DEATH-RELATED BELIEFS AND RESISTANCE TO LIFE INSURANCE IN RURAL AKAN COMMUNITIES: THE CASE OF ASSOUBA (CÔTE D'IVOIRE)

Abstract

Despite a dynamic insurance market in Côte d’Ivoire, life-insurance penetration remains low, particularly in rural areas. This contrast, observed despite the abundance of available products, reveals a profound sociocultural mismatch and unresolved structural resistance. Conducted within the rural Akan communities of Assouba (Sanwi Kingdom), the study examines the tension between the formalized and individualistic logic of life insurance and the collective, spiritual, and ritualized management of death inherent in Akan traditions.

The study pursued three objectives: (1) to identify local beliefs and perceptions surrounding death; (2) to analyze the impact of informal risk-management and solidarity strategies on the adoption of life insurance; and (3) to determine the levers for overcoming this resistance. An ethnographic qualitative approach was adopted to capture the symbolic complexity of these dynamics. Data were collected through individual interviews with community notables and focus groups involving men, young men, and women, and were analyzed using Grounded Theory. Granovetter’s theory of embeddedness was employed to interpret the mechanisms underlying rejection.

The findings reveal that life insurance is perceived as a taboo and as a threat to social bonds, generating strong cognitive dissonance and powerful deterrent social pressures. The analysis identifies three differentiated logics of rejection: (i) a structural and ideological resistance among community notables, rooted in the refusal of disembedded financial mechanisms; (ii) a relational resistance among young men, characterized by distrust toward an abstract and impersonal actor; and (iii) a resistance through exclusion among young women, driven by experienced socioeconomic precarity. The primary lever for overcoming these forms of resistance lies in the social and ritual legitimation of insurance mechanisms, as illustrated by locally developed hybrid products combining traditional tontines with insurance principles.