I hear that in at least one Spanish-speaking country the Peace Corps is call the "Trip Corps." In other words, the Peace Corps is seen as somewhat of a two-year vacation.
In the interest of accountability I would like to share just a couple of the projects that I worked on in my 27 months.
In the adjacent photo you see, from left to right, a well technician, the Secretary of the County Development Committee, and a local chief.
A concerned individual came to me on behalf of his small village. His message was that there is no potable water in his small village and that worse, during the dry season there is a critical shortage of even non-potable water.
After that initial contact we worked with the county development committee, the village chiefs and inhabitants, and a local NGO to submit a project plan to build wells in two villages that have a critical need.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Cuerpo de paseo?
I hear that in at least one Spanish-speaking country the Peace Corps is call the "Trip Corps." In other words, the Peace Corps is seen as somewhat of a two-year vacation.
In the interest of accountability I would like to share just a couple of the projects that I worked on in my 27 months.
In the adjacent photo you see a man proud of his nursery of high-yield palm trees. In Togo a plantation ensures a stable long-term income to farmers. Having a couple acres of cashew trees, grafted mango trees, or high-yield palm trees can provide piece of mind to an aging farmer.
This man asked me to find him a provider of high-yield palm seedlings and plastic tree seedling sacks so that he could establish his own plantation and sell seedlings to other farmers who wish to establish plantations. We studied some failed attempts to do the same and believe that our attempt will be successful.
In the interest of accountability I would like to share just a couple of the projects that I worked on in my 27 months.
In the adjacent photo you see a man proud of his nursery of high-yield palm trees. In Togo a plantation ensures a stable long-term income to farmers. Having a couple acres of cashew trees, grafted mango trees, or high-yield palm trees can provide piece of mind to an aging farmer.
This man asked me to find him a provider of high-yield palm seedlings and plastic tree seedling sacks so that he could establish his own plantation and sell seedlings to other farmers who wish to establish plantations. We studied some failed attempts to do the same and believe that our attempt will be successful.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
My kind of hut.
Had I known about all the styles of hut that were available, I would have chosen the style you see in this photo. I would call it the low-round Fulani model of hut with bubble porch. It would be a simple, practical home. I've never seen a hut like this in danger of caving in due to rain nor have I seen, on these round huts, the anti-erosion foundation reinforcement often necessary on rectangular houses. Coming from a culture of rectangular homes, I enjoy the curved form of the hut and porch.
Other ethnicities in the area used to build round huts but have adopted "modern" rectangular styles in the past 30 years. Today, only the Fulani or Peul ethnic group builds huts of this sort in my area. Maybe that is a reason more to like the style. Most Fulani are foreigners in Togo and it is easy for me, as a foreigner, to identify with their cultural estrangement and its resultant watchful attention-deflecting behavior.
Just behind and to the right of the round house is a series of boards planted vertically in the ground to form an enclosure. The enclosure is a shower. The large earthenware jar in the courtyard contains drinking water. The green plastic kettle sitting on the stool is used for performing ablutions before Muslim prayer.
Other ethnicities in the area used to build round huts but have adopted "modern" rectangular styles in the past 30 years. Today, only the Fulani or Peul ethnic group builds huts of this sort in my area. Maybe that is a reason more to like the style. Most Fulani are foreigners in Togo and it is easy for me, as a foreigner, to identify with their cultural estrangement and its resultant watchful attention-deflecting behavior.
Just behind and to the right of the round house is a series of boards planted vertically in the ground to form an enclosure. The enclosure is a shower. The large earthenware jar in the courtyard contains drinking water. The green plastic kettle sitting on the stool is used for performing ablutions before Muslim prayer.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Two great senses of humor.
The chief's secretary is a social straight-shooter, worked at a Chinese-run sugar factory in Togo, speaks 5 languages, has 20 plus children, is an expert in yam cultivation and smokes cigarettes. Douna, the man on the right, is a farmer and liaison between NGOs, including PLAN, and the village inhabitants. His son has a Master's in Accounting and wants to launch an NGO to help students in his home village. Unfortunately he hasn't been able to land a job, a common problem for graduates.
