More thoughts on gold mining in BF

Keith's post on gold mining in BF is interesting. Here it is reproduced from his site:

January 30, 2006
Gold mining in Burkina Faso
It seems everyone is discovering gold in Burkina Faso these days: SEMAFO have upped their estimate of the gold in their Mana site by 62% from 542 000 ounces to 877,200. Gold Rush and High River are likewise anticipating further riches
from Burkina gold. And Orezone, the company now running the Essakane mine near Gorom-Gorom, have also found more gold than expected at some of their sites. Unless I am mistaken, all these companies are Canadian.

Gold mines - a blessing for who?

While some rich people are doubtless set to increase their fortunes, I wonder what the impact will be for Burkina and for the local people? Potentially it could benefit the country enormously, but of course it is not always the case. Mining has been a controversial subject in Burkina Faso and elsewhere in Africa. Events in Ghana, South Africa, Namibia, Sierra Leone, and other places have highlighted common problems in mining, inlcuding impact on local populations and the environment, poorly treated workforces, corruption, and how the profits of the mine do not always benefit the local people or area.

The manganese mine in Tambao, north of Gorom-Gorom has good quality ore and huge potential, but the project has been on and off for years - currently off, I believe. We heard many stories, and as the project was running, we saw workers shipped in from the capital, and trucks shipping the mountain back down south bith by bit. Some locals were profiting from providing services, but then the work stopped and the trucks disappeared. I have guesses, but no real idea why.

Gold mining by hand

Gold in Burkina was until recently largely mined by hand. Essakane, close to here I lived for many years, was a source of hope for hundreds of families. When gold as found there, a small gold town grew up, with all the accompanying problems of sickness, crime, prostitution (and therefore AIDS of course) etc. Men would hand-dig tunnels many meters deep and long, working ridiculous hours, sustained often by amphetamines and kola nuts more than food. Sometimes the tunnels would collapse, killing the men inside. It was a desolate place, a moonscape, yet for many famlies in the least developed part of the third poorest country in the world, it offered some hope of a better life. Once the harvest was in, people would leave their villages to try their luck at the gold mines. Unfortunately of course, it rarely worked out that way, and there were stories of some who both made and lost their fortune there. For most it was scraping an existence from the ground.

Gold mining and ethics

Now Essakane is being run by Orezone. As I understand it, those digging by hand had to leave, and the site is being run exclusively by the company. Now, part of me is not sad to see the appalling conditions of the manual gold hunters come to an end. And yet, it was one option among very few for people in this region. I would be sorry if hope was once again snatched from them with nothing to replace it. Orezone of course has its business to run, but I hope that their investment into the development of the region is more than a nominal gift of a well or food aid now and again. People's lives have been affected by the company's arrival, and it should not be that the result is that a few benefit while the vast majority of the poorest and most vulnerable are left once more with no options. A meeting in Toronto in 2002 aimed to develop an ethical code for mining looking at many of these issues. I only hope that an ethical framework is in place that will enable both local people and the country of Burkina Faso to benefit fully from the much-needed riches discovered in her soil.

I'd like to see some independent stats on the local effects (economic, social, cultural) of gold mining in BF. Have sociologists or anthropologists published anything? (sorry I'm so obviously ignorant of what's out there). My gut feeling is that the net effect is negative: enriching some for a short period, but displacing many, creating temporary gold towns that are dirty, unsanitary, cruel, and harsh, causing cultural upheaval and radical changes in lifestyle and family structure. I've heard through a contact in Burkina that a mining company is seeking to displace the residents of Dramandougou, at the base of the Banfora cliffs (Falaise de Banfora), in order to start mining there. This will be the death knell to the last village where the Tiéfo language is spoken. Once more than 20,000 strong, the Tiéfo people have now dwindled in number. Most no longer speak their language, having shifted to Jula, the regional trade language, instead. The village of Dramandougou is where the last surviving speakers of Tiéfo live, and if this report is true, will be displaced soon to make way for mining. In this case, gold mining may extinguish the last burning embers of a living language by spreading them to the winds.

What I love about Africa

Here's a wonderful post by Keith at undertheacacias blog.

I'll add a few things:

• The promise of rain and cleansing cool fresh air when a massive dark cloud appears on the northeast horizon
• The smell of rain on the wind
• The powerful rush of wind and dust when the storm blows up
• The deafening crash of rain on the tin roof
• How everything stops when it rains
• How I always seem to find a reason to go outside when the rain hits
• How clean and fresh is the air when the storm passes, and how clear and starry the night becomes.

