The old Peugeot for the ride from Parakou to Natitingou in northern Benin didn't inspire much confidence. At least, my protests against putting a third person on the front passenger seat were successful. Four adults and two children were squeezed in the back. On the outskirts of Parakou, the driver of an oncoming shared taxi gave a hand signal and our driver turned off from the road to park the car behind a wall. He mumbled a few words and disappeared. After a while, I asked my front seat neighbour what we were waiting for and he explained to me that there was a police checkpoint which our driver, whose papers were not in order, wanted to have a look at. After the onset of a downpour, the driver returned soaking wet and in the best of moods. In a weather like this, he laughed, no policeman would get out of his shed to check the papers. The passengers were of the same opinion and we could continue. The limited visibility due to the rain (the windscreen wipers didn't work properly) and the horrible condition of the flooded road gave me an awkward feeling which wasn't improved by the fact that the driver kept singing in a high-pitched voice. At least he respected my plea to drive a bit slower. Due to the thousands of potholes we couldn't drive fast anyway. Contrary to our expectations, we were stopped at the checkpoint. With a sigh, the driver got out of the car and approached the two policemen with a huge laugh. These welcomed him stone-faced. I prepared myself for a long wait and thought that maybe it wouldn't be too bad if they'd make us continue in another vehicle. After a few minutes, however, our good-humoured driver returned, said something to the passengers of which I only understood "mille cinq cents" (thousand five hundred*) and we could continue our journey. The rear luggage cover wasn't properly closed because there was too much luggage so I did not have much hope to find anything in my backpack left dry on arrival in Natitingou. The heavy rainfall did not reduce and even increased when we had a flat tire. I didn't envy the two men who changed tires. In the next village, we stopped at a tire repair place situated on an island surrounded by rainwater-rivers. It took one hour until we could continue. The condition of the road got better and the driver got faster. I felt very uneasy and decided to get off the taxi in the next town to look for another vehicle to Natitingou. This wasn't necessary however as the driver stopped there anyway and made us board a relatively well-preserved Opel waiting there. Unfortunately, the rule that the better the condition of road and vehicle, the faster the ride proved correct. With 120 km per hour, we raced to Natitingou.
------------------------
* 1500 Francs CFA are about 2 Euros.
Saturday 13 August 2011
Monday 8 August 2011
On the road again: Togo and Benin
After an intense, interesting and exhausting time in Madiaso, I decided to set off again on for the last month of my time in Africa and travel southwards to greener regions. Before and during the first months of my trip, I had thought that I'd be spending most of my time in tropical parts of Africa and only a few weeks in Burkina Faso but then...
After I'd failed to get the visa for Ghana in Ouagadougou, I had no difficulty obtaining a 'Visa des pays de l'entente' which allows entry into five countries of the region.
Although I spent only about a week in Togo, I quite liked several places that I visited there especially the northern city of Kara and the beautiful lush region around Kpalimé.
After I'd failed to get the visa for Ghana in Ouagadougou, I had no difficulty obtaining a 'Visa des pays de l'entente' which allows entry into five countries of the region.
Although I spent only about a week in Togo, I quite liked several places that I visited there especially the northern city of Kara and the beautiful lush region around Kpalimé.
Lush vegetation...
... and nice villages in the Mt. Klouto region.
Even my time in the admittedly very hectic, polluted and noisy city of Lomé was better than expected.
However, it was great to find a place like Grand Popo just across the border in Benin to chill out for a few days. Grand Popo is home to a Finnish cultural centre (don't ask me why there's a Finnish cultural centre in a small coastal town in Benin) with a big library which was, unfortunately, closed during the time of my stay there.
My next stop was two bush-taxi-hours east in the country's biggest city, Cotonou. This city has a really bad reputation which was confirmed by all the travellers from that direction that I had met in Grand Popo. I liked it even better than Lomé.
