Bouna (also spelled Buna) is a town in north-eastern

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

. It is a

sub-prefecture A subprefecture is an administrative division of a country that is below prefecture or province. Albania There are twelve Albanian counties or prefectures, each of which is divided into several districts, sometimes translated as subprefectures. ...

of and the seat of Bouna Department. It is also the seat of Bounkani Region in Zanzan District and a commune. Near Bouna is the Comoé National Park and the

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian border. The main town of the

Lobi people The Lobi belong to an ethnic group that originated in what is today Ghana. Starting around 1770, many Lobi peoples migrated into southern Burkina Faso and later into Côte d'Ivoire. The group consists of a little over a 1,000,000 people. They make ...

, Bouna is known for the

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range a ...

of the

fortress A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from L ...

-style

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

compounds in surrounding villages. The town is served by its own dirt-runway airport. This bush landing strip mainly serves the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

. In 2021, the population of the sub-prefecture of Bouna was 94,883.

History

Early History

At its founding Bouna was a Koulango and Dyula village. In the late 16th century Bouna was conquered by the king named Naa Zokuli who had Dagomba prince Darigu Damda, who married the local chief's daughter. Their son Bounkani founded the royal dynasty of Bouna. Bouna was a "highly centralized kingdom based on military districts administered by princes" who exploited the local gold deposits. Like Kong, it became a major center of Islamic learning. Bouna was a refuge for the ''imam'' of Bighu after the collapse of that city, as well as the Muslim scholars driven out of the Ashanti court in the 1820s.

Samori Ture

By 1895 the

Wassoulou Empire The Samorian state, also referred to as the Wassoulou empire, Ouassalou empire, Mandinka empire or Samory's empire, was a short-lived West African state that existed from roughly 1878 until 1898, although dates vary from source to source. It span ...

under

Samori Ture Samori Ture ( – June 2, 1900), also known as Samori Toure, Samory Touré, or Almamy Samore Lafiya Toure, was a Mandinka people, Malinke and a Soninke people, Soninke Muslim cleric, military strategist, and founder of the Wassoulou Empire, an Is ...

had pushed east and conquered Kong, and was eyeing Bouna as a link to British-held Gold Coast, a source of firearms. His son Saranken Mori captured the town in December 1896, installing the local Cisse as Imams in place of the Kamara family who had plotted against them. In April 1897, Governor

William Edward Maxwell Sir William Edward Maxwell, (5 August 1846 – 14 December 1897) was a British colonial official who served as colonial secretary of the Straits Settlements and governor of the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast, then a British colony. Ea ...

tried to intimidate Saranken Mori into abandoning Bouna to the British. When this failed, a force of the Southern Nigeria Regiment under Henderson marched on the town but were defeated at Dokita, then later routed and Henderson was captured at Wa. Knowing this setback would prompt an aggressive British response, the French sent Capt. , at the head of an armed column, to try to acquire Bouna by negotiation. Saranken Mori initially accepted. But when Braulot arrived, he was killed and his column destroyed outside the city on August 20, 1897, restarting the war between Wassoulou and the French. Ture was defeated and captured the next year.

Post-Independence

Bouna was one of the main strongholds of the Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire, the rebel army of the 2002 attempted coup d'état. The general population of Bouna suffered greatly in the early days of the rebellion.

Villages

The one hundred and twenty four villages of the sub-prefecture of Bouna and their population in 2014 are:Citypopulation.de
Population of the localities in the sub-prefecture of Bouna

Notes

{{Authority control Sub-prefectures of Bounkani Communes of Bounkani Regional capitals of Ivory Coast Wangara trade towns