Hippo Hunting in the Homeland of the Incorruptible

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'Le blanc, le blanc!' You hear it everywhere you walk in Banfora, a small town in southern Burkina Faso. Kids smile and scream it at you as you wander past. At first, I thought they had mistaken me for Hollywood spunk and shining star of the comedic acting profession, Matt le Blanc, but no, it simply means 'the white' in French. It jars a bit, being referred to in such terms, but eventually you don't notice it. You get used to standing out a little in West Africa.

So we made it to Burkina Faso, a country that has obsessed me since I was a nerdy little kid ingesting the Reader's Digest Atlas of the World when I got home from school. It must be the name. Even its old label of Upper Volta, and the wonderful capital city of Ouagadougou, make you think that whoever named them had a few too many Brakina beers that day. And it's not even like Burkina Faso means something normal when you translate it. The revolutionary army captain Thomas Sankara, who seized power in the 1980s, changed the name in an attempt to distance his new regime from the corruption of the previous one. Burkina Faso simply means, 'Homeland of the Incorruptible'. However, if you start reading up about the current President, Blaise
Compaore, and his dodgy involvement in a)the murder of Thom Sankara, b) the civil war in Cote d'Ivoire, c) the illegal diamond trade from Sierra Leone, d) election fixing here in Burkina, and e) the murder of independent journalist, Norbert Zongo, then you realise that the country should probably be called something
else.

Renaming the country was not the only thing that Sankara, sometimes referred to as 'Africa's Che Guevara', did during his short military dictatorship. He also immunised three million kids against a bunch of diseases in one massive health drive (good); laid a blow for women's rights by declaring that September 22nd was 'Men buy the family groceries Day' (slightly mad); set up a sign at Ouagadougou airport reading, 'Welcome to Burkina Faso - the Tomb of Imperialism', with a Coca-Cola ad drawn onto it (hilarious); and, when he was told he couldn't fly over US airspace to visit Cuba, snubbed US dignitaries on
his American visit by refusing to meet them, instead driving into Harlem and declaring to a crowd of African-Americans, 'This is my White House' (just plain silly, really).

And Blaise isn't much less dotty. One of his promotionalstickers has a picture of Blaise's head pasted onto the body of Indiana Jones, whip, hat, torn shirt and all, with the slogan, 'Our President - Blaise Compaore'. Yep, politics Burkina-style is dangerous, crazy fun.

Burkina is yet another poor, raggedy African country. Only slightly above Mali on the UN Development scale, it is currently classified as the world's fourth-poorest nation. Adult literacy hovers around 25%, the life expectancy hasn't cracked the 50-years barrier yet, and the average Burkinabe woman will have about 7 kids in her lifetime. Still, the Burkinabe are a jovial and easy-going bunch, 'tranquil' as they say, and its hard not to like the vibe of this poverty-stricken country.

We pulled in to the tatty city of Ouahiguiya (the names here are all pretty much unpronounceable), after leaving the flooded south of Mali. From there we moved straight on to Ouagadougou, the dirty, crowded, polluted, sprawling heart of the nation. Now, its not much to look at, but Ouaga has been high on my list of
must-sees for years, and, despite being disappointed in the aesthetic value of the city, it does have some good restaurants, the people are friendly enough, and there was always the bar at our hotel when things get too hectic outside. We didn't stay long in Ouaga, though, as we were on a tight schedule, so we pushed
on to the south-west, to a town called Banfora.

Banfora is a pretty relaxed place, and a great base for visiting some of Burkina's natural attractions. Along with a Ghanaian-American girl we met (you don't see them every day), we hired some scooters and buzzed around the surprisingly safe and easily-negotiated Burkinabe roads. First on the list - and another childhood dream - was a spot of hippo watching at Lake Tengrela. We thought we'd be lucky to see a few lumps off in the distance, but we were overwhelmed to find ourselves in a tiny pirogue (boat), rowing up to within about 30 metres of a group of seven hippos, who watched our arrival with more than a hint of suspicion. As the gigantic river-dwellers all turned their heads to watch us, our piroguier tried to punt us in a few metres closer, but, with images of the newspaper headlines back home - 'Aussies in Burkina Hippo Disaster' - we convinced him we had come close enough. Unlike my experience of Ouaga, I wasn't disappointed this time - seeing real, wild hippos, from a tiny Burkinan boat - special, special, special.

After our hippo moment, we scooted off to see some waterfalls, but the rains have only just begun, and, after hippos, waterfalls just don't cut it, so they weren't quite worth the journey.

