At the end of dry season many tribes of Burkina Faso ask to the masks to protect the villages and to call for rain. So, moving from one village to the next one, it is possible to attend authentic, terrific dancing masks festivals. This is a great time to visit Burkina Faso, a country which spreads from savannah to semi desert areas, inhabited by farmers and nomads, all attached to their long-lasting traditions.
March 26 through April 08, 2009
Duration:
14 Day Safari
Location:
Burkina Faso
Category:
Exploration
Tour Code:
TAA905
Price:
€ 2995 (Min 6 travellers)
Travel Recap:
Day 1
Arrive in Ouagadougou where you are met and transferred to your hotel for overnight.
Overnight: Ok Inn
Day 2
Tour the city of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso located in the Middle West African savannah. The life is in the streets, in a unique fusion of village and town ambiances: old taxi, bicycles, scooters, and donkeys pulling chariots, porters caring loads on the head. On the sides of the street informal traders offering colorful goods, open air small restaurants with beer and music, and everywhere chickens and goats eating the food fall-over. A colorful painted board advertises a local «coiffeur» that armed with scissors shaves his clients in the shade of a mango tree. In the street markets colors are brilliant; perfumes and smells are strong (but not malevolent). In the outskirt a large area is dedicated to the craftsmen's expositions; a way to appreciate the skills and the products of African artisan, and artists. Closer to "village artisanal", the museum with great collection of masks.
As we head towards the southern savannah we meet the Gurunsi people who live in colorfully decorated fortified houses. The Gurunsi society is organized around gender: In this society the men are in charge of building, while the women are in charge of painting and decorating the home. The women create their beautiful "frescoes" using natural colors: red, white and black on an okra background.
The men construct the homes by layering clay over support pillars and arches. The walls and terraces are waterproofed by spreading zebu dung. Over the zebu dung the woman paint amazingly intricate frescoes, sometimes in black and white patterns, other times in red and white, that flow over the homes and slope down to the surrounding walls. These beautifully patterned designs are an excellent example of African art and architecture merging into a fluid masterpiece of style and substance. One cannot truly appreciate the intense beauty of these works of art without seeing them first hand.
In the evening we will gather around a fire as the rhythmic beating of the tom-tom harkens those gathered to begin the ancient tradition of oral culture: a competition of enigmatic tales, as well as riddles to which the young showcase their knowledge of their culture by finding a solution. Afterwards, we retire to our camp to sleep under the stars.
Overnight: Bush Camp [B, L, D]
Day 3 & 4
Travel to the Gurunsi region. In a village of Gurunsi tribe a masks festival will display the beautiful and powerful masks of these peoples. Gurunsi masks represent bush spirits that take animal forms. The wooden masks are some time realistic, always full of wild energy and colors. The dynamic display of these masks, often simultaneous, surrounded by the crowd of villagers, shouting and screaming with some of the dancers in "trance" can give an idea of African undiscovered magical reality.
Overnight: Bush Camp [B, L, D]
Day 5
Travel to the Hounde region. The ethnologist Guy Moral writes: "Every year, in every Bobo village, the masks of leaves exit from the savannah where in great secret they were manufactured. After have been received by the fetish priest, they enter the village and they cover it in every sense in order to purify it. Grazing men and they dwellings, capture the flows denied some days before. All these ferments of disorder, the masks carry them in the savannah, letting to the shoulders which regenerated community ".
Overnight: Bush Camp [B, L, D]
Day 6
Travel to the Bobo and Banfora regions. Bobo-Dioulasso, the greenest of the urban realities in Burkina Faso. Several quarters in Bobo have kept their colonial atmosphere. The train station was built in Neo-Moresco style. In sharp contrast is the old Mosque and surrounding quarter, which was built in the Sudanese style. In 1891 the French explorer Crozat, described the commercial role of Bobo as "the place where the caravans from the south are bringing cola nuts and tissues (cloth), from the north they are arriving loaded with salt, from east iron handcrafts and glass beads, whiles gold is coming from the Lobi regions" However, while Bobo has long been the economic capital of Burkina, Ouagadougou has in recent years taken this title from Bobo. Although Bobo is the second largest city in Burkina, life still moves at a slow pace here. Bobo's sweeping avenues lined with mango trees, the Sudanese style colonial buildings, and the rich mixture of people give the city a texture all it's own. Banfora is famous for its market, supplied with a large variety of handicraft. Actually the populations living in the region (Gouin, Karaboro and Turka) have a great production of items made of raffia, terracotta and cloth.
