Ivory Coast, washing laundry

In the neighborhood of Adjamé, in the north of Abidjan, hundreds of professional laundry washers known as fanicos do the wash every day in a creek on the edge of the Banco Forest (declared a national park in 1953). Using rocks and tires filled with sand to scrub and wring the laundry, they wash by hand the thousands of garments entrusted to them. Once a fishing village but now a working-class neighborhood without running water or electricity, Adjamé was slowly absorbed into Abidjan’s urban sprawl. This metropolis of 3.8 million inhabitants reflects the rampant urban growth many developing countries are currently undergoing. The massive rural exodus is a sign of deeper changes currently rocking these countries: the modernization and mechanization of agriculture, which has specialized in export cultures like cotton or cocoa, the lack of land in areas with strong demographic growth, and young people’s attraction to urban lifestyles.