« No Comment | Main | Whatever happened to Keith...? December 2006 »
December 08, 2006
Brief Update
Flood Response - Phase 2
We are now starting Phase 2 of our response to the flood that destroyed half the houses in Gorom-Gorom. Phase 1 was emergency relief for those affected. Phase 2 is helping people rebuild their homes. I will write more about this shortly – we appreciate your prayers. Thank you.
Deou
I have just come back from 3 days in Deou, visiting the pastor and his family there. They are a lovely family, and very committed to serving God in an isolated and difficult place. I hope to be able to find ways to encourage them and further equip them in their ministry there.
Deou is an interesting place, a small Islamic market town with Mossi and Fulani, surrounded by rocky outcrops sitting on an otherwise flat plain. The pastor was telling me about the hyena that lives in one of those outcrops and comes and seizes his goats from time to time.
The name Deou sounds like the Fulani word for “up high” (“dow”), which can also mean “up in heaven”. This once led, in my early days learning Fulfulde, to an embarrassing discussion when one of my staunchly Muslim friends was trying to convince me that Jesus is alive up in heaven, and I was confusedly denying it, because I thought he was saying “Jesus lives in Deou!”
A Baobab Falls
But did anyone outside Burkina hear it? The baobab, according to lefaso.net, is Professor Joseph Ki-Zerbo, who died this week, aged 84. He was a historian and political activist who campaigned for African independance in the 1950's, and who remained active in the Burkinabe opposition until August of this year. He taught also in universities in France and Africa, and published a tome on the history of Africa. In 1997, he won the "Alternative Nobel Peace Prize".
His name might not mean much to you. But for Burkina Faso he was a part of recent history.
Tags: burkina faso africa burkina deou flood hyena goats gorom-gorom ki-zerbo joseph ki-zerbo
Posted by Keith at December 8, 2006 08:44 PM