Benin's capital Porto Novo is a rather sleepy place compared to Cotonou. There's a very interesting centre for sustainable agriculture, the Centre Songhai, which was founded by a Nigerian priest in the 1980s. I found the philosophy of not wasting anything (and recycling everything) really good and the way it is realised on the vast grounds of the centre even better. Wastewater, for instance, is treated in ponds of waterplants which are then (mixed with animal manure) used for biogas production. Later, the same water is used to raise fish before being brought out on the vegetable fields. All production seems to be organic and the products can be consumed in the centre's restaurants or bought in the shop there. There's even a workshop to produce agricultural machines and tools like a cashewnut-cracker. What a huge impact such a thing could have in a village like Madiaso...!
Taro and oranges
Part of the centre's wastewater treatment system
As I'm not getting to Nigeria on this trip (I had been looking forward to travelling there for some time) I wanted to get at least as close as possible: the border at Kraké. Pretty wild, I enjoyed this place!
Now, I'm in Abomé, the capital of the old and great kingdom of Dahomey. This kingdom was so powerful that French colonial officials decided to not connect it to the railway line but have it pass by the city at a distance of 10 kilometres. The station there, Bohicon, is now the much busier place and Abomé rather sleepy which only adds to its charm. There's palaces (every new king bought a new palace for himself) and temples all over the city and both Abomé and its surrounding villages are well protected by a vast number of fetishes.
Shrine containing a fetish
A fetish with offerings (notice the beer can in the background!)
The teak forest of my guesthouse
Sunday 10 July 2011
Goats, donkeys and antelopes
Goats, sheep, cows and donkeys roam freely around our house and on our field where the maize has began to sprout. It is a very disencouraging sight and very frustrating considering that cattle owners are obliged to attach or supervise their animals during the farming season.
One day, Mousa and I returned from the village to find three goats in our small garden next to the house, standing in the middle of the onions. Without a word, we began the chase around houses, through courtyards and open terrain. After 10 minutes, we caught a small goat and attached it with a rope to a post next to our house. In the evening, one of our neighbours came and asked in apologetic tone if we wouldn't give him the goat back. He promised to attach it in the future. As it was the first time, we gave it back to him.
The following morning, most goats and sheep in our neighbourhood were secured with ropes. Obviously, our action the previous day had not gone unnoticed. It wasn't long however until the next goat started nibbling our maize. Again, we chased it. When we had it, we did not waste time attaching it next to our house but carried it - under the protests of the goat and its owner - to the village chief's compound. As we didn't find the chief at home, we left the goat with some other persons there. When we returned in the evening, the chief had already handed over the goat to its owner after a few reproachful words. I was disappointed as I had hoped for a fine for the owner, to be shared between the chief and the person bringing in the culprit animal. That way we had spent a lot of time and energy without any kind of compensation or reward.
The same afternoon I discussed this topic with a friend. He told me with a broad smile about his way to deal with the problem. The antelope we had eaten at his place a few days before (I had since had a bad conscience about eating the meat of such a rare animal) had not really been an antelope - but a goat he had killed on his peanut field. I was surprised and relieved (because of the "antelope") and readily agreed to join him on his next antelope hunt the same evining. Unfortunately (or fortunately), no further "antelopes" showed up this time. Had the goat owners learnt their lesson?
One day, Mousa and I returned from the village to find three goats in our small garden next to the house, standing in the middle of the onions. Without a word, we began the chase around houses, through courtyards and open terrain. After 10 minutes, we caught a small goat and attached it with a rope to a post next to our house. In the evening, one of our neighbours came and asked in apologetic tone if we wouldn't give him the goat back. He promised to attach it in the future. As it was the first time, we gave it back to him.
The following morning, most goats and sheep in our neighbourhood were secured with ropes. Obviously, our action the previous day had not gone unnoticed. It wasn't long however until the next goat started nibbling our maize. Again, we chased it. When we had it, we did not waste time attaching it next to our house but carried it - under the protests of the goat and its owner - to the village chief's compound. As we didn't find the chief at home, we left the goat with some other persons there. When we returned in the evening, the chief had already handed over the goat to its owner after a few reproachful words. I was disappointed as I had hoped for a fine for the owner, to be shared between the chief and the person bringing in the culprit animal. That way we had spent a lot of time and energy without any kind of compensation or reward.
