March 2011 Calendar Wallpaper: A Nomadic Way of Life
In the Fulani village of Jolooga in northern Burkina Faso, villagers stand outside a traditional house made from woven mats of straw. Traditionally pastoralist, this house can be disassembled and reassembled at will, as the family and their livestock crisscross the Sahel in search of fresh water and green pastures. Download the March 2011 calendar [...]
A Multimedia Presentation on Burkina Faso: When Darkness Falls / Spirit of Humanity
I was invited by the American Society of Media Photographers (Washington, DC chapter) on January 11, 2011 to give a presentation during their 8×10 Program. I’ve had a lot of requests by people outside the area or who weren’t able to make the program to post the presentation online. So here it is! I spent [...]
The Griot’s Work is Never Done
I am finally finished preparing my multimedia presentation for Tuesday evening’s American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) 8×10 Program. I am happy to say that I zipped up the file and sent it on over to ASMP, together with my bio yesterday. It’s a still photography slideshow from my November trip to Burkina Faso set [...]
Bridal Gifts that aren’t for the Bride
In the town of Djibo in northern Burkina Faso, a Fulani wedding has taken place. Friends and family of the bride carry gifts and possessions – pots and pans, blankets, textiles, decorative flowers, and other items – from the bride’s home to her new home with her husband. Surprisingly, many of these gifts are not [...]
Girl in a Nomad’s Home AND January 11th Presentation to the ASMP
So I’m a little more than 1/3 of the way through processing the images from my November 2010 trip to Burkina Faso, West Africa. My goal is to pretty much finish processing – including captioning and keywording – by the end of the month, but this is a pretty ambitious target, so we’ll see how [...]
A Burkinabe Baptism
The image below is from a Fulani baptism that I was able to attend in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on the third day of our November 2010 trip. Muslim families celebrate the birth of a child on the 7th day after birth, and women throughout the city – friends and family – congregated [...]
January 2011 Calendar Wallpaper: An Intense Gaze
In West Africa, certain villages have markets that “assemble” at regular intervals, such as weekly or every three days. People from villages around the region come on market day to buy and sell food, livestock, and other goods and services. Last month, I visited the village of Bourro in northern Burkina Faso on its market [...]
Doohaali of Jelgooji, Burkina Faso – Cultural Gem, Dying Art
“Doohaali” is a form of music/song that includes repeated background chants/vocalizations. Traditionally performed at night by children and young adults around campfires in the “bush,” with the relentless onset of modernity, it is sadly practiced less and less. Doohi has been little documented—the most substantive documentation that I have been able to find is a [...]
Peace Be With You from Djibo, Burkina Faso
Here is another photo from Tabaski. Yuma and Aissama (Tabaski’s meat thief), sit by the barbecue, their faces illuminated by the fire. It reminds me of Tracy Chapman’s song, “Heaven’s Here on Earth,” in her “New Beginnings” album. You can look to the stars in search of the answers Look for God and life on [...]
Tabaski’s Meat Thief
The religious holiday of Tabaski is one of the biggest across West Africa, where much of the population is Muslim. It takes place 70 days after the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting. When I lived in Niger as a Peace Corps Volunteer, Tabaski was always my favorite holiday of the year, because of both [...]
Fatimata: Fulani Girl in Djibo, Burkina Faso
Sorry I’ve been absent from my blog!!! We spent the last three weeks in the sleepy town of Djibo in northern Burkina Faso, where I quickly discovered the internet to be TORTUROUSLY slow. There, a 20 kbps download speed is super fast, and that’s…um…slower than dial up! Nevertheless, we’ve been having an AWESOME time, and [...]
December 2010 Calendar Wallpaper is Here! “Hidden from View,” Burkina Faso, West Africa
If you’ve been following my blog over the past months, you’ll know that I pre-wrote this calendar wallpaper post because I’m actually traveling as we speak in…Burkina Faso, West Africa! So I thought it would only be fitting to make a December calendar wallpaper in honor of my last trip to Burkina in 2007. This [...]