The travestis* of Ivory Coast was a prominent group, recognized and documented from the early 1990s and most probably were active even before the 90s.   Their leader was Barbara and they formed the Ivory Coast Transvestites Association (IVTA). We are not completely clear on the founding date, but according to different sources, the association has existed definitely since the early 1990s.

It is for example recorded that in 1994 after journalists were quite sarcastic and used derogatory tones in their reporting in printed media, a militant group of transvesti activists stormed the building where the newspaper’s offices were located, broke some windows, and assaulted some of the journalists. According to this document this 1994 incident and similar occurances during the same time, lead to the forming of L’association des travestis de Côte d’Ivoire (Travesti Association of Cote d’Ivoire)/ IVTA. 

*Travestis is the French word for transvestites.