Burkina Faso Basics
Capital: Ouagadogo
Population: 16.4 million
Official Language: French
Major religions: Indigenous beliefs, Islam, Christianity
Date of independence: 5th August 1960
Femi
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Our first country under the Microscope will look at The Land of the Upright People - Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso Basics Capital: Ouagadogo Population: 16.4 million Official Language: French Major religions: Indigenous beliefs, Islam, Christianity Date of independence: 5th August 1960 Formerly a French colony known as the Republic of the Upper Volta, Burkina Faso declared full independence from France on 5th August 1960. It was in 1984 that Thomas Sankara - President of the Upper Volta, renamed it Burkina Faso – The Land of the Upright People, a name derived from two of the major native languages – Mòoré and Dioula. It is with Thomas Sankara, a Marxist, supporter of pan-Africanism and military leader that this section begins. His story is one of great hope and tragedy for his beloved Burkina Faso. In telling the story of the revolutionary that was Sankara, I have found this documentary: Thomas Sankara – The upright man. The documentary provides an insightful look at the complexity of Sankara’s position and the politics of Burkina Faso in the 1980’s. Sankara remains an inspiration African figure, and one who truly believe in an independent and self-sufficient Africa. The question as to whether Sankara’s vision for Burkina Faso was idealistic rather than realistic is to be debated but the vision he had for his country is one to be admired.
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We all know that the internet is a vast and powerful tool. It has more information than we can begin to comprehend. The greatest thing about the internet is its nondiscriminatory nature– it cares not how you have collected you’re your information, from whom you’ve collected your information and why you have collected it – it aims to be only one thing; the holder of where the information is stored. Having spent hours trawling through this magnanimous tool what has become apparent is that there is a lot of information about the African continent. art, film, literature on Africa that many individuals aren’t aware of. This brings me to our newest section the Microscope. Microscope will be a means by which we focus on each African country, starting with West Africa, providing you pockets of information in a variety of forms. We will post videos, music, art, politics, history and all we can find connected to the country in question. Our aim is to educate, enlighten and share information and to give each country its own spotlight. We will not provide a comprehensive library of all arts pertaining to the country under the microscope but an overview of what we think is important or interesting when it comes to their arts, politics or history. The aim is to showcase rather than condemn, to foster discussion rather than to impose an opinion. This doesn’t mean that we won’t share our opinions but the opinion is that of the individual rather than that of CREATIV. We'd like this to be as interactive and creative as possible so we welcome any comments and any information you may have on our country under the microscope - we can't promise we'll get it all up here but we'll definitely try. Otherwise we hope that you just enjoy learning more about the continent. Photo source: African and African-Caribbean Design Diaspora 2011 Whenever I see the word ‘Creative’ appended to another word, I think it must mean crafty/shrewd or borderline questionable. Creative Accounting comes to mind. I guess it must be something to do with my background as an accountant. Nothing to do with me personally, just with some people’s perceptions of the profession. Anyway, I digress. Creative thinking for me is an important element of thinking, because well for one to be ‘creative’, one has to involve some level of knowledge, critique and raison d’etre into his/her work. Agreed. But how do we get people to think creatively? How do people know that they are able to think creatively? I look back on my educational background in Nigeria, and yes we did some learning, some thinking – mostly critical though, not a space to ‘brainstorm’ and let your thoughts run wild and seeing how things go. I learnt that in an altogether different environment, and I am still learning this. How does this even have to do with Africa? What is the relationship? Well, yes we know there are many issues in Africa. You need only spend a day watching T.V. (not something I do very often, thankfully) and see the many appeals for Africa. But maybe we are all looking at things from the wrong angle, the wrong perspective. Perhaps we need to get a bit creative and brainstorm. Draw mind maps and throw ideas around for ways that we can all get involved with our desire for a better continent. How do we do that? I leave that to you. One suggestion: it can be an individual brainstorming session, or one with friends, or with colleagues. Just be prepared to let the ideas run with the session. Do not discard anything until it has been considered and then share these with a platform (for example, CREATIV), and together, we can find ways to implement these ideas. But with no ideas to start from, we cannot implement. Adun |
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