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West Africa, Malta and the Balkans in 1999
BURKINA FASO
Bec2004-09-18 19:51:46
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Roadblock
Blocked roads are usual in this part of the world but they are generally due to road pirates and not to innocent cattle. Some are military but the three more common varieties are the police, the gendarmes and the customs squads (douaniers). The latter are particularly obnoxious as they can stop you far from any border and they often make everybody get out of the vehicle to be searched.
The 300 kilometre trip from Korhogo to Bobo-Dioulasso to took all day. We were stopped three times in the Ivory Coast, were delayed at the border and stopped twice again in Burkina Faso.
Countryside
This roadside "maquis" near Banfora was very basic but the quartered lamb, you see roasting on the oven on the left, looked absolutely delicious. It might not have been totally hygienic but I would choose that over hot dogs any day.
In this village between Banfora and Bobo-Dioulasso the houses are rectangular and the round structures are used to store grain.
Bobo-Dioulasso
I found a nice room in the Central Hotel, not far from Bobo's Grand marché, for 8 $US per night.
I made the acquaintance of Abdelkader Mécheri who headed an NGO that helped develop and train local professional organizations responsible for the development and efficient management of cotton production in south-west Burkina Faso. This very knowledgeable Algerian expat was most helpful and took time to explain some of the problems particular to the Sahel region (the belt of semi-arid lands between the Sahara to the north and the woodlands to the south).
Bobo's small but interesting Museum has an excellent exhibit on the country's cotton industry which generates half of the country's foreign revenues. Its further development is however threatened by desertification which is due partly to climatic change and partly to the traditional burning
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See photographs from:
Burkina Faso Gallery
