Chanting teens and talking drums - a thousand years of Ivorian music

In Ivory Coast music is everywhere. It's played and performed on buses, trains, beaches and football pitches, and in bars, restaurants, workplaces and the tiniest village squares. Those new to the country are often surprised at how readily stone-cold sober people will get up and dance with flamboyant abandon, not a hang-up in sight. One reason may be that music and dance are as old as the oldest African societies, and they have always meant more than mere entertainment. They are essential means of self-expression and used to mark births, deaths, marriages, harvests and other momentous events.