Road trips – Moto-Net in Burkina Faso –

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Moto-Net in Burkina Faso

Road trips - Moto-Net in Burkina Faso -

In the heart of West Africa, Burkina Faso ("Land of upright men" in Moore) attracts little tourists because of its lack of access to the sea. All the more reason to go and test it a bit. track on the handlebars of an old 600 XR aged…

Not easy when disembarking in Ouagadougou, capital (1 million inhabitants) of Burkina Faso (13 million inhabitants), to find a bike to rent…

Of course, as in a lot of African countries (read and), incredible quantities of mobs roam the city in all directions, loaded up to the jaws of chickens or sheep, piles of branches or cans..

So much so that Ouaga, sometimes nicknamed "Ouaga-two-wheelers", organizes the Ouagadougou Motorcycle Rally every year (RAMO): a crazy race through the city, on mobs all more tampered with than each other, which over 130 in a surreal atmosphere of a subtropical Tourist Trophy … But no, or very few, "real" motorcycles…

In recent years, the Chinese mob – cheaper, more comfortable, less outdated and more powerful – irremediably dethrones the good old Ninja. As for the rare recent large engines (Honda Varadero, BMW 1200 GS), most belong to expatriates – mainly French but also some Belgians, Germans or Canadians – who work in development, cooperation or more "classic" business..

No oil in the "Land of Integral Men", so no or very few foreign investors except the Libyan Guide himself: a great friend of President Compaore, Colonel Gaddafi has invested a lot of money there, especially in the hotel industry.

So inevitably, no or little money for the good people, with the exception of a few rich merchants, public works contractors or the President of the Republic..

Burkina produces a lot of cotton but nobody cares, the United States and the European Union in the lead who prefer to subsidize theirs heavily in the name of "free trade" (!), A little gold extracted by kids who would surely be better off at school (50% of the population is under 15, but illiteracy is close to 80%) and very little tourism.

Every two years, however, a famous film festival is held, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), the next edition of which will take place from February 24 to March 3, 2007. The opportunity to (re) discover d ‘excellent filmmakers such as the Burkinabes Idrissa Ouedraogo ("Samba Traore", "Yaaba", "The wrath of the gods", "Ouagadougou, Ouaga two wheels" and many others) or Dany Kouyate ("Sia, the dream of the python "," Keita, the heritage of the griot "), easily found on DVD in Paris.

But let’s come back to our Burkinabe sheep (served grilled with onions and chili by the "grillers" on the side of the roads or in the markets): only mobs, everywhere, creating monster traffic jams at each crossroads … but still no motorcycles !

It is finally with the help of Issa, a talented mechanic at Technik Services and an outstanding guide, that we will find the rare pearl … A big thank you to Issa, who, depending on his schedule (this is not his job!) will eventually be able to provide invaluable help to those who would be tempted by the adventure: +226 (76) 61 03 79.

First unsuccessful attempt at Guillaume Adeline, a Frenchman living in Burkina and responsible for the Hors Trace agency, specializing in raids in Africa on foot, in 4×4, on motorbike, in canoe, in dromedary or on horseback: Burkina, Niger, Mali and Dogon Country, Sahel, Aïr, Tenere, etc..

Guillaume regrets, but he "no longer does motorcycle rental without accompaniment because here you understand, you are in Africa: that means that each machine has its own temperament, its own gris-gris, and that they have to be to know individually otherwise it is the failure guaranteed in the middle of the bush….

Message received ! So it was through another contact from Issa that we ended up finding a Honda 600 XR from 1985 – equipped with a 600 XL saddle to deceive the enemy! -, with almost vintage tires, judging by the condition of their sculptures, without retro but with a kick, brakes (well, like!) and a good old mono not begging. 100,000 CFA francs (150 euros) per week, unlimited mileage: awarded !

Cutout on ON, family kick, KLONG for the premiere and KLANG for the ass kick, gas and direction … the nearest gas station! To refuel of course (around 1000 CFA francs per liter, which is very expensive locally), but above all to buy two large bottles of fresh water. To drive barely 200 km until tonight seems a bit much to me, but why not !

"You’ll see", Issa assures me…

And I saw ! After the toll at the exit of Ouagadougou (free for motorcycles) where some cops carry out vague checks under the jaded eye of the vultures, tar n ° 1 in the direction of Bobo Dioulasso leads to Dassouri, where a track on the right branches off towards Bazoule.

In a cloud of red dust which obliges to ride closed helmet despite the sun (40 degrees in the shade) and the low speed (around 50 km / h), we arrive at the Sacred Cayman Pond…

And while an old crocodile sends himself a chicken as an offering in a resounding jaw clacking, I empty an entire bottle of water with this curious impression, dust oblige, to swallow with each sip a full wheelbarrow of Red bricks…

After taking the track again for a new stop at the Bassemyam market, where we always find the same very cold beers (65 cl!) Accompanied by grilled mutton, we walk along a few cultivated places around Komsilga (corn, millet, cotton, super good mangoes, shea trees and a little rice near the dams).

The track finally arrives in Possomtenga where a Dutchwoman who has been living in Burkina for almost 30 years, Magriet Reinders, created Etoile de Coton, a traditional textile company in collaboration with customary chiefs, local authorities and artisan dyers and weavers..

To the rhythm of the drums, as the sun begins to slowly descend behind the baobabs and nere – night falls early in Africa – the village celebrates the funeral of an old man…

Bypassing Ouaga by the south via a multitude of more or less wide tracks and more or less invaded by the shrub savannah, we cross the tars n ° 5 and n ° 6 in the direction of Po and Ghana.