The same afternoon I discussed this topic with a friend. He told me with a broad smile about his way to deal with the problem. The antelope we had eaten at his place a few days before (I had since had a bad conscience about eating the meat of such a rare animal) had not really been an antelope - but a goat he had killed on his peanut field. I was surprised and relieved (because of the "antelope") and readily agreed to join him on his next antelope hunt the same evining. Unfortunately (or fortunately), no further "antelopes" showed up this time. Had the goat owners learnt their lesson?
Friday 8 July 2011
Madiaso
Madiaso is a large village with about 3000 or 4000 inhabitants. It is a crossroads for various villages, two main roads connect it with the cities of Mangodara (45 km) and Banfora (70 km). None of the roads are concrete however. There is no eletricity but the village cinema - a television powered with a diesel engine - provides the whole village with the sounds of (mostly action) movies each night. That is if there's no football. If there is football on tv, you might get the impression that there's a stadium with at least 20 000 seats in town.
Most of the population live off agriculture but there are many traders, women selling food (though not a great variety of food) and several barbers. Moreover, we have a pharmacy and a few mechanics plus about a dozen small shops selling everything from bisquits to superglue.
Mousa had arranged for a small house made of concrete for us. It has two small rooms and a concrete platform on which we often sit in the evenings. In the night, it is very hot under our tin roof so I usually sleep outside on a straw matress.
It is in Madiaso that Mousa wants to build a future for himself. Here, his father worked as a lokal health councillor before the family moved to Banfora. He was the first person in the village to work his field with a plough pulled by bulls. Today, this is the standard and we, plowing with the daba bas (a large, flat hoe), the exception.
At the moment, our work is centred around three locations:
1. a small field around our house where we cultivate maize, beans and sweet potatos
2. a piece of land (approx. one and a half hectares) two km out of town that Mousa purchased from the village chief. Here, we have been planting trees
3. a small plot on the outskirts of the village where Mousa's family lived several years ago. Here, Mousa wants to build a compound for himself in the years to come and start a commercial garden. The latter has been our main occupation up to now. Just to create a good fence to keep off the goats, sheep etc. that roam freely through and around the town is a huge challenge! We have spent several days cutting branches and thorn trees for the protection.
Most of the population live off agriculture but there are many traders, women selling food (though not a great variety of food) and several barbers. Moreover, we have a pharmacy and a few mechanics plus about a dozen small shops selling everything from bisquits to superglue.
Mousa had arranged for a small house made of concrete for us. It has two small rooms and a concrete platform on which we often sit in the evenings. In the night, it is very hot under our tin roof so I usually sleep outside on a straw matress.
It is in Madiaso that Mousa wants to build a future for himself. Here, his father worked as a lokal health councillor before the family moved to Banfora. He was the first person in the village to work his field with a plough pulled by bulls. Today, this is the standard and we, plowing with the daba bas (a large, flat hoe), the exception.
At the moment, our work is centred around three locations:
1. a small field around our house where we cultivate maize, beans and sweet potatos
2. a piece of land (approx. one and a half hectares) two km out of town that Mousa purchased from the village chief. Here, we have been planting trees
3. a small plot on the outskirts of the village where Mousa's family lived several years ago. Here, Mousa wants to build a compound for himself in the years to come and start a commercial garden. The latter has been our main occupation up to now. Just to create a good fence to keep off the goats, sheep etc. that roam freely through and around the town is a huge challenge! We have spent several days cutting branches and thorn trees for the protection.
Thursday 19 May 2011
Southwest Burkina Faso
In the Southwest of Burkina Faso, I was lucky to arrive at the beginning of the mango season. Almost every day my friends in the city of Banfora plucked mangos from the trees, ...
... delicious!
And beautiful too...
... not just the fruit but also the leaves...
... and the trees.
As there are really more fruit than can be eaten fresh, we prepared mango jam which was quite easy. The ingredients are just mangos, sugar and lemon juice, the trickiest part was to find good jars (which we then sterilised as I had seen it when I prepared strawberry jam with my grandmoter).
