The markets at Ferkessedougou

We are at Ferkessedougou, in the extreme North-East of the Ivory Coast, this small town, that is often struggling to find on maps, is located on the only road that leads to Burkina Faso and Niger, therefore, over the decades , has assumed an important role in the trade between these countries.

Here there was also one of the railroad stops, built by the French during the colonial period, that from Abidjan reached as far as Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso; in recent years this railway has regained importance and 400 million CFA have been allocated to restore it, extending it to reach some mines of Burkina Faso and, perhaps, of Niger.

Ferkessedougou, or Ferkè as its inhabitants call it, today is a quiet town where there is a large market where they sell many products, also here is a cattle market to witness to its commercial importance.

Along the main street of the town we see a Catholic church and not far from it a mosque, here people of different religions can live in peace and harmony, we wish it was like this everywhere in the world.

This morning, just after breakfast and after checking out, and before leaving to Korhogo, we visited both markets.

The zebu and cattle market of Ferkessedougou

Just outside the town of Ferkessedougou, or Ferkè, is the cattle market or zebu market.

The zebu differ from the European cows for some distinctive traits: first of all the presence of the hump and of a large dewlap, moreover they have much bigger ears; also the horns are more impressive and are particularly arched.

There are about 75 different species of zebu and are usually found in tropical and equatorial areas of the planet, mainly in Africa, Asia and South America.

We arrive at the market and get off the car.

The market is located in a dirt area where there are a series of enclosures, inside which there are zebu but also European goats and cows.

This is one of the most important livestock markets of the Ivory Coast, these animals come here from Burkina Faso, from Niger, from Mali, from Mauritania and both Ivorian cattle traders and ordinary people, who want to buy an animal , come to this market, even from far away.

Even the animals come here from far away and, during the journey, they lose a lot of weight, despite being fed; as they are sold by weight, once here they are put to fattening and, to make them gain weight, they are fed with cotton seeds.

The cotton flakes, or cotton wool, are collected to be spun, within the cotton wool are the seeds, that represent a production waste and therefore, instead of throwing them away, they are used as food for livestock and, as they are very energetic, the garments quickly increase their weight.

We take a ride among the fences and take some photos, some zebus are really beautiful, a black and white one in particular looked at us with its big eyes, for a moment we felt like taking it away with us.

Unfortunately, after a while it is time to go, also because, before leaving to Korhogo, we also want to see the city market.

The Ferkessedougou market

In the streets and alleys of the town of Ferke every day of the week there is a local market, the best days to visit it are from Monday to Saturday, on Sundays some stalls are empty.

We go around the market stalls, they sell just about everything: every kind of fruit and vegetables, there are stalls where they fry a kind of pancakes, others cook the meat on the grill, others go around the market with a cart selling coffee accompanied, if desired, with bread.

Some stalls sell the bread that seems so French, there are those who sell palm nuts and those who sell the oil extracted from nuts, others sell spices and cereals and dried vegetables, there is also the pasta, and we wonder how it will be, we would be curious to try it.

There is no shortage of stalls selling dried or smoked fish and even butchers; there are also stalls selling pots and other items for cooking or cleaning

At one point we find a stand with a lady who sells something strange, it makes us very curious and we get closer; she is very kind and smiles at us immediately, explaining that what she sells is shea butter and shows us also the nuts from which it is made.

She laughs and jokes with us, it seems to us the least to buy a piece of shea butter, we'll see what to do with it, it has so many uses that we will not have trouble understanding it; let's say we did it especially for her because she was too pretty.

It was very pleasant to visit this market, the people were very kind and intrigued by our presence and asked us where we came from and when we answered "Milan - Italie" sometimes we saw them a bit disoriented, in fact we are thousands of miles away and not only from the literal point of view of the term; they often asked us to take a selfie together, the feeling is that here travelers, especially white, they see very few.

We would have been here all morning with our friends in the market, but we must continue our journey and return to Korhogo.