Since the latest unrest in Côte d’Ivoire – which, according to Abidjan, would have been remote-controlled from Ouagadougou – Accra has supplanted the Ivorian capital for port transit and Burkina’s trade relations with the rest of the world.

This is how many trucks and convoys take the road from Po to Ghana on a daily basis, such as these fifty Japanese 4x4s which would have been "offered by France" for the future presidential campaign of Blaise Compaore (whose re-election is already scheduled for November with a comfortable majority).

After a night in Koubri, where monks make yogurt and where a former French soldier runs a comfortable Auberge des Bougainvilliers, the track crosses the forest of Gonse. The term "forest" actually covers a vast expanse of very scattered trees (baobabs, nere, caïlcedrats …) but which, willy-nilly, manage to provide shade that is extremely beneficial to villagers and people passing through..

In places, the tracks become tiny paths where the greatest caution is required: an encounter with a sheep, a donkey or a passer-by is always possible and it is advisable to be able to very quickly catch the "brakes", or rather the lever and the pedal which, theoretically, initiates the braking…

Along a water reservoir where men fish with line or hawk while women wash clothes and cultivate a little rice, the vegetation is visibly green. Many small villages follow one another until tar n ° 4 towards Niamey (Niger).

From there, a 6 km track towards the road to Kaya leads to Laongo Park, an open-air museum, in the middle of the savannah, where sculptors from all over the world have come every two years since 1989 to model the granite at the initiative of Sidiki Ki, a Burkinabe artist.

"It’s Monday, it’s closing day. That’s why there is no one there," the guard remarked nonchalantly, opening the park gates wide to us, before going peacefully to resume his nap..

The road continues to Ziniare – the president’s zoo! – via tar n ° 4 and several adjacent tracks. After Loumbila, a short break with the parents of a friend from Issa who offer us the dolo, an artisanal "beer" made from fermented millet. Return to Ouagadougou by tar n ° 3.

Wilderness enthusiasts can then explore Nazinga Park on the Ghanaian border. You can go there by motorbike – tar n ° 5 to Po then track on the right towards Nazinga – but you cannot travel inside the park other than by 4×4.

Faced with a load of elephant worried about his baby, we will indeed be more comfortable in a Toyota than on an old 600 XR! You can rent one on site, a little cheaper than from Ouaga.

If he’s there – and if he’s willing to guide you through the 94,000 hectares of forest he knows better than his pocket – ask Neti Nama ("the child born at night") if he wants accompany you well: a great 43-year-old man, of incredible kindness and with an astonishing knowledge of nature, who since 1981 has been working in this park set up in 1979 by Belgians and Canadians.

Count at least one night there. Despite the heat (the fan is of no use when, to save gasoline, the generator only operates from 6 to 10 p.m.), it seems "unwise" to sleep outside because "of the reptiles that are walking ", considers the guard.

To the east of Po is Tiebele, the largest (13,000 inhabitants) of the Kasena villages with splendid Gurunsi architecture.

For centuries and centuries, men have been building mud houses (mud bricks) and women have painted them by representing symbolic motifs (hawk, hen, python, moon, sun, etc.).

When the house is finished, it is imperative that a lizard be the first living being to enter it, ensuring that it is well born and that its occupants will have happy days there. If no lizard deigns to point the tip of its nose there, we must rebuild…

The python is also the object of all respects because with some exceptions, it is most often a reincarnated late grandmother.

The return to Ouaga can be done by Po or by Leo. This second option is not always possible, however, as "road cutters" (robbers) may be at work. In June 2005, an insistent rumor reported a "group of armed women dressed in leather" who stopped cars to strip their occupants….

To the south-west of Ouagadougou, Bobo Dioulasso is the second largest city in the country. You can also go by bike but a fairly good network of buses (sometimes air-conditioned) provides the link several times a day.

The large central market alone is worth the trip, as is the great Friday Mosque, the old historic district of Dioulassoba or the disturbing sacrifice site of Dafra and its huge sacred catfish, lost in the savannah a few kilometers from the city….

At nightfall, when the heat releases the pressure by a few small degrees – especially in Bobo where the rainy season is more marked than in the capital and the north of the country -, we can sit in one of the two gardens which adjoin the beautiful Sitarail station, unfortunately dormant since the "troubles" in Ivory Coast, to taste the best grilled chicken in the world.

And there, the nose in the wind under the stars, the lips burned by the chilli, we can "cool off by exchanging ideas". And while having barely touched the immensity of a poor continent with rich encounters, knowing that we will come back…

To read :

  • Burkina Faso by Roger Marcorelles and Jean-Philippe Vidal (Les Creations du Pelican, 2004)
  • How France lost Africa by Antoine Glaser and Stephen Smith (Calmann-Levy, 2005)
  • Empire of shame by Jean Ziegler (Arthème Fayard, 2005)
  • Congo river by Stephen Smith, photos by Patrick Robert (Actes Sud, 2003)

To listen (loudly): Tiken Jah Fakoly (Ivorian exiled in Mali)

  • Rant (Barclay 2004, with Sly Dunbar on drums and Robbie Shakespeare on bass, recorded and mixed in Ouaga, Kingston and Paris)
  • Françafrique (Barclay 2002, already with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, recorded in Abidjan, Kingston, London and Paris)
  • History class (Sony Entertainment 1999, recorded in Abidjan and Jamaica)
  • Eatcracy (Louma 1996, recorded at JBZ in Abidjan)

Contact: Issa Zangre (Technik Services) +226 (76) 61 03 79

Eric MICHEL

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