Category Archives: Burkina Faso
The Art of Burkina Faso
An exciting site to explore is The Art of Burkina Faso. On the site you’ll find the full text of a book by Professor Christopher D. Roy on The Art of Burkina Faso is available from http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/Art%20of%20Burkina%20Faso.html. But in addition there are links to collections of photographs and maps.
Mossi mask, wan liuli, Ouagadougou style, photo 1976 by Christopher D. Roy
The Art of Burkina Faso
By Christopher D. Roy
Professor of Art History
The University of Iowa
Copyright 2002 by Christopher D. Roy
DVD
African Art in Motion: The Masks of the Nuna People of Burkina Faso
African Art Techniques – wood, cloth, metal, clay
African blacksmith
[Photo credit: Kaj17]
A new DVD titled African Art has just been released. Techniques: Wood, Cloth, Metal and Clay, available from Createspace at
https://www.createspace.com/Customer/EStore.do?id=264574
African Art Techniques: Wood, Cloth, Metal, Clay
Detailed footage of the techniques African artists use to carve wooden masks and stools, to cast brass, smelt and forge iron, to spin, dye, and weave cotton cloth, and to form and fire pottery. Filmed in Burkina Faso and Ghana from 2001 to 2009 by Christopher D. Roy, Professor of African Art, the University of Iowa.
Christopher D Roy made this DVD to provide shorter, more concise information of the many techniques artists in Africa use to create art.  He says that ‘My videos, African Pottery Techniques, Arts of Ghana, From Iron Ore to Iron Hoe, and African Sculpture are longer and more detailed’.  This video devotes about ten to fifteen minutes to each of the techniques of metal casting, smelting and forging iron, carving wood masks and stools, spinning, dyeing and weaving cotton, and pottery forming and firing.
See also http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/ where you will find other videos.
How to get a copy
African Art Techniques: Wood, Cloth, Metal, Clay
Global Sanitation Fund
Safe and sustainable sanitation
The purpose of WSSCC’s Global Sanitation Fund is to help large numbers of poor people to attain safe and sustainable sanitation services and adopt good hygiene practices. The Global Sanitation Fund is a single pooled fund open to contribution from any source. The money is allocated to Executing Agenciesin carefully selected countries, which then grant funds to Sub-Grantees who implement the sanitation and hygiene work programmes agreed for each country. The whole system is closely monitored by WSSCC as well as in country and global audit mechanisms, of which the Country Programme Monitors are an important mechanism.
For more information on the Global Sanitation Fund, click here.
The African countries that the fund operates in are:
Calls for tenders
WSSCC’s Global Sanitation Fund continues on the path towards implementation with its latest calls for tenders and expressions of interest. You can access the information via this link:
http://www.unops.org/english/whatweneed/Pages/currentbusinessopportunities.aspx
Suggested Books (US)
- Water and Sanitation in the World’s Cities: Local Action for Global Goals
- The Governance of Water and Sanitation in Africa: Achieving Sustainable Development through Partnerships (International Library of African Studies)
- Sustainable Groundwater Resources in Africa: Water supply and sanitation environment
More books on Africa Environment
Burkina Faso : Information and Communication Technologies for Education
Integration of ICTs in the education cycle
The following project is featured on the IICD (International Institution for Communication and Development) website.
This project for the education sector targets twelve secondary schools in the capital and in the provinces (five in the capital, seven in the provinces). Sixty principals and teachers learn how to better integrate ICT’s in their education cycle. Computers with internet are provided for the teachers and they get technical assistance for learning to use specific computer programs that can aid them in their lessons. Once in full implementation, the project should provide lessons and experiences to be fed into the development of the Education policy of Burkina Faso. Often for this project the acronym TICE is used, this stands for ‘ Technologies de l’Information et de la communication pour l’enseignement au Burkina Faso’ the French title of this project.
New DVD: Fulani – Art and Life of a Nomadic People
Jelgobe, Gowabe and Wodaabe Fulani
Christopher Roy announces the release of two new videos (DVDs) of the Fulani people. The first, titled “Fulani: Art and Life of a Nomadic People” (84 minutes) focuses on the Jelgobe and Gowabe Fulani who live in northern Burkina Faso and Mali. There are segments on Fulani architecture, the interior of the home, furniture and equipment, making mats, milking cows and making butter, the market, mosque, a wedding, and music.
The second, titled “Birds of the Wilderness: The Beauty Competition of the Wodaabe People of Niger,” (62 minutes) focuses on the Wodaabe Fulani, who each year stage several beautiful and spectacular dances in which young men paint their faces red or yellow. There are lengthy sequences of Wodaabe camp life, the sacred woman’s table, drawing water, a feast, braiding hairstyles, a young men’s initiation (which I don’t think has ever been filmed before), and a young man named Omar applying his red makeup and costume of white beads, cloth and ostrich feathers. There are long sequences of the Ruume dance of welcome and the Geerewal war dance, when the young men are judged based on beauty and charm by the young women of the competing clan.
Both DVDs can be ordered from either:
Art and Life in Africa (http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/List_of_DVDs/Index.html ) or
“Fulani: Art and life of a Nomadic People” is http://www.createspace.com/243089
“Birds of the Wilderness” is http://www.createspace.com/243866
Each video is $24.95.