Around Banfora we may appreciate the "domes" of Fabedougou and the water falls of Kerfiughela.
Overnight: Hotel Canne Sucre [B, L, D]
Day 7
The next two days fully dedicated to the discovery of the Lobi ethnic group. Today you will visit the Senoufo and the Lobi villages. The Lobi of Burkina are the shiest group of this population, spread throughout Burkina, Ghana and Ivory Coast. The Lobi of Burkina are also the one that have the most characteristic villages and thanks to their shy behavior have maintained intact their tradition. Each family lives in a big fortified building made of clay. Even nowadays the Lobi carve wooden statues for the cult of their ancestors. During our visits we will be accompanied by a guide talking the Lobi dialect, a need, in order to allow us to overcome the innate distrust of these people.
Overnight: Hotel Hala [B, L, D]
Day 8
Today you will continue your explorations as you visit the Dagarti villages.
Overnight: Ok Inn [B, L, D]
Day 9
Today we will explore territories inhabited by the Mossi, the ancient and proud masters of the Sahel. Organized around their king, the Mossi were able to expand their kingdom across a wide swath of West Africa. Of their four biggest kingdoms the one centered around Ouagadougou was the most important. Even today the chief, called "Moro Naba", has an important role in the social life of the country.
Overnight: Hotel de l'Amiti [B, L, D]
Day 10
Today we visit the villages of the Kurumba and Fulani. Including archaeological sites and explore ancient necropolises, on rocky cliffs some petro glyphs (including horse riders) depicting scenes, rituals, war and life of unknown prehistoric habitants of these lands.
Overnight: Bush Camp [B, L, D]
Day 11
Travel from the Aribinda area to Markoy. In Aribina, we will be received by his majesty the Maiga Belko King of Aribinda who will tell us old stories of the founding of his kingdom. We will then cross the area of Fulani's great zebu herds transition and more north the Tuareg Idamoussan's area. We will surround the Darkoy "sea", big water gathering point similar to a lake by the moving shores.
Overnight: Bush Camp [B, L, D]
Day 12
Spend the day visiting the local markets. The markets on the border regions between the desert and the savannah are a meeting and exchange point between two different world: the one of nomad herders and the one of sedentary farmers. In the center of the village the dealing and handling of the most variegated goods creates a colorful animation, in a dusty shouting where the colors of a crowd of such different people melts in the colors of the same incredible variety of goods. Meanwhile in a wide clearing at the border of the village takes place the animal market, indisputable kingdom of the nomad people that come to gather thousands of cattle heads. At this market the shouting of people is replaced by the shouting of animals. Aristocrats Tuaregs push their camels to a gallop, in a sudden race meanwhile the lines of the zebus with long horns like a lyre follow the pace of Fulani herders.
Salmossi is a tiny village. The indoors and the terraces of the clay houses, inhabited by the Songhai people, are painted with pieces of particular pastel tones, extracted from different types of soil. The Songhai are a sedentary population descending from a prestigious Sudanese kingdom, still up to today various chieftaincies of the region are Songhai.
Overnight: Local Hotel [B, L, D]
Day 13
Travel to Kaya where you will visit the Bani's Mosques built in a unique style in these regions, "Yemenite" inspiration.
Overnight Local Hotel [B, L, D]
Day 14
Return to Ouagadougou. Today you visit to the Sculpture Garden of Laongo'. The garden was started in 1989 by a local sculptor, who invited artists from around the world to come and work "on the spot" in the granite rocks located on site. Since that time artists from around the world have been meeting up every two years and continue to add sculptures in the garden.
Day room provided to freshen up before transfer to the international airport for departure. [B, L]
Group:
Minimum of 4 participants.
Vehicles:
Toyota 4x4, a model specially prepared for African terrain, with reinforced suspension, air-conditioning (on soft sand, the air-conditioning may not be used to avoid overheating the engine).
Air-conditioned minibus can be used on asphalt roads.
Includes:
Airport transfers on arrival and departure days
Meals as stated
Accommodations as stated
Professional Guides and Vehicles
English speaking guides throughout
Deluxe documentation prior to departure
Excludes:
International Airfare
Beverages
Gratuities and items of a personal nature
Cost of Passports and Visas
Trip Interruption/Cancellation Insurance