Don't know if i've ever felt as laid-back, light-hearted, and schmoozy, as when I spent time with these two. Don't know when I'll be seeing them again. They do have cell phones. Hopefully those cell phones will allow us a few moments more...
Don't know if i've ever felt as laid-back, light-hearted, and schmoozy, as when I spent time with these two. Don't know when I'll be seeing them again. They do have cell phones. Hopefully those cell phones will allow us a few moments more...
The road...home?
The motorcycle taxi driver, whose head and shoulder you see here, is nicknamed Senghor after Leopold Sedar Senghor the former President of Senegal. The other mototaxi drivers say they gave him the name Senghor because his hair has the same texture as President Senghor's.
You can see the dryness of the dry season in this shot and the Nere trees of the savana...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Richer reading of Africa's intellectuals
From my first year at university I studied African, specifically Francophone, literature and film. After two years living not only in Africa but in its depths, the village, the experience of that once exotic literature has now become three dimensional, been given color, smells, and emotions.
Of the authors I have read recently, I would mention Ousmane Sembene, Camara Laye, Bernard Dadier, Cheikh Anta Diop, Amadou Hampâté Bâ, Boubacar Boris Diop, and Emmanuel Dongala.
To the right is a photo of Cheikh Anta Diop. I commented on Nicolas Sarkozy's Dakar speech given ironically at the University that bears Diop's name. As I read Diop and his fellow African intellectuals, a thickening dew of ignorancy and pretension forms on Sarkozy's speech.
Read an entry concerning Sarkozy's speech
Monday, September 08, 2008
Misreading the Togolese landscape? *updated*
A study picked up by chance, "Misreading the African Landscape," has questioned the foundation on which my work in Togo is based.
The study questions assumptions of the natural resource establishment of Guinea, in West Africa, which has held since colonization that the land management techniques of peasants in the studied zone are destroying forest and are generally leading to resource depletion. To the contrary the peasants’ complex system of natural resource management has been converting grasslands into forest lands, increasing the forest cover, and the quantity and quality of their local natural resources. In the meantime policy makers, natural resource professionals and the development community have spent large budgets on criticizing the peasants and funding projects intended to counter the believed destructiveness of the natural resource management of those peasants.
The erroneous assumptions all stem from the outsider perspective, held by many “highly educated” Africans and non-Africans alike and probably originating from colonization that draws its conclusions without sufficient knowledge of local history and culture which themselves are deep, fascinating, and humbling.
I believe that this study may have been applicable to my work zone in a not so distant past, though Togo specific history has made the geography of my work zone and that of the study's zone in Guinea bifurcate. My area is in the same vegetation and climate band as the studied zone. I do believe, however, that I, my work, and the natural resource community in which I work has suffered from a similar outsider perspective and lack of local historical knowledge that have probably led to other erroneous assumptions and ill-conceived work plans. Those erroneous assumptions and ill-conceived work plans have probably been in place so long that they have become self-realizing prophecies or have altered their objects of study (land and inhabitants) to such an extent that those objects no longer resemble their former selves. Though of course the land and its inhabitants have been greatly altered by a great number of influences over the course of the past 300 years in addition to the Natural Resource Management policies in place. I very much appreciate the authors' dedication of the book that reads: "This book is dedicated to Mr Oury Bah and professor Rowland Moss, and to their confidence in the ability of African farmers in the transition zone to manage their own environments."
Read the study:
Read two blog entries that are interesting in light of the study in question:
http://togowestafrica.blogspot.com/2008/01/lost-between-tradition-and.html
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Ah! So that is one of the reasons why I am here.
During an afternoon rain storm I took refuge at these young guys' house. Wanting to check-up on the effectiveness of our school library project I asked the tallest boy, in the back on the right, whether he had read "Soundjata Keïta ou l'épopée mandingue" that is obligatory reading for his 8th grade class and that our library had provided. That boy then spent nearly an hour, outlasting the rain storm, recounting from memory the story of Soundiata Keita that he had read with his classmates. I leaned against a wall and listened to his narration that became quite theatrical at times. What a beautiful performance it was. "Ah! So that is one of the reasons why I am here," I thought to myself. I am here in part to help strivers do more and to incite others to strive.
