It is not easy to tell your own story, but after thirty years in Burkina, I thought it would be useful to recount some of the adventures of my arrival in this country which is dear to me and in which I have just spent half of my life...
January 5, 1993. Around 3 a.m., a young man, a little lost, arrives at the Larlé bus station, after almost 72 hours of a grueling odyssey. Leaving Cotonou on the evening of January 2 and after a delightful crossing of the 415 kilometers which separate the economic capital of Benin Republic from Parakou, one of the big cities in the north of the country, I discover how difficult it was at all to reach, from there, the capital of Burkina Faso. We had to find makeshift buses, first to reach Natitingou, and then to get to Tanguiéta, still in Benin Republic, on very dusty and steep roads, with lots of stairs going up and down, in a infernal tango in which drivers had to master the art of slalom.
After a whole day of this double journey — Parakou-Natitingou, then Natitingou-Tanguieta, with two different buses — here I am, on the evening of January 3 in Tanguieta, where we had to spend the night to borrow, the next day, January 4, 1993 at 2 p.m., a bus from Burkina's defunct X9 public transport authority.
It is therefore on board this bus, which carries many traders, that I discover for the first time the landscapes of the "country of the honest Man". To tell the truth, I guess them more than I discover them, most of the trip, shortly after the border between the two countries, having taken place at night: Pâma, Fada N'Gourma, Koupéla, Zorgho and finally Ouagadougou!
In my head, the melody of the Cameroonian André-Marie Tala resonates cheerfully boasting “Ouagadougou (and) the sun (which) sings in the street”. But it was, at that time, a little after 3 a.m. and the cold of the harmattan darted all my being. I did not know then that this “country of climatic extremes” did not allow, at this time of year, my light suit without collar and short sleeves which did not protect me from this sidereal cold. My ordeal lasted all morning, until the moment when, at midday, I was able to rest from my very painful journey in the relative warmth of the living room of Paul Amoussou Lifi, resident in this country since 1962, and that I knew neither Adam nor Eve, walking for the first time in my life at Larlé station. Paul Amoussou — who passed away on September 26, 2020 — and his wonderful family welcomed me with open arms and provided me with room and board during my first weeks of life in Burkina. A story within the story...
BEAUTIFUL ADVENTURE
So I arrived in this beautiful country, Burkina Faso, in the early morning of Tuesday, January 5, 1993! The same day, in the afternoon, I sign my first employment contract with the daily Le Pays. I was indeed expected, having sent a file to the Director of publication, Boureima Jérémie Sigué, founder, since October 1991, of this title. The latter had asked my friend and colleague Anicet Laurent Quenum if he could recommend a journalist to him to expand his editorial office in Ouagadougou. Having been editor-in-chief of the magazine "Voix d'Afrique" published in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Boureima Jérémie Sigué, whom I had never met at the time, is a pan-African at heart who, once back in his country, wanted to give this multinational flavor of "Voice of Africa" to his newspaper.
So I meet the boss of “Le Pays” around 8:30 a.m. on January 5, in his office in the Wog-Wandé building, located near the large Rood-Woko market in Ouagadougou. I had indeed been able to reach, by taxi, the premises of the newspaper around 5 a.m., on the instructions of Yassia, an agent of the company, with whom I was able to exchange on the telephone from the station of Larlé. Yassia picked me up at the adjoining Photo Luxe building, the destination of my taxi.
After chomping at the bit for several hours on the clock, colonized as I was by sleep, fatigue and impatience in the storage room that served as my temporary refuge, “Monsieur Kaba” finally introduces me to the boss. Ah, “Mister Kaba”! A straight and wise man who, despite the white beard that ate his chin and the graying hair that populated his head, knew how to put you at ease and find solutions to your problems. It is also thanks to this good "Mr. Kaba", the man with the Vespa, secretary to the editor of the daily newspaper Le Pays, that I was able to find a happy intermediary in the question of my accommodation in Ouagadougou, where I didn't know anyone then!
