May 2006
Two decades of change in an African Village

Most Africans have no more contact with famine and war than anyone else, While the mainstream media associate Africa only with disaster, villagers a11 over the continent are quietly making ends meet, seeking as good a life as possible for themselves and their families. In 1995 NI co-editor Chris Brazier returned to a village in Burkina Faso that he first came to know in 1985 and reported on how people's lives had changed. At the end of 2005 he returned to the village again to see what difference another decade of 'development' has made to this one community.


NI

No.389

Contents

　

　

　

2 Back to the Future
Chris Brazier is reunited not only with the village of Sabtenga, in Burkina Faso, but also with the remarkable Mariama Gamené.

5 Sabtenga - a map of the village

6 The Big Question
Have people's lives improved in the last 20 years?

8 Some things stay the same... Some change dramatically
From pounding millet to David Beckham T-shirts - a photographic tour of village life.

10 Wives and Daughters
Have women managed to hold the line against genital mutilation? Does polygamy have a future?

13 4 wives, 19 children
The changing fortunes - and multiplying numbers - of the family at the heart of the NI film 20 years ago.

14 A Tale of Two Girls
A visit to the local school brings hope - but a visit to one of its former pupils tells a different story.

16 The Kick Inside
Too many mothers dying in childbirth - and the clinic that would have saved them if they could only have paid the fees.

18 Two decades in Burkina Faso - THE FACTS

20 Local Heroes
The people's organizations that are changing things from below - and reflections on two decades in the life of a village.

22 Currents
The international round-up continues over the page with a new report on the long-term damage done by French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
PLUS: Seriously

25 Worldbeaters
His idea is simple, but it is wowing governments, bankers and aid agencies the world over: legalize the shadow economy and you'll save the poor. But the free market rarely pulls off this magic trick, whatever Hernando de Soto may claim.

26 Mixed Media
MUSIC, BOOKS, FILM review

28 Southern Exposure
A watchmaker in old Mumbai, captured by Indian photographer Pablo Bartholomew.

29 View from Delhi
The opening of Delhi's new subway line has been a cause for much celebration and joyriding, as Urvashi Butalia explains.

30 Essay: Cartoon conflict
The furore over the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad should teach us some important lessons about the new global culture, according to Sharif Gemie.

32 Big Bad World
Polyp unveils the latest new wonder drug.
PLUS: NI Prize Crossword

33 Making Waves
Diego Rozengardt is part of a new generation of political activists in Argentina - they are known as Generación Cromañón, after a notorious nightclub fire.

34 Letters
Unintellectual political incoherence; Armenia the granddaddy of genocides; why people head for the city; foolish stand of native people.

35 Letter from Mauritius

36 Country Profile - Chile

　

　

　

　

NI Japan

No.77

Contents

　

<This month's translation>

-Back to the Future (NI p2-4)

-The Big Question (NI p6-7)

-Sabtenga - a map of the village (NI p5)

-4 wives, 19 children (NI p13)

-Some things stay the same... Some change dramatically (NI p8-9)

-Local Heroes (NI p20-21)

-Country Profile - Chile (NI p36)

-Currents (NI p23)
Fishy deal


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