Ouagadougou, an african big city
written by vicuna
on December 16th, 2008
(3 votes)
The first place where I landed when I arrived in Burkina Faso was Ouagadougou, the capital city and only international airport. As soon as I came out of the airport, I was immediately impressed by what i saw: it’s the experience of an african city of over 1 million people…. and that’s something to live and to see!
This huge city is every time full of people, from the morning till the night, and there seems to be a never ending human activity. The circulation by car is really really messy, there are no real signs to show you where to go, no apparent conducting rule, the one who imposes himself with a big noise is the first to go through! And there are a lot of bikes, and other 2 wheels engines. Young, old, men, women (with sometimes their kid hanging in the back), everybody has a 2 wheel engine riding in all directions that you can ask yourself how the cars can drive in this mess…. It’s very noisy as well, and of course, as the cars are not amongst the newest ones, the car pollution is high (and when the heat is at 40° it’s not better, far from it…) Funny detail for the 2nd hand cars is the name they have: they’re called “les voitures au-revoir la France” that means " the goodbye France cars" because they mostly come from France and Europe and are more often 3rd or 4th hand cars….
Ouagadougou is well knowned in West Africa for 2 big events: the FESPACO, or Panafrican Film & Television festival (the biggest african film festival of the whole continent) and the SIAO, the International Arts & Crafts fair of Ouagadougou. At the time I was there was held the SIAO, and I made a tour to visit it. It’s an impressing huge meeting of many african countries and again a lot of people. You can really have there an image of all art & craft you can find in western Africa.
I didn’t had the time to visit the rest of this huge city, but there are a lot of more things to do and to see. But one thing is sure, you can’t imagine what a real big african city can look like if you didn’t experience it in real!
Please login or register to use this feature.