Gaani Fete: A Bariba Horse Festival

Last Saturday, Sonsoro celebrated Gaani Fete, an annual Bariba horse festival. Every year, on a date determined by mysterious means, the country's largest Gaani Fete is held in Nikki, the capital of Bariba culture. After this year's Gaani Fete in Nikki in late January, other villages held their smaller versions of Gaani Fete in the weeks that followed (Banikoara on February 2, Kandi on February 9, Sonsoro on February 16, etc). While Sonsoro's Gaani Fete is drastically smaller than Nikki's, one of the largest tourist draws in Benin, it was still an interesting show of the local culture.

From what I was able to discern, Gaani Fete is an opportunity to show off sophisticated horsemanship and to celebrate with traditional music. The Peulh horsemen seemed to delight in galloping towards the crowd, causing the spectators to flee and shriek for fear of getting run over.

As for all special occasions, many villagers made a point to wear matching outfits with their friends. In some cases, this meant identical outfits from traditional cloth. In other cases, it meant identical Western outfits. Many people had my colleague print them matching, customized Gaani Fete T-shirts for the occasion.

A Peulh horseman showing off for the crowd

The Peulh king of Sonsoro (center). The Bariba king died three years ago, so the man on the left, my landlord's son, is representing the Bariba king until a new one is elected.

Griots, the traditional musicians/storytellers, playing traditional instruments. The left is a sort of violin, and the right is like a maraca.

The crowd gathered in our market square to watch the festivities

A man offers money to one of the four horsemen

A Coronation

On Monday, my colleague was crowned the king of the trumpet-less Wassangari people, a Bariba tribe based outside of Sonsoro. In Bariba culture, there are several families of princes for each kingdom, and the new king is elected from a royal family that has not recently provided a king. My colleague was thus chosen to replace his late uncle, the previous king.

For his coronation, he and his children all had their heads shaved and were given new names. My colleague's new name is Saka Yirima. From now on, he will wear a special hat at all times to indicate his rank. Even the elderly are expected to bow before him.

My colleague explained that there is a hierarchy of kings, with the most important king being the king of Nikki, the heart of Bariba culture. Lesser kings will bow before my colleague, and my colleague is considered inferior to higher-ranking kings.

Though he is king, he will continue his work as a nursing assistant at the heath center. In addition to ceremonial duties, his work as king will include dispute resolution.

The new king in his special hat

Easter Egg Kit

Is there any chance that some kind soul out there would send an Easter egg dyeing kit my way? I thought it would be great for cross-cultural exchange. I had intended to pick one up myself, but they weren't out yet when I was last in the US.

I know I posted it earlier, but just in case, here is my address:

My name
Corps de la paix
BP 126
Kandi, Benin
West Africa

Thanks!

Love and Marriage in Sonsoro

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would share some of the results of the love and marriage survey that I conducted in Sonsoro. I interviewed married men and women of both faiths (Islam and Christianity). My results are presumably somewhat skewed by the fact that most of the people I interviewed speak French, meaning they are among the most educated in the village.

Below I have summarized the responses to some of the questions I asked. When only one response is listed, all survey participants answered the same way.

Why get married?
Varied responses:
To have kids (multiple respondents)
Because that's just what you do (multiple respondents)

Is love important in a marriage?
Yes

Should parents choose their children's spouses?
No (except one yes)

Are you in a polygamous marriage?
Yes (except one no)

What do you think of polygamy?
Most women: Don't like it
Men: Like having multiple wives, but it can be problematic

Do you have a legally recognized marriage?
No

Is it acceptable to have sex before or outside of marriage?
No (though all admit it is common and one man admitted to a long history of extramarital relations)

When you were looking for a spouse, which qualities were you looking for?
Varied responses:
"Someone to have kids with" (multiple respondents)
"Your spouse is chosen by God"
"A woman who would obey my commands, respect me, and give me children"
"A man who will make sure I am taken care of and someone with whom I can live in peace"

When you were looking for a spouse, did you want to marry someone...
...you loved?
Yes
...intelligent?
Yes (except one no)
...attractive?
No (except one yes)
...educated?
No
...kind?
Yes
...who knows how to run a household well?
Yes
...rich?
No
...who practices your religion?
Half yes, half no

Happy Valentine's Day!

Donga Bike Tour on Malaria and Savings

This morning concluded a five-day bike tour of Donga, a region in western Benin. I traveled with a group of volunteers to 13 villages to lead educational sessions on malaria and savings. The total attendance at our sessions exceeded 1100 people. The route was planned so that we spent each night in the village of a different Peace Corps volunteer in the region. We slept on the floor of those volunteers' houses on thin mats that we carried with us.

