The Hidden History of the West African Wager: Or, How Comparison with Ghana Made Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Abstract:The famous 1957 wager between Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana is a signal event in modern African history. Yet it has never been adequately historicized. How did this fateful meeting come about? An archival discovery reveals the hidden history of the wager’s construction. This wager inaugurated a tradition of comparison between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire that shaped both the ways that Côte d’Ivoire was seen by social scientists and the ways that Ivorians saw themselves.