Kadi Merveille, Kadi Bonheur

Une chanson d'Yves Duteil dans la tête, et quelques photos d'un dimanche on ne peut plus habituel à Ouaga... Kadi grandit...

Other Africas, other ways

I took more planes this year than at any other point in my life, which is ironic looking at all the projects I am working on in connection with climate change and CO2 reductions… But I planted a lemon and two papaya trees in my garden in Ouaga? And want to plant more… And travel less! But it was a good eye opener anyway, to see further than West Africa. In no order whatsoever, starting from…

… South Africa

I only saw Johannesburg on this trip, and of course Soweto… I don’t know what it was like with apartheid, but I was still shocked at how some people live behind high electrified fences in luxury compounds… others in shacks in squalid conditions… Parts of the city reminded me of Nairobi, Soweto of Kibera… but the wealthy areas with more security, too many gates, too many armed guards. And I kept being reminded I was white, an awkward feeling, because in Burkina Faso, I tend to forget… I had no time to escape and climb the Drakensberg like I talked of so many times with my African flatmate back in London, on another journey maybe… Because I know there is more to South Africa than this…

Ethiopia

Twenty-four hours in Addis Ababa and its blue taxis, enough time to know it is a city after my own heart, where slums and residential areas seem to blend. I have no time to find out, if this is really true, just to marvel at the signs in Amharic, at the beauty of the Ethiopian women under their white veils, to eat injera and smell the strong aroma of roasting coffee beans.

A glimpse of magic, but a glimpse at dire poverty also, drinking coffee in a shack under a flyover in construction. The old woman who owns the stall laughs that I would spend the best of 2 hours chatting with her, when I have so little time in Addis. She speaks good English, she once lived in Uganda. And she makes me feel like coming back again soon. It is cold here, one of the highest capital of the world at 2400m…

Morocco

… Has changed so much since I was last there in 2005, highways, tall buildings… Or maybe it is the contrast once again with Burkina Faso or Togo and their bumpy roads and mud houses, but it is strange to think it is on the same continent… I feel disappointed with Casablanca looking at all the signs from French shops, there is even a Paul bakery, and of course Zara, H&M… I only remember fondly this small market tucked away and selling only olives, hundreds of sorts… I feel better in Marrakech sipping mint tea in a traditional riad… I forgot how people would only address men here, I feel invisible… They seem to see right through me, if I am walking with a friend. I am just expected to follow, to agree or at least not to disagree! It’s fine for now, a welcome change actually to be taken care of, but it would drive me insane on a daily basis.

Cameroun

This felt closer to home after all this… Except I guess Douala is a busy port, while you never hear the sirens from the boats in Ouaga! And all around Douala are luxuriant green forests… In some parts, Douala feels like a decaying colonial town, maybe because of the hotel I was put in, fading red carpets and yellowing marble floors. But the markets, the food, I guess the ‘maquis’ as well serving sucreries and Malta Guiness! There was something vaguely familiar!