Ray Kennedy meets the “rain people” in Burkina Faso, west Africa.
A tribal chief in Burkina Faso told me he “could not give me the road” until he had spoken to me.
It sounded quite serious, it wasn’t. He wanted to give words of thanks from his tribe for coming to visit them and tell their story.
It was humbling as we were only there a few hours, they had to live in the burning sun and with the dry sand they once farmed. We were able to leave and file our reports about them.
After he spoke to us near the town of Kaya, he said: “I now give you the road”. It was his beautiful way of saying you can’t leave until I say thanks.
Actually, there was no need to thank us. The people we have met as we drove across desert plains - that once housed forests and farms - have been revelation of resilience and survival. We, indeed, needed to thank them for letting us see it. And we did.
They were the Mussi - the “rain people”. Legend has it they can call down rain from the skies. Most of the men were called Sogawedo; it means cloud. But now there is no rain. They have not been able to call it since 2010. That year floods came and destroyed the crops. Since then, nothing but a few small showers.
Now they are supported by Oxfam Ireland in what’s called a “cash for work scheme”. Oxfam, similar to other aid agencies in the region, pay them to work the dry land and keep it fertilised. The entire village is involved.
The idea is simple. They get paid through donations for the work they do. They buy food from the market with it, and prepare the land for planting. Once the rains arrive, the crops will grow, and they will have no need for aid.
If the scheme wasn’t in place, they may leave the land and trek to the big cities in search of help. Centuries of tribal life is maintained in the hope of a return to a life where they provide for themselves.
Once given the road, we left. But we did not travel far. A few kilometres away a supposed goldmine appears. A makeshift town built around it. Here, many from other tribes who had abandoned the land dug holes deep into the earth. The holes, or mines, stretched into the distance. They brought up rocks and, yes, found gold. What they showed us, though, could only be described as dust particles cut from hard rock. They sold them for a couple of euro and bought food.
But food in Africa is very expensive, simply because it is in short supply. Crops fail, people buy, stocks dwindle, and prices rise. These people were quite literally living on the edge of existence.
They are not alone. Across the Sahel Saharan region 15 million are at risk as food runs out and malnutrition rises with its accompanying illnesses. The entire region is on the edge. Aid agencies say the time to intervene is now, not when it’s too late and the chief is perhaps forced to allow his entire tribe the road, and a way of life disappears.
