The Queen Who Crossed the River

Every child in Côte d'Ivoire knew the scene: a queen, the flooded Comoé, a child given to the river, and two words, « Ba-ouli ». In 1896 a French doctor wrote down another version, in which she threw her golden cloth into the water. In 1900 a colonial clerk printed the one the country would learn, and in the villages some said the queen never had a child.

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