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In Africa with
Pierre Rabhi
Arrived in Africa in 1983, in the occasion
of the Agro-ecological project Centre set up by Pierre Rabhi, in Burkina
Faso, I committed myself by his side for the promotion of an organic
farming which favours the autonomy of the farmers, and frees them from
the dependence on the chemicals fees and other imported products with
high expenses. These two years with this man, who combines so well the
culture of the Spirit and that of Earth, shaped my history ever since. I
was only 21 years old and I found in Pierre an attentive humanistic
person with much to learn from.
I shared with Pierre his action for the farmers’ autonomy and the
eco-development in Africa and long time after I committed myself on
these questions, sometimes as a volunteer, or in local contract,
specifically in the field, by sharing the life and the lifestyle of the
African farmers.
In fact, after four years in the area of Gorom-Gorom in Burkina Faso, I
decided to go to the direct contact of people, with no ready-hand
projects, with no ideas of development, just to share people’s daily
lives and values.
And so I lived in Togo from different jobs and in Niger for one year
with the Tuaregs. After, I lived in voodoos cults in Nigeria, the
marvellous and powerful country where I could discover the rich African
culture and spirituality of the Gulf of Benin. Then, I went to Côte
d’Ivoire as a cultural worker, to Senegal to live with famous marabouts
of Touba. Finally I discovered a Mauritanian sufi village where I
created a local NGO. All together these travels have taken more than
twelve years.
During all these years I had met the fonio on my way, as a picturesque
cereal, not more, that by chance I sometimes had to consume somewhere in
a village. No publication, neither personal interest emphasized on
fonio, neither from the nutritional point of view, nor from the
agricultural aspect, even less on development or food safety.
Nothing would have allowed me to guess that this small grain, this tiny
seed, was further going to be some twenty years later the matter of an
astonishing history.
I had no doubt it would involve a human adventure and join hundreds of
farmers, more than ten friends in France and perhaps, let us hope,
thousands of consumers " jointly reliable" in Europe and America !
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