The Ouaga Christmas Song

The OUAGA Song
(to the tune of “The Christmas Song” aka “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, with apologies to Mel Torme)

Brochettes roasting on an open fire,
Red dust clogging up your nose.
Mobylettes with a family of four,
And guards dressed up like Eskimos.

Everybody knows some “poulet” and a bowl of tô,
Needs some “pimant” to taste right,
Geckos grunt and donkeys bellow,
To make it hard to sleep the night !

We hope that Santa’s on his way,
But Air France left his bag of toys on the runway
But every expat knows, there’s still time yet,
To spend a fortune at Marina Market!

So if you’re in Ouaga for the Holidays,
We’ve got J.P. Chenet just for you…
Burkina ain’t bad: beats the heck out of Chad!
Ouaga Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Happy Harmattan, to you!

Source: the Ouaga Kibe, an informal publication of the US Embassy in Ouagadougou for the expat community, volume 65, Dec 30, 2005

Ouagalese French

Just a few unique French expressions heard in Ouagadougou quite often:

“C’est caillou!” Lit: It's stone, means: It’s difficult!
“un 6 metres” Lit: a 6 meters, this is not an expression of length! It is a small, side-road which is generally unpaved.
“avoir l’oeuf colonial” Lit: to have the colonial egg, means: to have a “beer belly” similar to the caricature of the old colonials who, perhaps, tended to eat too richly and drink too much whiskey.
“Ça fait deux jours !” Lit: It's been two days, means: It has been a long time!
“Je demande la route.” Lit: I ask for the road, means: Usually said at the end of a party or small gathering when you want to politely indicate that you would like to go home.
“Avoir un deuxième bureau” Lit: to have a second office, means: To have a mistress.

Source: Ouaga Kibe, an informal publication of the US Embassy in Ouagadougou for the expat community. Volume 65, Dec 30, 2005

Global Voices

Global Voices Online looks like an interesting blog, though it's out of Harvard Law, so likely to be slanted liberal in a big way. Still, I like the basic idea of providing a forum for bloggers around the world. But will they give voice to only one political point of view (anti-Bush, anti-US, anti-capitalist)? My experience in Africa is that third world points of view are quite complex and don't fit neatly into the liberal/conservative ideas of the US.

Taxi-brousse burger

Here is a photo of the taxi brousse (bush taxi) burger available at the Gondwana Restaurant in Ouagadougou.


And here is a photo of why they are called 'taxi brousse' :

Any questions?

(Photos courtesy of Mary in Ouaga)

1 terabyte in your pocket?

Favorite quote from a party last night:

"If you think it's a lot of storage today, tomorrow you'll be carrying it on your keychain."

He illustrated the point by saying he bought a 1 GB drive for his consulting business 5 years ago for $4000. Then he pulled his 1GB USB key out of his pocket and grinned. Hmm. Kinda makes you think. But what will we put on our 1TB USB keys - 1000 hours of video?

Origin of "blog" and "blogosphere".

Daily Pundit Archives

Now I know who was the first guy to call it a 'blog', and the guy who coined the term "blogosphere". Thank you William Safire. You're always on top of our changing language.

Exactly which values are those?

“We have values to share” says the gentle billboard, which displays the photo of African hands holding tender young seedlings. You’d think this was promoting global “plant a tree” day, or offering agricultural training from a non-governmental development agency. But no; what’s that down in the right corner? “British American Tobacco Company.” Hmm. Now exactly which values were those that you wanted to share? Is it that smoking cigarettes is “cool” and “macho” and “civilized”? Is it that Burkinabe farmers can earn some cash by planting tobacco, instead of the millet and corn they can survive on? Or maybe it’s the more basic meaning of “share” as in "exchange of goods". For example: “You give us your labor and use of your small farm and your thin soil to raise tobacco, and in return we’ll give you some money, which you’ll then turn around and give back to us in exchange for that same tobacco, 100 times as expensive, and processed into a form that will kill you in 15 years.” Now that’s sharing values!

The Practical Nomad blog

Just came across this blog in my Internet wanderings. Looks like an interesting and useful site, especially for expats living abroad, or for anyone who travels a lot.