No dough no foot.
As his foot and leg swelled more and more, this dude did not have 5 cents to send a message to a friend in order to obtain the 20 dollars necessary to cure his infection that could have led to amputation. He is not alone. Some die at the doorstep of a cure, lacking only the 10, 20, 50 or 100 bucks necessary for treatment.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
What stung beekeeping. *updated
Beekeeping is a highly viable money making venture in our area. Village members owning forested areas where bees can find flowers and water sources and yet where conditions aren't too wet, keeping bees could support a large portion of the population.
We are working on extending and organizing the beekeeping activities in our area and I am very hopeful that in 2 years time the number of beekeepers could jump from 3 currently to 20 or more.
One obstacle we have encountered that has until now hindered the grassroots growth of beekeeping is interfamilial distrust and grudges. It is quite incredible that the potential saving grace of a population could be held back by such trivial but deepseeded feelings. And it is not the individuals themselves but a certain prevailing social climate that just stamps out trust and hope. It is difficult to understand but it can be mediated. Who knew that you could encourage beekeeping by being a family counselor. I just found that out.
Another obstacle was brought to my attention by the man in the adjacent photo. He says plainly that "people aren't serious. If folks were serious about becoming beekeepers or animal breeders they could learn all of the necessary skills." Indeed people lack a certain spark that scientific knowledge gives you. The man in the photo has that spark but he didn't have it until his family sent him to a trade school where he learned beekeeping skills. More folks should be sent to trade school. At the same time, the man is right, "vouloir, c'est pouvoir," "To want to, is to be able to."
We are working on extending and organizing the beekeeping activities in our area and I am very hopeful that in 2 years time the number of beekeepers could jump from 3 currently to 20 or more.
One obstacle we have encountered that has until now hindered the grassroots growth of beekeeping is interfamilial distrust and grudges. It is quite incredible that the potential saving grace of a population could be held back by such trivial but deepseeded feelings. And it is not the individuals themselves but a certain prevailing social climate that just stamps out trust and hope. It is difficult to understand but it can be mediated. Who knew that you could encourage beekeeping by being a family counselor. I just found that out.
Another obstacle was brought to my attention by the man in the adjacent photo. He says plainly that "people aren't serious. If folks were serious about becoming beekeepers or animal breeders they could learn all of the necessary skills." Indeed people lack a certain spark that scientific knowledge gives you. The man in the photo has that spark but he didn't have it until his family sent him to a trade school where he learned beekeeping skills. More folks should be sent to trade school. At the same time, the man is right, "vouloir, c'est pouvoir," "To want to, is to be able to."
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Peace Corps service coming to a close.
What can I say about the autumn of Peace Corps service? It is the most work filled period of service. One has more host-country friends and is more fluent linguistically and culturally than at any other time during service. As a result one feels more at ease and more at home than at any other time during service, though certain frustrations persist. In the face of all this, anticipatory nostalgia grows as the close draws near. Maslow's peak experiences are more numerous as are doubts about the effect one has had. Pondering and planning the future occupies more and more mind time. "Should I become a teacher, a nurse, or a nomadic muslim" one thinks. Hmm do I look like a nomadic Muslim? I guess I kind of do, kind of...
Douna, UN's hardest working (unofficial) employee
Meet the UN's hardest worker. Unpaid, unthanked, this man takes the UN's message from the offices in Geneva and New York straight to rural Africa.
Whether it is the millenium development goals or women's rights Douna will get on his rusted-out rickety bicycle and peddle in the intense sun many kilometres to spread the good word. He has just completed a series of trainings throughout the county concerning the Avian Flu. While many chuckle at all the theory, coming out of the UN's air-conditioned offices, aimed at poor African peasants, Douna takes it all very seriously and makes all that theory have a real effect on the ground.
He isn't that different from anyone else, just a bit of high school education under his belt and a powerful source of perserverence and patience.
I am lucky to be able to tag along with him and add my own messages after he has completed his presentations. Today I came to town in a vehicle because my body was tired after biking with Douna to his meetings mornings and afternoons for a week. In the vehicle we passed Douna on his bicycle, peddling to town, amazing...