From Banfora, we retraced our steps up to Burkina's second city, Bobo-Dioulasso, or Bobo for short. Another messy, chaotic, urban nightmare, we opted to stay out in the 'burbs this time, at a heartily-recommended hotel called Le Zion. Now, this place was brilliant. Set up by a French and Burkinabe couple three years ago, it is basically their home, with a few rooms, a shop, a small restaurant, a recording studio, and a stage/dance floor, tacked on. The Frenchie, Camille, is an amazing cook, and she churns out pizzas, beef and wine stews, mango crumbles and sorbets, while the hubby, Wassa, makes the music. You really don't need to leave the hotel - your drinks, meals and entertainment are all on tap. We were lucky to be there on July 14th - Bastille Day and the 3rd anniversary of Le Zion, and there was quite a party that night, with locals and French ex-pats packing into the tiny garden for music, fruit punch, and dancing. I made the mistake of chatting with Wassa in French earlier in the day, and agreeing to something he asked me, while not really
understanding him. All was revealed at 11pm, when the MC climbed up on stage and announced a special performance by the 'artiste Australien', Thomas! So up I went, and with an electric guitar, distorted microphone, and Ivorian drummer, proceeded to massacre the songs 'Under African Skies', and - what else? -'Down Under'. Luckily I had too many Brakina beers under my belt so I couldn't hear how awful I was. Soon after, the dance floor opened up, and a crowd of sweaty Africans and drunken Europeans bounced up and down to Wassa's reggae beats. Good fun all round, really.

And then - back to Ouaga, where we sit now, awaiting our visas for Ghana, eating well, and seeing the limited sights. In fact, today we did the unthinkable, and visited the 'US Recreation Center', an annexe to the US embassy, with - wait for it - an American snack bar, serving Tex-Mex, burgers and Coke; Armed Forces Television, a satellite service for the US military; and an English-language book-swap service. I stuffed
my face with a bacon cheeseburger, watched CNN, and got rid of our crappy old books for some gloriously fresh ones (its nigh-on impossible to find English books in Francophone Africa). We were a bit naughty,
and we took advantage of the book-swapping; but, in the spirit of Thom Sankara, I was just helping fill the Tomb of Imperialism.

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Photos

Me and Abdoullaye
Sitting on a pirogue, looking for hippos...

Wassa
Wassa the Rasta sings with his band at Le Zion

On the scooter
Riding my scooter, 'Bike-ina fast-one' around the dirt roads near Banfora

Brakina Beer
One of Burkina's tasty beers, Brakina - literally, 'Brew-kina'

Suze and Amie
Amie, the gentle young girl we hung out with at Le Zion

Singin' for my baby
A baby crawls onto the stage as I sing at Le Zion

Comments

[Marcoelitaliano]

L'Artiste Australienne
Ehi Tom, it seems we are following a very similar route on very similar dates. Only my detour south to Bissau (a worthy one) gave you an edge of 3-4 weeks time. What's your next destination? Niger? anyway, as soon as I get to Bobo Dioulasso I think I will spread the roumour that I'm a journalist desperately searching for a famous aussie rock-star lost in Africa. It could be amusing :-) Marco

[Vincent]

Jealousy in me
Dear Tom and Susan, Here is Vincent from Tangier, last destination of our African trip, but as we discovered during our last 6 weeks in this country, Morroco is more African by its geography then by its infrastructure; a refreshing change in some ways. I am incredibly jealous with you, our Australian travelling friends. If you ever come to Canada and see the few things I own, you'll notice that I have some twisted facination with African hippos and one of my greatest regret of this trip was to not see any. To fall sleep with the sound of those big creatures in the background is the most enchanting event I have encounter (we also feared for our lives a few times). Anyways, great to hear about your amazing adventures and make sure to say hello to Mr. and Mrs. hippo for me. Sincerely, Vincent

[edgard]

scale the words!
hey man, im from Burkina Faso,living in California for over 10 years now,just beeing curious about you saying: ``then you realise that the country should probably be called something else.`` I do believe that you didnt get the reel picture,its about the all country,not a couple of guys that over take power and doing what they are doing now...Burkina Faso have a reel meaning for the reel people... its not probably because the majoity of American dont like Bush,that they should be changing the country name... After reading about your trip in Burkina i look like you have some good time and meet some good friends that is the most important , always about the people,the reelone edgard

[Ouaga]

Incorruptible?
From what I understand, Sankara changed the name to reflect the fact that his regime would not tolerate official corruption. And Blaise Compaore's government now is blatantly corrupt. I wasn't commenting on the Burkinabe people, who I thought were brilliant. I was commenting on the government, and how by just changing a name, doesn't change the reality.