Marché de Cocody Saint-Jean (Marché N'Goan Aka Mathias)

Rebuilt across three levels of shopping galleries after a 2007 fire and reopened from November 2017 under the official name of N'Goan Aka Mathias, Cocody's market is Abidjan's classic souvenir stop, a labyrinth of stalls selling wooden sculpture, ceremonial masks, bronzes, antiques, beadwork, baskets and loom-woven cloth alongside everyday produce on the ground floor. Visitors typically start at street level and work upward through the galleries, where the craft and souvenir vendors are concentrated, browsing carved figures and jewellery that range from mass-produced pieces to genuinely old or well-made work. A visit takes 45 minutes to an hour and a half depending on how much bargaining is done, and mornings are the best time to go, both because the upper-level craft galleries are freshly opened and because traders are typically more willing to negotiate seriously early in the day rather than at the end of a slow afternoon. Prices for visitors start noticeably high, and bargaining down by half or more is standard practice rather than an exception; a good approach is to compare a few stalls selling similar pieces before committing. Photography of the stalls and goods is generally fine, though as with any market, discretion around individual vendors is courteous. The market is busiest on weekend mornings, when both shoppers and tourists cluster in the galleries, and calmer on weekday afternoons, when negotiating a lower price is often easier.