I was still cold when I finally met Boureima Jérémie Sigué that famous morning. Our brief interview is frank and cordial. My file, already rich with a prerequisite of five years in the Beninese press, facilitated, it seemed to me, the choice of my person for this place of journalist within the editorial staff of the daily "Le Pays". , which was then about its fifteen months of existence. Indeed, I made my debut as a journalist at the national daily Ehuzu (now La Nation) in Benin Republic, when this country was still under the revolutionary regime of Mathieu Kérékou. Before strengthening my pen somewhat, the day after the national conference of February 1990, in various titles of the private press, generated by the liberation of speech and the expression of ideas carried by the democratic renewal.
TRIBUTE AND CONSIDERATION
It is moreover on this democratic wave that I produced my first articles within the editorial staff of the daily newspaper Le Pays, where I actually started working on January 6, 1993. I thus write the "Internal Dialogue" (editorial) of January 7, 1993, devoted to the socio-political situation in Togo, setting the stage for a great adventure of more than five years with Le Pays.
I must here sincerely thank Boureima Jérémie Sigué, founder and CEO of Éditions Le Pays, who believed in me without having seen or practiced me, but who gave me my chance to be part of his team, so that I came from 1,025 kilometers away, then who valued me enormously throughout my stay in this stable of the Burkinabe press.
Evidenced by, among other things, the functions he allowed me to assume, giving me real carte blanche each time to make the changes and the percussions that I deemed necessary: deputy editor from February 1, 1993, only a month after my arrival in the company, I was successively appointed editor-in-chief, in September 1993, editorial director from March 1994, then editorial director (of the daily Le Pays, of the weekly Évasion (Escape) and the monthly magazine Votre Santé (Your health)), June 1, 1996.
In thanking Jérémie Sigué, whose esteem I still honor myself today, I am also particularly thinking of Liermè Somé, Editor-in-Chief of the daily newspaper Le Pays when I arrived there in 1993, and of Jean-Gabriel Tiendrébéogo, model maker, both deceased today. May their souls rest in peace, as well as that of Étienne Kafando, photographer, torn from our affection on October 6, 2021.
I would also like to warmly and fraternally greet Émile Bayala, who was acting editor-in-chief when I arrived in this editorial office. Émile Bayala was also the very first editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine Votre Santé. His calm, his temperance and his professionalism have forged our professional companionship. Of course, I haven't forgotten all the happy team in place when he joined, with a special mention to… Ousmane Victor Doussa, who then sold me the "A bedroom-A living room" that he occupied in a celibatorium to solve my housing problem, whereas he was committed to teaching only three weeks after my arrival, and was assigned to a neighboring locality.
THANK YOU ALL!
I have therefore been here for 30 years, in this country which is dear to me, and where I have made many friends, acquaintances, brothers and sisters. I have been participating here for three decades in the national and African debate in my field, also receiving many graces and teachings from each other, from my esteemed colleagues, from my elders, from men and women of all categories and all conditions.
I remain grateful to all those who, employers, collaborators, colleagues, colleagues, various resource persons, friends... then supported me during the different stages of my jagged professional career, and my personal trajectory woven into basket of sacrifices, especially with regard to my family, which has suffered greatly from my passion for this noble profession.
Thank you to all of you - who were on my path, in the light or in the shadows, in good times and in bad times, who put me back on the path, who brought me comfort, tenderness and support in the periods of spleen, and which continue to sow enthusiasm and hope in my life… — for this anniversary which I commemorate for the time being with discretion, emotion and introspection. Thank you for having brought me so much and for having accepted me with a beautiful brotherhood in this beautiful country, which is now also mine.
Burkina, I think, will remain beautiful in soul, beautiful in the expression of solidarity, despite everything that is happening to us today. We have all experienced so many beautiful things together that I do not despair of tomorrow...
© Serge Mathias Tomondji
Ouagadougou, January 8, 2023
*This article has been translated from French into English by Marcus Boni Teiga