Whether it is the millenium development goals or women's rights Douna will get on his rusted-out rickety bicycle and peddle in the intense sun many kilometres to spread the good word. He has just completed a series of trainings throughout the county concerning the Avian Flu. While many chuckle at all the theory, coming out of the UN's air-conditioned offices, aimed at poor African peasants, Douna takes it all very seriously and makes all that theory have a real effect on the ground.
He isn't that different from anyone else, just a bit of high school education under his belt and a powerful source of perserverence and patience.
I am lucky to be able to tag along with him and add my own messages after he has completed his presentations. Today I came to town in a vehicle because my body was tired after biking with Douna to his meetings mornings and afternoons for a week. In the vehicle we passed Douna on his bicycle, peddling to town, amazing...
Friday, March 21, 2008
why Islam?
a friend's question: what was it in Islam that made you join IF you weren't born into it??
my response: Indeed I was not born into Islam. I was born into Unitarian Universalism, a religion whose defining belief, as I understand it, is that "the only legitimate authority on religious matters is the individual." This religious heritage left me with a lot of freedom, which would make one ask why I would practice such a strict religion as Islam but the reason is that I believe that there is a golden logic behind good spiritual practices and that one can find that golden logic through a book or through trial and error. In fact I think that many of Islam's practices follow that golden logic and could be adopted by a man living by himself in the forest never having seen the Coran because there is a logic behind good spiritual practices that the quiet and attentive mind can discover by itself. To answer the question then, I chose to practice Islam because of the regular praying habits, i find praying at least 3 times a day, as the nomads do here combining the 1 and 3 pm and 6 and 7 pm prayers, is essential to developing healthy mental habits and I believe that healthy mental habits are the basis for an intentional and rational existence and I believe that an intentional and rational existence is key to allowing what is in your heart and mind to healthfully enter into the world in a controlled way that allows what is in your heart and mind to become a constructive force and not a destructive force (as comes with uncontrolled emotions). This is the primary reason that I have chosen to practice Islam: the ability of a regular prayer schedule to create healthy mental habits key to leading a good existence.
my response cont'd in a later discussion:
I must say, that I have attempted to surrender my heart and mind to the truth and I must say that I am above all attached to the truth and I see that Islam can guide well toward the truth, but above all, above any given religion I am attached to the truth.
my response: Indeed I was not born into Islam. I was born into Unitarian Universalism, a religion whose defining belief, as I understand it, is that "the only legitimate authority on religious matters is the individual." This religious heritage left me with a lot of freedom, which would make one ask why I would practice such a strict religion as Islam but the reason is that I believe that there is a golden logic behind good spiritual practices and that one can find that golden logic through a book or through trial and error. In fact I think that many of Islam's practices follow that golden logic and could be adopted by a man living by himself in the forest never having seen the Coran because there is a logic behind good spiritual practices that the quiet and attentive mind can discover by itself. To answer the question then, I chose to practice Islam because of the regular praying habits, i find praying at least 3 times a day, as the nomads do here combining the 1 and 3 pm and 6 and 7 pm prayers, is essential to developing healthy mental habits and I believe that healthy mental habits are the basis for an intentional and rational existence and I believe that an intentional and rational existence is key to allowing what is in your heart and mind to healthfully enter into the world in a controlled way that allows what is in your heart and mind to become a constructive force and not a destructive force (as comes with uncontrolled emotions). This is the primary reason that I have chosen to practice Islam: the ability of a regular prayer schedule to create healthy mental habits key to leading a good existence.
my response cont'd in a later discussion:
I must say, that I have attempted to surrender my heart and mind to the truth and I must say that I am above all attached to the truth and I see that Islam can guide well toward the truth, but above all, above any given religion I am attached to the truth.
Monday, March 03, 2008
"Malam Kaolo"
OUKPEDJO Seïdi Mouhamed (Malam Kaolo). Naturopath, Coranic and traditional healer, Arabic literature teacher, Arabic-language author, President of a bureau of the Union Musulmane du Togo, President and founder of the NGO ABOU BABA for traditional medicine and development, founder of a Franco-Arabic school... among yet more titles he is my Arabic professor and prized spiritual councilor...