The trip also afforded me the opportunity to discover a part of Benin that was previously unknown to me. Below are some pictures of our bike tour and the region.

On the road to Manigri. Most of our route was paved, but parts were on dirt roads like this one.

The sacred monkey forest of Kikele. The monkeys, like the one pictured here, made a racket as they leapt from tree to tree.

This monkey in Kikele is available for sale. He is not of the same variety as the larger monkeys in the forest.

This grain storage container is typical of the region. Some buildings in the region also use the same construction materials and have similar roofs.

The women of Bodi sing a song of thanks to Kelly (far left), the Peace Corps volunteer who lives in their village.

Erin (in red in the center) presents to nearly 200 people in this small village.

An Italian priest (back right) shows off the cultural center he built in Bougou. We later clashed over our differing visions of development work. We volunteers proudly defended Peace Corps' teach-a-man-to-fish model.

The village of Nagayile just started a campaign to get it citizens to throw plastic sacks in baskets like this one rather than on the ground. In essentially all Beninese villages, plastic sacks are omnipresent and littering is the norm.

The day after the African Cup soccer final, we saw this dog bedecked with the name of a Cote d'Ivoirian soccer player. Burkina Faso lost the match to Nigeria.

Malaria

On Friday, I will begin a five-day bike tour in western Benin with seven other volunteers. We will be biking from community to community to share information about malaria. I would like to take this opportunity to share a little about malaria with you.

Malaria is one of the most serious health problems in sub-Saharan African, yet Americans seem to have a single-minded focus on AIDS when thinking about African health (in Benin, only 1-2% of the population has HIV/AIDS). In Benin, malaria represents 40% of the cases treated in health centers. Worldwide, 300-500 million people contract malaria each year and 1.5-2.7 million die of it. Malaria is such a serious problem in Benin that all Peace Corps volunteers here, including non-health ones, are expected to conduct malaria activities.

People contract malaria when bitten by a specific type of mosquito that is carrying the disease. The most characteristic symptom is fever, which gets exaggerated to the point where many Beninese, including some health agents, just assume any fever is malaria.

As volunteers, there are a number of angles from which to approach malaria prevention. For starters, many Beninese do not know that mosquitoes cause malaria. Some believe that the sun or consuming too much oil can also cause it. Once the connection between mosquitoes and malaria is established, we can offer strategies to prevent mosquito bites.

The most popular prevention tool is insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets. Every family received government-donated mosquito nets a few years ago, and health centers may also have a supply to give away (though many health centers have run out). However, some families have repurposed their mosquito nets (for fishing nets, drying tomatoes, fences, etc), and others don't know how to use them effectively. Part of our role is to teach the how and why.

Nets alone are not enough to prevent malaria. For those evening hours before the family members are safely tucked under their mosquito nets, we can teach them how to make neem cream, a homemade insect repellant. The active ingredient is the leaves of the neem tree, which is readily found in Benin. The leaves are boiled with water, then the leaves are strained out and the neem water is mixed with soap shavings and oil. The final product is rubbed into the skin like a moisturizer.

In addition to avoiding bites, we can also teach families how to reduce the mosquito population around their homes. Mosquitoes lay eggs in stagnant water, so water receptacles should be covered and items that may inadvertently collect water (like old tires, discarded cans, etc) should be removed. Because of the connection with water, peak malaria season is during the rainy season, which is May to November in the North. Unfortunately, the onset of malaria season does not align with the hospitable season for biking, so our bike tour falls during the dry season.

The Sonsoro Public Library

This week I went on a mission to find the village library that I had heard vague rumors about. When I located it, it was closed. Though it is theoretically open Monday-Friday, I learned that it is generally only opened on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays when students may stop by. Luckily, the librarian was willing to open it just for me.

The library has a nice collection. There are children's books, novels, and reference books, all in French, with a heavy emphasis on novels. The building, furniture, and books are apparently all donations from the French. They return to the village every June, presumably with more book donations.

There are another four shelves along the other walls of the library.

A year's subscription to the library costs 40 cents for students and $1 for all others. Judging from the amount of dust on the books, the library is underutilized. I would like to stop by on a Wednesday or Saturday to see how many patrons appear on those "peak" days. I have never known any person in my village to read for fun, or frankly to practice reading at all, so I wonder if there are truly many adult subscribers.

