Obodji Soboa, paramount chief of the Abbé people in colonial Côte d’Ivoire

This article paints a nuanced portrait of an influential but forgotten figure of the colonial history of Côte d’Ivoire. Obodji Soboa (1886-1952) was the paramount chief of the Abbé people: one of the few traditional chiefs in the country to rise to this highest distinction of ‘indigenous leadership’. This article considers the origins and the transformation of Obodji Soboa’s so-called ‘customary’ power and maps the limits of his constrained autonomy. It also documents his economic projects and his original Harrist-inspired prophetic church, known as ‘Aké Offo’. The article pays particular attention to the presentation and restitution of the sources of the study, some of which are unpublished, and revisits the question of the boundary between history, memory, and forgetting.