On this day Kaolo was giving a lecture on "Rouqya: the prevention and treatment of witchcraft of "djims" and the bad eye." I retained best Kaolo's preventions and treatments that are, it seems to me, very practical, both coranic and non-coranic, positive thinking techniques.
contacts:
B.P. 4
TCHAMBA, TOGO
WEST AFRICA
+2289096015
aboubaba8@yahoo.fr
On this day Kaolo was giving a lecture on "Rouqya: the prevention and treatment of witchcraft of "djims" and the bad eye." I retained best Kaolo's preventions and treatments that are, it seems to me, very practical, both coranic and non-coranic, positive thinking techniques.
contacts:
B.P. 4
TCHAMBA, TOGO
WEST AFRICA
+2289096015
aboubaba8@yahoo.fr
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Cash, cashews, and bi-products
In the past Cotton was a source of cash for families in my area but with the fall in the sale price of raw cotton and the costliness of fertlizers and pesticides, cashew production is looking like a better source of cash income, the 100 kilo sack of raw cashews currently selling at almost 50 US$.
What is more, cashew apples, as seen in the adjacent photo, can be rather easily transformed into juice, chutney, jam, wine and liquor. For the moment some of the apples are eaten by children but many just rot in the field, becoming unused bi-products of cashew nut production. We're attemping to change that.
Another notable way folks are finding important sums of cash income to help out their families is through emigration to Nigeria, Ghana, the US, Europe, or elsewhere abroad.
Kofi Annan on migration to the developed world:
"the evidence on migration’s potential benefits is mounting. With their remittances reaching an estimated 167 billion dollars last year [2005], the amount of money migrants from the developing world send back to their families exceeds the total of all international aid combined. And money is far from being the whole story. Migrants also use their skills and know-how to transfer technology, capital, and institutional knowledge. They inspire new ways of thinking about social and political issues. They form a dynamic human link between cultures, economies, and societies. As a result, we are better positioned than ever to confront the challenges of migration, and seize its opportunities.” ADDRESS TO THE HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, NEW YORK, 14 SEPTEMBER 2006.
What is more, cashew apples, as seen in the adjacent photo, can be rather easily transformed into juice, chutney, jam, wine and liquor. For the moment some of the apples are eaten by children but many just rot in the field, becoming unused bi-products of cashew nut production. We're attemping to change that.
Another notable way folks are finding important sums of cash income to help out their families is through emigration to Nigeria, Ghana, the US, Europe, or elsewhere abroad.
Kofi Annan on migration to the developed world:
"the evidence on migration’s potential benefits is mounting. With their remittances reaching an estimated 167 billion dollars last year [2005], the amount of money migrants from the developing world send back to their families exceeds the total of all international aid combined. And money is far from being the whole story. Migrants also use their skills and know-how to transfer technology, capital, and institutional knowledge. They inspire new ways of thinking about social and political issues. They form a dynamic human link between cultures, economies, and societies. As a result, we are better positioned than ever to confront the challenges of migration, and seize its opportunities.” ADDRESS TO THE HIGH-LEVEL DIALOGUE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, NEW YORK, 14 SEPTEMBER 2006.
Monday, February 04, 2008
thoughts on my francophonie
My interest in Africa was born out of my thirst to learn the French language and discover all of the countries in which that language would allow me to communicate, known as la francophonie. That interest in Africa has now grown and eclipsed my interest in the French language and in la francophonie, for reasons that I will discuss here, but I thought that the "francophone situation" in Togo deserved a blog entry.
Why was I first interested in the French language? It was because French allowed me to take part in another culture and exist in the medium of that culture. Well, French only allows me to take part in Togolese culture to a limited, but sometimes suprisingly great, extent. When you speak French in Togo you aren't speaking French as much as you are speaking, what is and what is perceived as, a "white" language. So when you speak French in Togo you don't really get the feeling that you are participating in someone else's culture, rather you may feel that you are just grazing the surface of their culture incapable of fully participating or worse reinforcing French culture at the expense of the local culture. Those facts do not fuel my enthousiasm about the French language, or my ability to speak it, that I have when elsewhere in the francophonie. On the other hand, you are, I fave found, highly regarded by Togolese who have attended school if you speak a French well.
Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop describes la francophonie so well when he says that it is divided into two parts, the areas where it is imposed and is not the language of hearts or minds, and the areas where it is the native language of the inhabitants. That division weighs heavily on my perception of la francophonie now, not because it is bad to impose a language on others, afterall the major european languages like French were only regional languages until being imposed on whole countries, but because a language is really interesting to learn when, as I have said, it allows you to truly participate in another culture, and a language can only do that if it is the language in which that culture dreams and thinks and feels...so bring on Hausa and Kotokoli and Ewe and Tchamba and Ani...the local languages that surround me...languages that inhabit the hearts of the people I live with in Togo.
Maybe one day French will become the language of the hearts of the Togolese, like spanish seems to have done in Latino America and afterall my ancestors surely didn't have English flowing in their vains as I do, but I think a majority of Togolese would say that French will never be the language of their hearts and minds. What is interesting is that when Togolese or Francophone Africans travel away from areas where their native languages are spoken, French quickly sounds much more like the language of their hearts. I believe this is because when they travel away and speak French, they are just trying to transmit their feelings as sincerely and accurately as possible in the language that can be understood. If they were to speak French in their native languages' areas of dominance that would not be the case, they would be speaking their second or third or fourth language, IE French, and thus their words would not be as sincere or as accurate as they could be if their words had been spoken in the languages that their hearts and minds operate in. Outside the areas of dominance of their native languages, French becomes the most sincere and accurate way available for "francophone Africans" to make themselves understood.
La Francophonie is still interesting and French is still an important language to learn, as was proven to me last evening as I translated between two Senegalese and a Ghanean customs officer, but la francophonie and the French language aren't as rich as I had thought them before...
2006-2008 has been an period of change for the Francophonie, in France Jacques Chirac, a mainstay of the old school Françafrique leaders influenced by Jacques Foccart, has left power. In Africa, the African intellectuals that brought French Africa into independence are quickly passing away, both Ousmane Sembène and Aimé Césaire have been buried, and Léopold Sédar Senghor preceded them by a few years in 2001. A few old school Françafrique leaders remain in power however, among them Omar Bongo and Paul Biya. It is also worth noting that Radio France International, a key entry point of France in Africa, expanded its FM coverage in Togo during the period 2006-2008. I am a die-hard listener of RFI and I am not proposing that it has a negative effect but one can be aware of its influence in Africa.
Why was I first interested in the French language? It was because French allowed me to take part in another culture and exist in the medium of that culture. Well, French only allows me to take part in Togolese culture to a limited, but sometimes suprisingly great, extent. When you speak French in Togo you aren't speaking French as much as you are speaking, what is and what is perceived as, a "white" language. So when you speak French in Togo you don't really get the feeling that you are participating in someone else's culture, rather you may feel that you are just grazing the surface of their culture incapable of fully participating or worse reinforcing French culture at the expense of the local culture. Those facts do not fuel my enthousiasm about the French language, or my ability to speak it, that I have when elsewhere in the francophonie. On the other hand, you are, I fave found, highly regarded by Togolese who have attended school if you speak a French well.
Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop describes la francophonie so well when he says that it is divided into two parts, the areas where it is imposed and is not the language of hearts or minds, and the areas where it is the native language of the inhabitants. That division weighs heavily on my perception of la francophonie now, not because it is bad to impose a language on others, afterall the major european languages like French were only regional languages until being imposed on whole countries, but because a language is really interesting to learn when, as I have said, it allows you to truly participate in another culture, and a language can only do that if it is the language in which that culture dreams and thinks and feels...so bring on Hausa and Kotokoli and Ewe and Tchamba and Ani...the local languages that surround me...languages that inhabit the hearts of the people I live with in Togo.
