I celebrated my birthday here. Sitting ten rows ahead of me at the mass was the president, Mr. Houphouet-Boigny, the man who claimed to have built the bascilica from his personal funds. The Vatican refused to have it blessed until he had built a maternity ward and dispensary in the slums of Abidjan...which he did rather quickly. Then, Pope John Paul II came and blessed it as the Bascillica of Our Lady of Peace.
Incidently, the president also had one of the world's largest mosques built in the same village. Since 1983, his dream of making his home village as the new capital has not materialized. In essence the whole town is a white elephant.