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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Eromo Egbejule in Abidjan and Grand-Bassam

‘Africa in a glass’: Abidjan cocktail week mixes local flavours for global palates

Yasmine Fofana and Alexandre Quest Bede, founders of Abidjan cocktail week
Yasmine Fofana and Alexandre Quest Bede, the founders of Abidjan cocktail week, want to encourage Africans to return to their roots. Photograph: La Team/ACW

At an event in Abidjan in late October, Alexandre Quest Bede noticed someone staring at him. Then the stranger walked up to him with a T-shirt and asked for an autograph.

“He pointed at me excitedly and said: ‘You’re Monsieur Gnamakou, I know you from Instagram!’” recalls Bede at the poolside bar of Bissa, a boutique hotel in the upmarket Deux Plateaux neighbourhood on the eve of Abidjan cocktail week.

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