Maybe one day French will become the language of the hearts of the Togolese, like spanish seems to have done in Latino America and afterall my ancestors surely didn't have English flowing in their vains as I do, but I think a majority of Togolese would say that French will never be the language of their hearts and minds. What is interesting is that when Togolese or Francophone Africans travel away from areas where their native languages are spoken, French quickly sounds much more like the language of their hearts. I believe this is because when they travel away and speak French, they are just trying to transmit their feelings as sincerely and accurately as possible in the language that can be understood. If they were to speak French in their native languages' areas of dominance that would not be the case, they would be speaking their second or third or fourth language, IE French, and thus their words would not be as sincere or as accurate as they could be if their words had been spoken in the languages that their hearts and minds operate in. Outside the areas of dominance of their native languages, French becomes the most sincere and accurate way available for "francophone Africans" to make themselves understood.
La Francophonie is still interesting and French is still an important language to learn, as was proven to me last evening as I translated between two Senegalese and a Ghanean customs officer, but la francophonie and the French language aren't as rich as I had thought them before...
2006-2008 has been an period of change for the Francophonie, in France Jacques Chirac, a mainstay of the old school Françafrique leaders influenced by Jacques Foccart, has left power. In Africa, the African intellectuals that brought French Africa into independence are quickly passing away, both Ousmane Sembène and Aimé Césaire have been buried, and Léopold Sédar Senghor preceded them by a few years in 2001. A few old school Françafrique leaders remain in power however, among them Omar Bongo and Paul Biya. It is also worth noting that Radio France International, a key entry point of France in Africa, expanded its FM coverage in Togo during the period 2006-2008. I am a die-hard listener of RFI and I am not proposing that it has a negative effect but one can be aware of its influence in Africa.
Friday, February 01, 2008
How rich the world is! and how poor we are making it.
This man can teach you to read and write arabic. He can teach you the Hausa and Fulani languages. He can introduce you to Muslim paths to enlightenment. He can show you how to be a nomad. He can teach you to laugh more often and be light hearted. He is a wealth of knowledge, life, and love, and everyone in the world is. We will soon become dust again my friends but the world is such a precious and beautiful thing, let us be interested in it! May our interest in it lead us to love it, and may our love for it lead us to care for it.
The big picture agricultural situation (as I understand it) in Africa can be rather simply summarized:
In the past folks burnt patches of land to clear them and farm on them. When any given patch became less fertile it was left fallow for a period of time in order for it to regain its fertility. Population growth has made land more scarce and has shortened or eliminated the fallow periods, thus soil fertility has suffered. Overfarming, or under-fertilization, has been the result of population growth and it has left soils poor, less able to produce good yields, and less able to feed people. Thus, new ways of fertilizing the soil must be invented. There are many very effective economical agroforestry and manure fertilization techniques that have been researched by many an African agronomist. But until now expensive chemical fertilizers have been the 'solution' pushed on African peasants. Soils have become even poorer with the use of chemical fertilizers. Many soils have become dependent on chemical fertilizers in order to obtain even a half decent yield. That expenseive chemical system, which is out of the financial reach of many farmers, is failing. Soils are becoming dangerously poor..........
The big picture agricultural situation (as I understand it) in Africa can be rather simply summarized:
In the past folks burnt patches of land to clear them and farm on them. When any given patch became less fertile it was left fallow for a period of time in order for it to regain its fertility. Population growth has made land more scarce and has shortened or eliminated the fallow periods, thus soil fertility has suffered. Overfarming, or under-fertilization, has been the result of population growth and it has left soils poor, less able to produce good yields, and less able to feed people. Thus, new ways of fertilizing the soil must be invented. There are many very effective economical agroforestry and manure fertilization techniques that have been researched by many an African agronomist. But until now expensive chemical fertilizers have been the 'solution' pushed on African peasants. Soils have become even poorer with the use of chemical fertilizers. Many soils have become dependent on chemical fertilizers in order to obtain even a half decent yield. That expenseive chemical system, which is out of the financial reach of many farmers, is failing. Soils are becoming dangerously poor..........