Not quite sure what system of organization they're trying to apply here

As the pictures show, the organization of the books leaves something to be desired. I suspect that even if someone reorganized them, they would soon return to chaos. I think part of that is cultural: the Beninese are not used to many books at home, so organizing books neatly on a shelf is not instinctive to them as it is to us. Also, the library is not well adapted to organization. As I flipped through the selection, I kept thinking how much easier it would be to keep things organized if the children's books could be placed in bins rather than on the shelves.

As it currently stands, the library appears to be a diamond in the rough. I am interested in pursuing its potential to promote reading and education in the community. I would like to contact the French donors to learn more about their vision and role, but I have been advised to wait because the man who has their contact information just lost his brother.

As I write this, I am trying to avoid the development trap that the French may have fallen into themselves. The library will never be successful if the only drive behind it comes from abroad. The village itself needs to be motivated to make the most of this resource. I wonder if they ever wanted it at all, or if some French people just came by and said, "Hey, do you want a library?" and the villagers said, "Sure, why not?" So many well-intentioned projects start that way and ultimately lie in disuse. That is one reason Peace Corps requires that the community contribute financially to any project Peace Corps funds: if the village pays part, it will be more invested in the project and will not commit unless it truly wants it.

Flora and Fauna of Benin: The Lorax Tree

The pharmacist came into work earlier this week holding two peculiar-looking orange fuzzballs hung on the end of long stems. It turns out that they were the seedpods of a tree on the health center grounds. I was fascinated that such a tree actually existed as I had assumed that something like that could only be found in the works of Dr. Seuss.

Two seedpods, the top one has been broken open to see the inside. They truly are as soft and fuzzy as they look.

A view of the seedpods dangling from the tree. Some are orange and others are black.

The tree from a distance with the pharmacist standing underneath.

As I was investigating the Lorax tree, I saw this brush fire in the distance. A neighbor burning trash had left his fire unsupervised, and the nearby dry brush caught fire. The health center caretaker, his son, and the nurse's two children worked to extinguish it with water and by beating it with branches full of leaves.

A Visit to Goumori and Toura

Last week, I biked 45 miles west of my village to visit the Peace Corps volunteers in Toura and Goumori. This trip affords me the opportunity to talk about that region and the work that those volunteers are doing. Between the three of us, we represent three of the four Peace Corps sectors present in Benin (health, environment, English teaching, and business).

The volunteer in Goumori is an environmental action volunteer. He does not have a workplace that he can go to every day (as I do), so he is left to his own devices and schedules his time as he chooses. He makes appointments throughout the week to help villagers and gardening groups in their gardens and teach families how to build mud stoves (which burn fuel, such as wood, more efficiently than other stoves). He has an example garden of his own next to his house where he models how to use natural insecticide (made from the leaves of the neem tree) and the use of compost as fertilizer.

He explained that cash crops like corn and beans tend to be grown during the rainy season, whereas the dry season is best for more exotic vegetables like lettuce and eggplant, which cannot withstand the heavy, monsoon-like rains. The major limitation in the dry season is water. Once the water runs out, gardeners can no longer grow these vegetables. To alleviate this problem, the volunteer is applying for a grant to introduce drip-line irrigation in the village. This irrigation system uses drastically less water than standard watering practices, so it would extend the growing season by stretching out the availability of water.  In addition to the economic boon that would result for the gardener, this would benefit the health of the entire community by extending the availability of these nutritious foods.

This volunteer has several other projects underway, such as a moringa garden and an environmental/English club at the middle school. He is also starting a latrine construction project. As in Sonsoro, few people in his village have access to latrines. Instead, they defecate in the bush. This compromises the health of the entire community because diseases that are present in their excrement may end up back in their drinking water or may even be transported to their food by flies. Therefore, the volunteer has assembled a committee of community leaders to plan the construction of family latrines using Peace Corps and village funding. Family latrines are preferred over public ones because experience has shown that they have a higher rate of use.

The other volunteer I visited is an English teaching volunteer in Toura. She teaches and co-teaches English classes in her village's middle school. English teaching is the most structured sector in Benin, so her work as a teacher fills her days. Still, as an ambitious volunteer, she is hoping to branch out into other projects, especially when school lets out for the summer. She is already writing a grant to construct additional classrooms for the school. One of the most remarkable things about visiting her was her level of Bariba. She speaks it fairly fluently and can scarcely take ten steps in village without being lured into a conversation by a villager.

Below are some photos of Goumori:

A crocodile

A man checking a fish trap

The brickworks by the river

Brightly-colored, somewhat metallic-looking insects

The volunteer and his garden at home