- Tweeter
republish
When Burkina Faso discovers the gold rush and its ravages ... This is what shows an edifying documentary that will be screened this Friday, November 22 at the Museum of Man in Paris as part of the International Festival Jean Rouch: "No Gold for Kalsaka" by Burkinabé filmmaker Michel K. Zongo.
With its mud houses, well, farmland, Kalsaka is a peaceful village, some 160 kilometers north of Ouagadougou.
In 2006, Burkina Faso's first open pit gold mine opened with great fanfare. The British mining company concludes an agreement with the State of Burkina Faso.
The villagers are promised mountains and wonders for an exploitation supposed to last ten years. But in 2012, the mine closes. The people of Kalsaka will not have seen the color of gold. The peasants have hardly been compensated. Farmland is now unusable and the water may not be drinkable.
Michel K. Zongo films the ravages of predatory liberalism and a form of neo-colonialism: " It is a case study of how these multinationals arrive in small places far from our countries and remove what they want and leave without anything being done. Unfortunately, this is what happens in our countries in relation to the exploitation of all natural resources. "
In Pas d'or for Kalsaka , Michel K. Zongo interviews several years later villagers angry or worried about the quality of the water. But in his documentary he inserts creative sequences: riders straight out of Westerns, and then the storyteller KPG who comments with verve the disappointed promises of a modern mirage.
► No gold for Kalsaka , by Michel K. Zongo, screened on 23 November 2019 at the Musée de l'Homme, Paris, as part of the Jean Rouch International Festival