Near the centre ville of Ouagadougou is a region that is pretty obviously cordoned off from the general public of the city. Currently this region is covering approximately a 6km x 6km region that is in place for Ouaga 2000. One person might not understand what the impact of this region is, unless the whole political aspect (and military) is fully delved into.
Ouaga 2000 is predominantly a residential region with more and more luxuries being constructed to accommodate the selected crowd who are allowed to reside there. People who live in this regions have a number of important titles in their name, and the person who started it off is still in power as President. President Blaise, of Ouagadougou, has constantly been making alterations to allow for further segregation to occur in the country, the most insulting being Ouaga 2000.
Burkina Faso was originally called Upper Volta and for a good portion of time it was going through many issues. Issues ranging from political coups to famine and droughts was enough for the government in the early 1980s to try and make a change. Changing the name in 1984 to Burkina Faso, the new president at the time wanted to give Burkina Faso a fresh new face but in the same token he wanted to bring back the past cultures of the region. Some of the past cultural influences included building buildings with a number of natural materials, reintroduction of cultural dress embroidery and other similar traditions. His best friend at the time was, at the time, President Blaise. Blaise was an ex military officer with very strong military ideals and had several people who agreed with him to over throw his best friend. Now, four people, including Blaise, were the people in control of the overthrow but the other people mysteriously died after the original President was taken out of power. As Blaise felt it a threat to his ideals being carried out, the President at the time was killed and Blaise became President.
1984, and Blaise now President of BF, he wanted to allow for the rich people of Ouagadougou to gain more luxuries and separate them from the not so fortunate in the country. Several years later Ouaga 200 was implemented. People here may have had a major political influence, high influence in the military, be professionals in the business world (eg bankers) or have some form of connection with the President. The houses here are extravagantly larger then the other houses in Ouagadougou. Looking at many houses here, I was unable to see a single house that was similar size to most Australian houses. The guy who owns the Dreamworlds has a fairly decent sized house on the Gold Coast, in Australia, now his house would be similar in size to an average sized house in Ouaga 2000 (he has a heli-pad in his backyard). Not many of you have seen my house, but the average Ouaga 2000 house would be about 5 times the size of my parents’ house. The larger houses would be about 10 times larger. Hopefully I will be able to grab enough adequate photos to prove my point.
Each of these houses house only one family of husband and wife with maybe a child or two. This is still not the thing that is the most shocking to me. Slowly the city of Ouagadougou is being transformed, where the old President quarters is no longer being used and the new quarters are in Ouaga 2000. The future plan is to slowly place all the major businesses in the cordoned area. Oh yea, you might wonder why I am saying Ouaga 2000 is cordoned. There is a good portion of Ouaga 2000 that has a massive masonry fence line, this fence would be at least 6 feet high to allow for anyone walking by not to see into the area. This fence also helped the military to protect the region when they were guarding every entrance to the region. Hmm, military, not police. As the wages of the police are a lot lower then the military there is more reassurance for the President to feel safe when there are possibly any issues. At the introduction to Ouaga 2000 people were identified as they entered the region and could only enter if they resided or had very good reasons to enter the estate. As any potential tension eased off, slowly the military presence at the checkpoints subsided and now there is no physical guarding of the region.
The old length of maximum presidency was two terms of four years, when Blaise came in power for the second time in 1988, he went about changing the laws allowing for three terms of five years (or along those lines) and in 2005 he was reinstated for his fifth term of power. A rumour to his current plans is that he is trying to find someone who will continue the segregation of the two societies and allow for him to continue his wealth.
The number one thing that amazes me with all of this need for greed is the fact that Burkina Faso is, in African standards, one of the poorest countries. 20% of the countries budget come from international influence, where majority of the current infrastructure is being funded from international enterprises, but at the same time, a good portion of the Ouaga 2000 residence, who have positions that can be affected by uprisings, have non BF accounts (Swiss accounts, offshore accounts and other similar accounts).
You may ask how I found out all this information, as it is not exactly the most advertised information. Some people I have been talking to are of age enough that they have been through the various years of social restructuring in Ouagadougou. People of different educational backgrounds, as well as different age groups have given me plenty of insight into this estate. Even though they all have a biased opinion these people have all had similar thoughts as well as there being no clash of information. The funnier thing is the fact that one of the people I have been speaking to, who is actually from Ouaga 2000, is oblivious to the circumstances and drives down a couple of roads to get to work but has also travelled in more affected areas of societies. He is a great guy to talk to and has many good personality traits but is filthy rich and is only being a part of the wave of people that is getting further ahead of the average person of Ouagadougou. Another person who lives in the area that I saw really did try to make himself the Toorak of the region (Toorak is one of the rich suburbs of Melbourne). The day that I saw him was a Saturday and we were at a soccer match in a village 20km away from Ouagadougou. When he walked in he had obviously practiced his gait to feel rich, but the fact he was not working and wearing a suit was appalling. He walked near Miriam and said hello (They used to work together) and ignored the other people around us and he hitched his suit and walked on to the seating area. Miriam was later sitting near him and talking to other people, by the time that I went over to say something to Miriam he had began talking to her. I said hello to him, but I had no response, my hand was barely shaken when I stuck it in his face. Later Miriam had been telling me how much that he had been bragging about his wealth situation and that Miriam should have stayed as she would have been like him. Miriam had told him frequently over time why she left the banking field of employment. Apparently someone had questioned Miriam’s desire to help orphaned children outside of work hours, saying how much of a waste it was and how if she had have worked more in the banking with the same devotion she would be reaping the benefits in the future.
So, you may ask, “Why don’t people do anything about it?” Several of the Burkina-be have tried to do things about it. All results have been tragic for those trying to practice freedom of speech. One guy was a reporter going around doing research and presenting it on one of the Burkina TV stations, some people from the military got him on the street. Apparently they were only meant to give him a few bruises, but he ended up being brain dead. Two other people, in recent years, have been known to have been bashed to death; one person was a teacher. To approach the situation would require an outside influence to do something about it. Unfortunately those outside (government) influences either get no benefit from Burkina (like USA and England) or are somehow in league with the president (I should not name France in this). Slowly people of outside organisations are helping in other ways, like some Belgium initiatives, but this is not dealing with the whole segregation of the societies but giving to the poor. I believe in equal distribution to an extent, not exactly like communist rule, but I suppose having more money does help resolve issues one would otherwise have and use it a means to compensate…
So, while my views of Ouaga 2000 are strongly biased I feel enough listening to a variety of people has occurred to gain a reasonable account and opinion of the segregation situation.
