Testing the Mandela Hypothesis: An Experimental Analysis of Language and Politics in Côte d'Ivoire

Nelson Mandela said that, "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart." This paper tests Mandela's claim using a survey experiment conducted in the Ivory Coast amongst the Dioula, a Mande ethnic group. The Dioula are known as traders and their language is spoken widely in the region and is a major source of pride for them. Like most Ivorians, they also speak French which is the language of the colonizer. Does this matter? Does language affect their political views? To find out, I will be conducting a randomized experiment in which Dioula speakers will be asked to do a survey with questions related to their wellbeing, ethnic identity, support for the current President, and government corruption. The expectation is that when respondents are presented the survey in Dioula that they will (i) report higher levels of wellbeing (ii) a relatively more ethnic and less national identity (iii) more support for the President who is also Dioula. There should be no effect on government corruption from the treatment. Surveys will be randomly assigned using a random number generator. Enumerators are all fluent in Dioula and French and using a random walk they will randomly select respondents in a section of Abidjan that is densely populated with Dioula speakers. Research has important implications for survey research in general as groups like the Afrobarometer conduct their surveys in one language like French in countries such as the Ivory Coast or Senegal. If language affects responses to these questions which are taken from the Afrobarometer then there could be a need to adjust survey methodologies accordingly.