The Abidji are an Akan people who live in the Ivory Coast.
The Abidji are members of an ethnic group in the Agneby-Tiassa region of southeastern Côte d'Ivoire. They are located about one hundred kilometers northeast of Abidjan, near the Abidjan-N'douci road in the Sikensi department, in southern Côte d'Ivoire.
The Abidji of Cote d’Ivoire, numbering 100,000, (Peoplegroups.org, 2025)
Abidji is spoken in a concentration of twelve localities in Côte d'Ivoire, in the sub-prefectures of Sikensi and Dabou and the area of Agboville, in the Agneby-Tiassa region, in the Lagunes district. The territory in which Abidji is spoken is located a few kilometers northwest of the city of Dabou.
According to ethnologue, Abidji is a Nyo language that belongs to the Agnebys subgroup of the languages along with Abé and Adiokrou. According to glottologue, together with Abé and Adiokrou they form the Agnebys languages which are Nyos languages, which are at the same time Kwes languages of Volta-Congo.
According to the linguistic map of Côte d'Ivoire by l'ethnologie, the Abidjis are bordered by the Baule to the west, the Anyin Morofos and Krobus to the north, the Abés to the east and the Adioukrous to the south.
92% of the Abidjis are Christians and the remaining 8% believe in traditional African religions. 60% of Abidji Christians are Catholic, 20% are Protestant and 20% belong to independent Christian churches. According to the JoshuaProject, 6% of Abidji Christians are Evangelical.
Two main immigration streams, of different origins, met in this territory and, through their juxtaposition accompanied by a certain cultural fusion, formed the Abidji people, who previously did not exist. The first of these streams seems to have originated from the Alladian people located south of the Ébrié Lagoon. It gave rise to a part of the Abidji Enyébé group, which is apparently the oldest and is located in the west of the Abidji region. This group includes the villages of Katadji, Sikensi A and B, Braf-Obou (Braffouéby), Bécédi, Bakanou A and B, Ay-Mabo and Soukou-Obou. Abiéou is a Katadji encampment. The second group, which came from the east, comes from the Ashanti group. It most likely includes the Agni-N’dénié – some of whom are said to have originated from the village of Agoua – the M’batto and even the Ébrié. This group formed the Abidji Ogbru, who settled in the eastern part of the country in the villages of Yaobou, Gomon, Sahouyé, Agouaye, also called Badasso, Elibou, and, much further south, bordering the Adioukrou region, N'Doumi-Obou, and Aka-Obou.
All Abidji Boso clans are patrilineal: there are no matrilineal Boso; Abidji lineages are patrilineal. If the Boso are numerous in a given village, they may divide into sub-clans, which will then bear the name of the ancestor who originated their lineage. When the clan is numerous and divided into sub-clans, there is no clan chief, only sub-clan chiefs. However, when the clan has no sub-clans, it has a chief. These chiefs are the oldest of the direct patrilineal descendants of the founding ancestors, either of the clan when it is not divided into sub-clans, or of the sub-clans when there are any.
Abidji society, in addition to its vertical structure of clans, sub-clans, and lineages, has a horizontal structure common to many neighboring lagoon peoples: the age classes or tikpè, which institutionally unite the individuals of each generation, regardless of their clan. Modeled on the Adioukrou system, they likely refer to the Ébrié system. There are seven tikpè that bear the same name as the seven age classes of the Adioukrou. These are, in order, the Ningbési, Bodjoro, Sétè, N'dyroman, Abroman, M'bédié, and M'boruman. Each class is further subdivided into three subclasses: Odyungba, Bago, and Kata.
Traditional political organization is therefore based on the age-class system. But there is a deeper personality in traditional Abidji society. This is the master of the land or chief of the Obou Nyane land. This master of the land is traditionally the patrilineal descendant of the village founder, that is, the chief of the clan who first settled on the site of the current village. If the clan is divided into sub-clans, their chiefs will take turns as chiefs of the land. This is understandable because it is the first occupants who have, not ownership, but control of the land and who can therefore dispose of it in favor of the clans that arrive after them. The land chief is the intermediary between the village (i.e., its founding clan and the other clans that arrived later) and the chthonic deities to whom he periodically offers sacrifices, for it is from them that his clan, and through him the other clans he has welcomed, derive the right to cultivate and use the land, and obtain their food from it. He presides over the traditional dipri festival.
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