Over the past months, our team in Burkina Faso, led by national director Sanou Dounko, have produced almost 20 new photo books. These books are in French, and appeal to young readers in the villages. You can get previews (and order some!) at fastpencil.com.
AfLIA is collaborating with the Public Library Association of the USA (PLA) to establish the AfLIA Leadership Academy aimed at: Building the knowledge, skills and confidence of library leaders to act in innovative and creative ways in meeting community needs Supporting library leaders to foster partnerships between libraries and government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, and faith-based organizations to work together to improve the lives of community members; and Strengthening library leaders’ skills and assisting them to renew approaches to library services, tangibly improving the value libraries bring to communities.AfLIA therefore invites applications from librarians working in public and national libraries to participate in the AfLIA Leadership Academy due to start in January 2018 and will last for eight months. It aims at supporting middle managers in African public and national libraries to be true leaders in their communities. Participants will, after participating in the Academy: Understand the nature and requirements of effective leadership including an introspect into one’s leadership style; Gain a deep understanding of how to manage change and how to effectively carry out civic engagement; Apply the concept of Asset Based Community Development using the assets within their communities to bring about positive change; Understand the opportunities offered and challenges posed by partnering with both library and non-library organisations, and Form a network of engaged and transforming library leaders ready to lead in taking their national, African and Global Development agendas forward.
Source: African Library & Information Associations & Institutions
After an opening flash-forward, we follow 13-year-old Ady (Diarra) causing a small ruckus in his French banlieue, leaving his desperate dad with few options but to ship him out of town. Arriving in Burkina Faso to stay in the remote village of his authoritarian uncle Amadou (Hamadoun Kassougue), Ady believes he’s only visiting for a week, but soon learns that he’s stuck on permanent vacation until he reimburses money he stole from his father.Like most kids his age, all Ady cares about is his telephone, his Beats by Dre-style headphones and whatever music (in this case, French rap) he’s into at the moment. But those creature comforts can only take him so far in a place with limited electricity and means of communication, especially after his uncle confiscates his passport and Ady is forced to live the hard knock life that everyone in his Burkinabe family is already used to.Working from a script by David Bouchet, Golblat — who’s of Swiss-Burkinabe origin and has a background in documentaries — initially shows Ady reacting with an expected mix of rebellion and disbelief to his sudden change of living conditions. But the kid gradually opens up to a new world and a new way of being, with his cousin, Jean (Ibrhaim Koma, who starred in the Malian crime film Wulu) and his grandmother, Mame (Josephine Kabore), showing him more love and affection than he ever seemed to get back home in Franc
And a chance to look up the word élucubrations!
Frères Africains, consacrons notre énergie à ce qui en vaut la peine ! Si les élucubrations d’un enfant gâté de la République nous font autant sortir de nos gonds, c’est nous qui avons un problème profond avec nous-mêmes. Je ne fustige pas la colère, elle est nécessaire. Il nous faut évidemment savoir nous indigner face aux malheurs et aux injustices du monde. Mais utiliser notre énergie pour réagir aux propos d’un président français pendant que les Burundais, les Congolais, les Sud-Soudanais meurent à cause de l’inaction coupable, voire complice, de nos dirigeants africains est une perte de temps.
Source: « Frères Africains, répondons par le mépris aux élucubrations d’Emmanuel Macron ! »
The comments from The Mookse and the Gripes are spot on. I read the story last night, and at the end just put the magazine down, muttering, “Treisman….really?”
I’m a fan of Lanchester, both his novels and his essays (I recently referenced his last New Yorker piece, “Expectations,” an excerpt from his excellent novel Capital, while reviewing Anne Enright’s “Solstice”) but his lack of familiarity with the short story form certainly shows here. He has a grasp of writing and at the sentence level it’s fine, but not only is the short story not Lanchester’s forte structurally, the supernatural horror story isn’t exactly his bag either re: content. Stephen King this isn’t, nor is it a more literary version of the form, a Poe, or, as someone mentioned above, a Henry James. It just kind of sits there trying to be allegorical and contemporary. The woes of technology are an all but inexhaustible topic in 2017, but it just isn’t carried off well here. Ham-fisted, used above, is a word I never thought I’d use in description of Lanchester’s writing, but it’s unfortunately rather apropos here. A disappointment from one of our better contemporary British scribes.
Source: John Lanchester: “Signal” – The Mookse and the Gripes
Plus je lis l’interview, plus je m’inquiete du vrai fondé de la recherche. M Beucher decouvre assez recemment le burkina : l’an 2000, c’est assez recent et la societe burkinabe avait radicalement subi de profondes modifications. Ce que j’incrimine, c’est cette lecture en filigrane qui tente de ramener la royauté mossi comme fondateur de l’etat voltaique. Une telle lecture, a l’heure actuelle, est tres dangereuse car elle avalise ce que M Blaise compaore a instauré pour gouverner pendant 27 ans. Il n’est pas anodin que M Beucher invoque le role de mediateur du moro naba ces derniers temps, mais oublie de signaler que ce role, s’il est appreciable, ne peut se vouloir incontournable comme on tente de nous l’imposer depuis la crise de 2014. Maintenant on invoque des travaux universitaires pour faire accepter cette idée ! (comme toujours dirai-je). On oublie que des personnes se sont élevées contre cette demarche clandestine et qui mine serieusement la cohesion nationale. Je rappelle tout simplement que la problematique du role des chefs traditionnels était devenue tellement cruciale que l’actuel naaba d’Issouka, Naba Saga Modeste Yameogo, lors de la rencontre des chefs traditionnels, avait trouvé urgent et imperatif d’appeler à ce que les chefs traditionnels gardent leur place de chef traditionnel, et non pas d’acteurs politiques. Naba Saga d’Issouka n’a rien d’un chef ringard ; bien au contraire et pourtant il remplit bien son role de chef traditionnel.
Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)Thoughts about books, information, libraries and related matters, with an Accra focus
