Burkina Faso, the land of the upright people.
I have now spent a bit more than one week in Burkina Faso, former Upper Volta. It is supposed to be one of the poorest countries in the world, but strangely enough, at least in the cities, the poverty is visible mostly in the multitude of beggars. Especially little boys flock the streets with their little buckets - this is something I haven't seen in the southern neighboring countries, where beggars were usually old, sick or handicapped people.
Otherwise life in Burkina seems good for those who have money (as almost everywhere in the world..!). There are basically no power cuts, whereas in Benin, Togo and Ghana they were more or less daily entertainment. Neither is there a shortage of running water so far, although the country is very dry, with almost no water resources. So those who can afford electricity and water are doing relatively well here. Food is cheap, but petrol is expensive. Which might explain the scarceness of vehicles on the roads, mostly donkeys and bicycles fill the grand autoroutes. Oh, and another thing: many streets here have actual names, instead of mere numbers as in Benin (for example Rue 123), and most houses have even numbers! Not that many people know the names of the streets anyway, since they are not used to reading maps at all.
The cultural scene is also excellent. Both Ouaga and Bobo are full of concerts and happenings in official and unofficial bars. Some people go out every night to dance! Not to mention the FESPACO (http://www.fespaco.bf) film festival, which begins on Saturday. We'll see if I have the will to leave Burkina for Mali early enough...
Finally, Burkina Faso has the honour of having one of the coolest political personalities in contemporary African history: Thomas Sankara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara), a socialist president from 1983 until 1987, when he was killed in a coup d'état organised by his former brother in arms, current president of Burkina, Blaise Compaoré. He's buried together with other 13 who died in the coup (see the photo) Quotes from Wikipedia article: "He became a popular figure in the capital of Ouagadougou. The fact that he was a decent guitarist (he played in a band named “Tout-à-Coup Jazz”) and liked motorbikes may have contributed to his charisma." And listen to this: "He sold most of the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers." Don't know if these are true or just propaganda, but the list continues:
Otherwise life in Burkina seems good for those who have money (as almost everywhere in the world..!). There are basically no power cuts, whereas in Benin, Togo and Ghana they were more or less daily entertainment. Neither is there a shortage of running water so far, although the country is very dry, with almost no water resources. So those who can afford electricity and water are doing relatively well here. Food is cheap, but petrol is expensive. Which might explain the scarceness of vehicles on the roads, mostly donkeys and bicycles fill the grand autoroutes. Oh, and another thing: many streets here have actual names, instead of mere numbers as in Benin (for example Rue 123), and most houses have even numbers! Not that many people know the names of the streets anyway, since they are not used to reading maps at all.
The cultural scene is also excellent. Both Ouaga and Bobo are full of concerts and happenings in official and unofficial bars. Some people go out every night to dance! Not to mention the FESPACO (http://www.fespaco.bf) film festival, which begins on Saturday. We'll see if I have the will to leave Burkina for Mali early enough...
Finally, Burkina Faso has the honour of having one of the coolest political personalities in contemporary African history: Thomas Sankara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sankara), a socialist president from 1983 until 1987, when he was killed in a coup d'état organised by his former brother in arms, current president of Burkina, Blaise Compaoré. He's buried together with other 13 who died in the coup (see the photo) Quotes from Wikipedia article: "He became a popular figure in the capital of Ouagadougou. The fact that he was a decent guitarist (he played in a band named “Tout-à-Coup Jazz”) and liked motorbikes may have contributed to his charisma." And listen to this: "He sold most of the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers." Don't know if these are true or just propaganda, but the list continues:
A major anti-corruption drive began in 1987. The tribunal showed Captain Thomas Sankara to have a salary of only $450 a month and his most valuable possessions to be a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer. He was the world’s poorest president.
Sankara refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes.
When asked why he had let it be known that he did not want his portrait hung in public places, as is the norm for other African leaders (and as Blaise Compaoré does now), Sankara said ‘There are seven million Thomas Sankaras’.
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Ann & Kjell