I spent most of the first weeks in the city of Banfora. Amongst others, I had some very interesting talks about politics in general and different personalities like the former president Thomas Sankara, the respected journalist Norbert Zongo and the current president Blaise Compaoré in particular. Burkina Faso is facing a big crisis which receives only very little attention outside the country. Even inside Burkina Faso, we get only scarce information because the media are not free. The impression that I got was that the current crisis is part of a much more long-lasting discontent and that most people here are unhappy with the country's leadership and waiting for change.
During strolls in the city, I saw a lot of interesting things like this small urban garden protected by a fence made from old tires.
A larger garden (approximately 25 x 25 metres) is kept by Sungalo and Moussa about half a kilometre outside the city's outskirts.
To start this garden, they had built a 100 m long protection and dug a 9 m deep well about two years ago. Also the preparation of the fields, seeding etc. have been a lot of work.
In the garden, they grow a variety of plants including aubergines, tomatos, maize, bananas, jatropha, local aubergines, cabbage and maniok.
In the dry season, which lasts until May, the hardest work is to irrigate the plants with water from the well.
A much lighter work was the spraying of some parts of the garden with a natural insecticide. We produced this insecticide using seeds from the Neem tree. We ground one kilo of seeds, soaked them in 10 litres of water for 3 days and then filtered the water before using it to spray it on the plants.
Talking about water: we were using the water from the well for all purposes until one morning, we found a dead frog in the well. The water was smelly and I didn't want to wash my hands (or clothes) any more, let alone drink it. Since then, we've been transporting water from a communal water point (about one km away) by bicycle or moped to the farm. Always quite time consuming and a bit difficult so we've been forced to economise a bit. A new experience for me to live with very little water and I now know exactly how much water I need for my different needs (e.g. 4-5 litres for taking a shower, 6 litres if I also want to wash my hair...).
We tried to clean the well by draining all the water from it and Sungalo even descended to the bottom to get the mud out in order to have it refill with clean water. The success was moderate and we're using water from the city up to now (also because there have been a few more dead frogs in the water in the meantime). For those of you who want to build a well, I recommend you try to reinforce it and cover it!
Beside the work in the garden, there are many other things that need to be done on Sungalo's little farm. Moussa spent a lot of time making bricks. This involves the transport of a lot of water from the well for a distance of 300m to the pit in a location where he found good soil.
The water serves to prepare the mud for the bricks.
The preparation of the bricks is quite exhausting, too. And then, after a few days of drying in the sun, the bricks can be used for construction.
In this way, the compound got better every day.
At night, I usually put up my mosquito net under the stars.
And this is the room where we spent most of the hot hours in the shade...
... and looked for shelter when it was raining. The rainy season has begun in Banfora...
... and often, the road to the city was flooded...
... but the sky was really beautiful.
Rainy season is the farming season here. Some of my friends told me that in a few weeks time, Banfora will be empty as many people will leave for their villages to work on their fields. Farming is thus a very important issue for most of the population here. As in other parts of the world, there are serious problems related to farming including the cutting down of trees and subsequent burning of the remaining plants in order to create new farmland.
It is sad to think that in this way much of the beautiful nature that remains might get lost soon. And there are still pockets of great natural beauty in the region, including the domes of Fabedougou...
... the waterfalls of Karfiguela...
...the cliffs near Niasogoni...
... or the forest near Oroudara.
We discussed a lot about forms of agriculture that can be carried out without the destruction of forests and the degradation of soil. This is a topic that has been interesting me for a long time. Last year, in Bolivia, I had the opportunity to visit one such farming system. It is called Successional Agroforestry System (SAFS) and has been developed and successfully applied by Ernst Goetsch in Brazil. In Bolivia, Joachim Milz is working very successfully with SAFS.
If you are interested in reading the short paper 'Break-through in agriculture' which Ernst Goetsch wrote in 1994, click here. I found this short text really enlightening, especially after visiting Joachim Milz' beautiful SAFS in Alto Beni, Bolivia!
On a visit to the village of Madiasso (about 60 km from Banfora), where Moussa wants to start farming soon, I had the opportunity to get to know some of his friends there.
