Artists find creative haven in Côte d’Ivoire’s ‘calm and soothing’ Grand Bassam

Creatives priced out of Abidjan have breathed new life into a city that was hit by a jihadist attack in 2016 By the poolside of La Fourchette de Rōze hotel in Grand Bassam, a Côte d’Ivoire city sandwiched between the Ébrié lagoon and the Atlantic Ocean, a birthday party was in progress. On the second-floor gallery, the artist Nuits Balnéaires stood by a huge painting in one corner and looked out through the window towards the billowing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. “It’s poetic … that immense ...

By Eromo Egbejule in Grand Bassam; photographs by Aïcha Fall