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
With ousmane and manou
This is Ousmane. Ousmane, Manou, and the herd owner that they work for are Fulani from Nigeria. They have walked to Togo with their cattle in search of good forage for the herd. Ousmane and manou each recieve one cow for every five months that they work for the herd owner. The herd owner himself obtained his own herd by working for another herd owner for 9 years. The herd owner's family is in Nigeria where they will wait for his return when the rains and fresh vegetation arrive in June, July and August. Since he does not have boys old enough to herd with him he is forced to hire other young Fulani, in this case ousmane and manou, to help him. Majirou and I spent two nights and one full day in the bush with ousmane and manou. We had a great time and since they will be our the area for a few months we will surely spend more time with them, god willing.
See more photos of our time with ousmane and manou:
http://flickr.com/photos/thompsoncw/sets/72157603729921135/
See more photos of our time with ousmane and manou:
http://flickr.com/photos/thompsoncw/sets/72157603729921135/
Friday, January 04, 2008
And then you realize...
Observe your mind. As you observe your mind, observe your thought and emotion reactions to the world. Gain understanding of how and why your mind works, thinks and feels, the way it does. As you see and understand your mental pitfalls you can confront them one by one, knowing that you are on a sacred path. Be confident in that path.
I've read it in books before and tried to apply it but never had to learn to apply it in order to be an effective worker...
This is not managing and transforming emotional distractions just for the sake of it but seeing through the emotional distractions because it is the only way to be rational and rational is a synonym for not letting your emotions control you. Being rational is the most important thing one can do because it immediately gives your entire life meaning. It makes your life intentional and it is the only way you can be truly effective. And why be effective when we are just going to die and head into a black hole you may ask? Well, because as the Gita states or as Jodie Foster's character states at the end of the film "Contact" in front of a congressional committee: Life, existence, and matter are infinitely unique, beautiful, and precious but at the very same time, life, existence, and matter are meaningless, ephemeral, and of no importance whatsoever. So important is the universe, that we must devote our entire lives to serving it faithfully and so unimportant is the universe that we should not for a micro-second be attached or give importance to even the slightest part of it. In the end in attaching or not attaching importance to the universe we are or aren't attaching importance to ourselves as egos. In the end I am saying that our place in the universe is an ever so important one but that we are also so tiny and insignificant that we should not place our egos at the center of that universe by trying to control it and place our labels on importances within it. Being attached, which means letting your emotions control you, is the same as placing your self at the center of the universe. Being rational is seeing your true place in the universe, as a conglomeration of mere molecules so insignificant and unimportant, yet so beautiful and rare. See through your emotions, be rational, be intentional, find meaning. Those are all synonyms.
Quote from Jodie Foster's character in the Film "Contact":"I had an experience I can’t prove, I can’t even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real. I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever; a vision of the Universe that tells us undeniably how tiny, and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not, that none of us are alone. I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and the hope, but... that continues to be my wish." I feel the same way about my Peace Corps service.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
between tradition and "modernity"
It is almost as if folks have put all their faith in the "modern" chemical ways and are so enamored by those ways that they are surprised to hear that non-chemical traditional-type ways can work effectively. One man said "my grandma always bugs me, telling me to save ashes and manure for the garden but our generation, we've forgotten all that."
In so many different domains, from medicine, to latrines, to water wells, to agriculture, one remarks that the traditional methods that had worked have been left behind but that there is not enough money in the system to fully adopt the "modern ways."
This puts a whiteman promoting traditional-type methods in an ironic position. "Oh sorry, we were wrong go back to doing it the old way." Africa has in her subconscious the ways and the means to develop herself but she is lost between tradition and "modernity." Just a small evolution in the traditional methods of latrines, medicine, wells, and agriculture could give birth to low cost highly effective techniques.
In a 2006 article entitled "OPEN THE BLINDS", PCV Dan Mueller tells us of a fictional African village that was developing at its own pace before the world started trying to develop Africa. It would seem that Mueller is saying that organic grassroots development is made impossible or improbable by the promise of the developed world driving up and magically developing the village with money. That promise drastically changes the rules of the game of getting ahead and tears apart the fabric of the developing society. I believe Mueller is also saying that the prospect of emigrating to the "developed" rich world and living the good life blinds Africans and makes them forget the organic development that their ancestors, like ancestors all over the world, we're engaged in. This state of affairs is really quite obvious to the observant development worker.
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