During a discussion about possible alternatives to a field with just one crop (monoculture) - which by the way is called "pure agriculture" and recommended to farmers by the official farmer information service in Banfora - ...
... we developed a plan for an agricultural system with a series of different plants that can be planted in a row without negative interference (and sometimes, as in the case of legumes such as beans, benefits for the other plants) while trying to combine high growing trees with smaller trees and crops on the ground so as to cultivate various plants in different levels in the same spot. To visualize this, we used seeds, straws and other little things we found to represent different plant types that can be planted next to each other in one line in the field.
This would make for a very efficient use of space and resemble the natural state much more than a monoculture of maize or any other crop. Those areas of Southwestern Burkina Faso where nature is left to its own are usually covered in forest in which there are various levels of plants ranging from giant trees to smaller trees to shrubs to small plants on the ground (plus vines creeping up the stems of the trees etc.).
Inspired by these ideas, we went for a walk in Madiasso to discover that in many places, people have worked according to this principle before planting different trees very close to each other so that they overlap. An example is the big Néré that grows over the mango tree without disturbing it (we asked the farmer who told us that the mango tree produced the same good yield as the mango tree next to it which is not overshadowed by the Néré).
With things like these in my head, I have been trying to get more information about approaches like organic farming, permaculture, agroforestry (including the SAFS mentioned above) and conservation agriculture and other ideas that can be of use to us. You're very welcome to share your ideas, too!
... delicious!
And beautiful too...
... not just the fruit but also the leaves...
... and the trees.
As there are really more fruit than can be eaten fresh, we prepared mango jam which was quite easy. The ingredients are just mangos, sugar and lemon juice, the trickiest part was to find good jars (which we then sterilised as I had seen it when I prepared strawberry jam with my grandmoter).
I spent most of the first weeks in the city of Banfora. Amongst others, I had some very interesting talks about politics in general and different personalities like the former president Thomas Sankara, the respected journalist Norbert Zongo and the current president Blaise Compaoré in particular. Burkina Faso is facing a big crisis which receives only very little attention outside the country. Even inside Burkina Faso, we get only scarce information because the media are not free. The impression that I got was that the current crisis is part of a much more long-lasting discontent and that most people here are unhappy with the country's leadership and waiting for change.
During strolls in the city, I saw a lot of interesting things like this small urban garden protected by a fence made from old tires.
A larger garden (approximately 25 x 25 metres) is kept by Sungalo and Moussa about half a kilometre outside the city's outskirts.
To start this garden, they had built a 100 m long protection and dug a 9 m deep well about two years ago. Also the preparation of the fields, seeding etc. have been a lot of work.
In the garden, they grow a variety of plants including aubergines, tomatos, maize, bananas, jatropha, local aubergines, cabbage and maniok.
In the dry season, which lasts until May, the hardest work is to irrigate the plants with water from the well.
A much lighter work was the spraying of some parts of the garden with a natural insecticide. We produced this insecticide using seeds from the Neem tree. We ground one kilo of seeds, soaked them in 10 litres of water for 3 days and then filtered the water before using it to spray it on the plants.
Talking about water: we were using the water from the well for all purposes until one morning, we found a dead frog in the well. The water was smelly and I didn't want to wash my hands (or clothes) any more, let alone drink it. Since then, we've been transporting water from a communal water point (about one km away) by bicycle or moped to the farm. Always quite time consuming and a bit difficult so we've been forced to economise a bit. A new experience for me to live with very little water and I now know exactly how much water I need for my different needs (e.g. 4-5 litres for taking a shower, 6 litres if I also want to wash my hair...).
We tried to clean the well by draining all the water from it and Sungalo even descended to the bottom to get the mud out in order to have it refill with clean water. The success was moderate and we're using water from the city up to now (also because there have been a few more dead frogs in the water in the meantime). For those of you who want to build a well, I recommend you try to reinforce it and cover it!
Beside the work in the garden, there are many other things that need to be done on Sungalo's little farm. Moussa spent a lot of time making bricks. This involves the transport of a lot of water from the well for a distance of 300m to the pit in a location where he found good soil.
