My friend Nicola Scaldaferri, researcher in Ethnomusicology at the University of Milan, visited me here in Burkina from late December to January the 20th. We spent a very intense week in Karankasso, using my contacts to make an idea of the musical richness of the village. We filmed the construction of the baan, the Sambla…
Today, with my friend Nicola Scaldaferri, researcher in Ethnomusicology at the University of Milan, I drove to Banzon to record a performance of donso music by Diakari Traoré and Bakari Ouattara. We set up a room of Bakari’s house in Banzon to record as best we could with two Rode NT55 to Sound Devices 744T. With…
Sorghum is a very important crop in Burkina Faso, it constitutes the most affordable food for many of its inhabitants. It is one of the least demanding and least risky crops you can invest in, for even in case rains are scarce it will give a decent production, unlike rice or corn. With it you…
As a follow-up to the post about the harvest of fonio, I relate here on the threshing session I saw today, near the same field where fonio was cultivated. Many more people where present, for the president of the association, Pénnéguê-Fo Siaka Traoré, asked a TV station in Bobo Dioulasso to make a documentary film on…
Here I compare the two places I’m calling home for this year, one in the Sambla village of Karankasso and the other in the town of Bobo Dioulasso. When I moved to the village, on September the 5th, I discovered Karankasso can be as different from Bobo as Burkina is to Europe. In Karankasso I am staying in…
As a premise, this post is not very academic nor related to my research. Today I got a way to move around independently, finally. With this motorbike I can go from town to village easily, and visit hunters in the whole West of Burkina. It is a chinese-made, four- strokes 125cc Access. In Burkina these…
After a good bit of uncertainty it seems like the group for fonio harvesting will leave for the fields this morning. Otherwise, says Lasso’s elder brother Mussa, all the grains will fall to the ground with the next rainfall. The morning is cloudy, but it should not rain. They won’t leave early, for the fonio must get…