and selling fruit on the corner becomes their livelihood. Some families will send a “representative” of their village to the city as well. From then on, crops from the village are sent to the city to be sold like in the above photo. Feeling hungry? Stroll down an Ivorian street and you’ll be sure to find papaya or “ananas” to snack on.
The taxis run the streets. Other than gangs in the poorer and overpopulated areas of Abidjan like Abobo, Adjame and Yopougon, the syndicate-controlled taxi drivers do what they want.
The only rule taxi drivers seem to adhere to are to drive in their set neighborhood. Orange taxis drive all of Abidjan, green taxis serve Yopougon and yellow taxis cover up Cocody, etc.
Because of a lack of rules in the taxi system, many drivers take stimulating drugs to stay up through the night to work longer, as there are no policies on the amount of time they can stay on the road. Because of this, there are too many taxis all over the city, leading to traffic jams and aggressive driving.