The water serves to prepare the mud for the bricks.
The preparation of the bricks is quite exhausting, too. And then, after a few days of drying in the sun, the bricks can be used for construction.
In this way, the compound got better every day.
At night, I usually put up my mosquito net under the stars.
And this is the room where we spent most of the hot hours in the shade...
... and looked for shelter when it was raining. The rainy season has begun in Banfora...
... and often, the road to the city was flooded...
... but the sky was really beautiful.
Rainy season is the farming season here. Some of my friends told me that in a few weeks time, Banfora will be empty as many people will leave for their villages to work on their fields. Farming is thus a very important issue for most of the population here. As in other parts of the world, there are serious problems related to farming including the cutting down of trees and subsequent burning of the remaining plants in order to create new farmland.
It is sad to think that in this way much of the beautiful nature that remains might get lost soon. And there are still pockets of great natural beauty in the region, including the domes of Fabedougou...
... the waterfalls of Karfiguela...
...the cliffs near Niasogoni...
... or the forest near Oroudara.
We discussed a lot about forms of agriculture that can be carried out without the destruction of forests and the degradation of soil. This is a topic that has been interesting me for a long time. Last year, in Bolivia, I had the opportunity to visit one such farming system. It is called Successional Agroforestry System (SAFS) and has been developed and successfully applied by Ernst Goetsch in Brazil. In Bolivia, Joachim Milz is working very successfully with SAFS.
If you are interested in reading the short paper 'Break-through in agriculture' which Ernst Goetsch wrote in 1994, click here. I found this short text really enlightening, especially after visiting Joachim Milz' beautiful SAFS in Alto Beni, Bolivia!
On a visit to the village of Madiasso (about 60 km from Banfora), where Moussa wants to start farming soon, I had the opportunity to get to know some of his friends there.
During a discussion about possible alternatives to a field with just one crop (monoculture) - which by the way is called "pure agriculture" and recommended to farmers by the official farmer information service in Banfora - ...
... we developed a plan for an agricultural system with a series of different plants that can be planted in a row without negative interference (and sometimes, as in the case of legumes such as beans, benefits for the other plants) while trying to combine high growing trees with smaller trees and crops on the ground so as to cultivate various plants in different levels in the same spot. To visualize this, we used seeds, straws and other little things we found to represent different plant types that can be planted next to each other in one line in the field.
This would make for a very efficient use of space and resemble the natural state much more than a monoculture of maize or any other crop. Those areas of Southwestern Burkina Faso where nature is left to its own are usually covered in forest in which there are various levels of plants ranging from giant trees to smaller trees to shrubs to small plants on the ground (plus vines creeping up the stems of the trees etc.).
Inspired by these ideas, we went for a walk in Madiasso to discover that in many places, people have worked according to this principle before planting different trees very close to each other so that they overlap. An example is the big Néré that grows over the mango tree without disturbing it (we asked the farmer who told us that the mango tree produced the same good yield as the mango tree next to it which is not overshadowed by the Néré).
With things like these in my head, I have been trying to get more information about approaches like organic farming, permaculture, agroforestry (including the SAFS mentioned above) and conservation agriculture and other ideas that can be of use to us. You're very welcome to share your ideas, too!
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Walking along La Falaise
Rising gently from the plains of the Inner Niger Delta and then dropping hundreds of metres in an impressive rock face, the region of the Falaise de Bandiagara has a really spectacular landscape. Combine this with the fascinating Dogon culture and you have one of West Africas most impressive – and most touristy (though not this year…) – regions.
This is great trekking territory so I spent three days hiking up and down the Falaise. My original plan had been to spend a week in the northern part of the Dogon country but as my visa had almost expired I settled for a shorter option in the more easily accessible southern part. And I didn’t regret it!
Enjoying the view on the spectacular rock formations...
... which culminate in a vertical cliff rising from the plain.
Between the rocks are small fields...
... and beautiful Dogon villages...
... with interesting round granaries and traditional pharmacies that look like mud-built shelves.
On display in the villages are locally made textiles...
... and the trophies of successful hunters.
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