Ougadougou, Burkina Faso
November 14th, 2007Shoot Experience went to West Africa as part of Shoot Nations, the photography project celebrating the United Nations’ International Youth Day.
We (Brett and Hannah from Shoot Experience and Hamish Mackenzie from Plan International) flew to Casablanca and then onto Ougadougou in early November 2007.
Our partner Plan International had organised a large youth centered conference for all countries of West Africa to discuss the UN’s objectives on the rights of children. The Shoot Nations exhibition and workshop formed part of the conference, which was bigger than we had imagined, the President of Burkina Faso even making an appearance.
Ougadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso, the third poorest country in the world. Burkina is not immediately pleasing to the eye. Sand, dust, unfinished buildings and poverty stare you straight in the face but there is nevertheless an overwhelmingly welcoming feeling from the Burkinabe people that certainly makes up for it. A simple attempt at saying Malawana (”What’s up” in the local ‘Mòoré language) goes a long way in making friends. Everyone is extremely kind and helpful and a smile never goes unreturned. The country seems to be in a hopeful place and there is a general feeling that things are improving day to day and the people are united towards a better way of life.
30% of the population live on $1 a day with a further 40% on only $2 a day. These stark figures are a definite reality in day-to-day dealings with the locals. Their unstoppable persistence is clearly a technique born of the most basic need to survive and a product of hand-to-mouth existence that prevails amongst the majority.
Ouga (pronounced “Wagger”) as it’s known locally, is a dusty place, each main road being flanked by an array of dirt tracks with the popular local form of transport being bicycle and pedal mopeds; cars a minimal presence in comparison. Ken Livingstone could only dream of such a ratio.
The paved streets have no lines dividing them and crossing lanes is a serious skill so we left this up to Abdul, our Plan driver and Marcel, a local taxi driver we befriended. For one of our favourite journeys however, we found ourselves shooting through the empty streets of town late one night as pillion passengers on the back of two pedal mopeds. It was an African rollercoaster ride and we were sad for it to finish as we arrived back at our hotel, safe but suitably ruffled.
Burkina is known as the NGO disneyland for the sheer numbers of NGO workers in Ouga. Their presence adds dramatically to the large numbers of 4×4s on the roads, by far the safest form of transport. Driving on the roads in Burkina you often feel your life is at risk! Three times in a 24 hour period Marcel skidded to a stop centimetres from impact. Perhaps his lack of wing mirrors had something to do with the abundance of near misses!
Men seem to play the dominant role in being the main bread winners in Burkinabe society. Sadly the main revenue channel for women seems to be prostitution but there are a few local schemes that do well in providing alternative income for single women, such as a paper making factory and other artisan schemes. Women also seem to be in charge of producing the local fire-water, made over a three day cycle from fermented millet with it’s potency increasing hour by hour on the third day as it sits in the sun waiting to be drunk. We didn’t get to try it but imagine the men who drink would also find themselves fermenting in the sun for hours after a calabash or two!
AN OPEN AIR CINEMA
Ouga is said to be the capital of African cinema so Saturday night we embarked on a trip to the open-air cinema. Imagine a small compound smack bang in the middle of where the locals hang, with no roof and the stars twinkling above you.
The set up was brilliant with a big screen and decent audio and rows of concrete benches and chairs for the eagle-eyed punters. We watched a local African film in French soaking up the atmosphere despite not understanding the plot too well.
SHOOT NATIONS WORKSHOP AND EXHIBITION
Monday 5th November
With the help of local Plan Burkina staff, Hamish and Brett installed the Shoot Nations exhibition. 100 photos and drawings were exhibited from 42 countries and included most of the winning photos from the Shoot Nations online photography competition.
We employed a new hanging system using pins and lomo clips to fix the photos to large boards. The format was easy and fast and held up well for the duration of the exhibition. This system also facilitates rapid take down at exhibition close.
The exhibition was located in the cafeteria serving the conference and was a fantastic space for maximum exposure to all the conference delegates.
Tuesday 6th November
Kids from various schools streamed in to see the exhibition during the day and an official VIP Launch started in early evening.
Plan International’s deputy director opened proceedings and it was discovered that one of the attending competition winners, a local boy from Burkina, came from the same tiny Village as the deputy director’s wife. An amazing coincidence that produced many a smile and could not have been more perfect or less planned!
Wednesday 7th November - Shoot Ouga
As part of the Shoot Nations tour, we produced a photography workshop in French (a mini Shoot Experience photography treasure hunt) with 80 kids form Ouga. They were trained on camera usage and sent out into the city centre to shoot four photos in answer to four abstract questions on the theme of child rights such as ‘Be seen and be heard’. In the afternoon we printed their photos for use in the workshop where they discussed photography as a communication tool and a means of cross-cultural expression. Their photos were also judged on creative merit and the best photos won prizes. Each team gave a spirited explanation on why they took particular photos and a photo from each team was printed and added to the main Shoot Nations exhibition. The articulation and enthusiasm of participants bowled us over and there could not have been better interaction with the workshop activities.
Thursday 8th November
We attended a rap concert hosted by Plan Burkina and given by Aura, a collaborative group of the biggest rap artists from W. Africa. Plan invited Aura to engage in child rights issues in Africa through their music as a way to reach young people and Aura have responded by producing an album titled ‘Bienvenue a Poto-Poto’, ‘Welcome to Poto-poto’. Poto-poto is a kind of African street market and a recognized term throughout the continent. The album is a rap opera in which each artist takes on the role of a child in need (the abused child, the child soldier, the prostitute) and tells the characters’ story accordingly.
The concert was incredibly moving, even when the rhymes got so fast the French was impossible to understand, the emotion and message was strong and came through in the children’s reactions and facial expressions throughout the crowd. In a competition that preceded Aura’s performance, children from the audience were invited to try their hand at freestyle rapping on the theme of child rights. Their articulation of and engagement in such a tough subject was astounding, even on the odd occasion where the words failed to flow. An overall feeling of positivity and belief in a better future prevailed and we left with music in our ears, a good feeling in our bones, and a deep respect in our hearts for Burkina and its people.
