Bouaké

Bouaké lies in the central Baoulé country of Côte d'Ivoire, in the forest-savanna belt. Local tradition links its name to Gbèkè, a Baoulé leader associated with the village of Gbèkèkro; another explanation draws on Baoulé words for sheep and drying, recalling Jula traders who cured hides there. Under lineage heads, villages allocated farmland and settled disputes, while traders moved kola nuts and cloth along the paths between the Akan forest and the northern markets.