This post is written by Sally Pearson, a Part II Geography student at the University of Cambridge who has been working as my field assistant here in Soumosso, Burkina Faso.
A three-day journey involving a night bus, two planes, a tuk-tuk, a motorbike, a bicycle and my rucksack that ended up in Paris as opposed to Ouagadougou brought me to the small village of Soumousso in southern Burkina Faso. As we eventually arrived at the final destination, it was clear that we were literally in the middle of nowhere- Soumousso is barely even visible on google maps- and I felt a very long way away from home.
Other than the obvious differences to the Yorkshire Dales such as the mud huts, lack of electricity and the constant beating down of the sun, the many parallels that I noticed that could be drawn from home made settling into the ways of life in Soumousso seem natural.
Other than the obvious differences to the Yorkshire Dales such as the mud huts, lack of electricity and the constant beating down of the sun, the many parallels that I noticed that could be drawn from home made settling into the ways of life in Soumousso seem natural.
One of the farming households
The daily activities of community and gossip, rampant livestock stampeding throughout the village and even congregating in the local “pub” seems to sum up rural village life all over the planet.
The local where people gather mid-day for a gourd of millet beer before heading back to the fields
The traditional nuclear family is challenged by the home set-ups of households in Soumousso. Polygamy is a common occurrence where the men have multiple wives and many subsequent children. These remarkable families live under the same roof quite amicably and function as a unit. There was no escape for me, and I was bombarded with marriage proposals with persuading offers in the form of goat-themed gifts. I decided to settle on becoming the second wife of local farm worker, Poda, whose first wife is due to give birth to their second child any day now. We have been experiencing marital bliss, with Poda keeping me well supplied with eggs and taking me for night-time rides on the back of his motorbike. I regret that I will be leaving a broken home on my return to Yorkshire.
Sally and Poda
The most outstanding difference to the UK is the ability of multiple ethnic groups of Burkinabes to cohabit without difficulty. Different tribes, with different languages - indeed there are 74 individual languages spoken across the country- of Muslim, Christian and traditional religions rub shoulders faultlessly within Soumousso. The conflict that has arisen in equivalent situations in the West appears to have been remedied in Soumousso by, in all honesty, pure banter with its subsequent laughter and hilarity. Illustrating this, in my first week I witnessed what was primarily shocking jokes made to a visiting man of a different village based on how his tribe had once been enslaved by people from Soumousso. However the result was everyone falling about laughing. I quickly learnt to take nothing anyone said seriously, and the merriment generated from each and every conversation has profuse and vital lessons for the West within the current precarious atmosphere.
Finally, as a tip for any future visitors of Burkina Faso, customs allows you to bring a kilo of dried caterpillars into the UK and they make for very unique gifts...
Finally, as a tip for any future visitors of Burkina Faso, customs allows you to bring a kilo of dried caterpillars into the UK and they make for very unique gifts...
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