„God Save Africa!“„BUS accident in Burkina Faos – more than 60 people die.”
Even hours later the flames had not been quenched. In the West African state of Burkina Faso a bus collided with a lorry – the consequences were tragic.
Ouagadougou/Hamburg – A traffic accident involving a passenger bus caused the death of more than 60 people in Burkina Faso. On Saturday the bus collided with a lorry west of the Burkina capital Ouagadougou. A spokeswoman for local authorities, Mrs. Maize Compaore delcared : „This is unbelievable, it is simply terrible.” The driver of the bus survived the accident and declared that at the time of the accident more than 80 people had been inside the bus. A local journalist told the media that even eight hours after the accident local fire fighters were still fighting the fire.
In West Africa such deadly accidents happen especially so during the rainy season when the already bad roads are in an even in worse state. Also the buses are always loaded with too many passengers and very often people and their goods even travel on the rooftops of buses.
tdo/AP
Thus far the agency report as carried by DER SPIEGEL, Germany’s biggest weekly magazine with a print-run of more than one million.
Which just reminded me of an e-mail which I head sent on September 28th,2008, on my own bus trip from Lagos through Cotonou, Lome, Accra all the way to Ouagadougou, sent to a certain KONGI, better known as Wole SOYINKA.
My mail went like this :
From: "GerdMeuer"
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:48:45 +0200
To: Wole SOYINKA
Subject: I am still alive –
after travelling through West Africa by road... once again
Yes !
Gerd
Wole,
on the last lap of my trip by land from Lagos to Ouaga I had to take a bus from the border at Paga to OUAGADOUGOU.
After only a few miles the bus came to a first stop. The Bus, registered in the Ivory Coast was driven by a driver from Mali and his assistant. Both of whom crawled under the bus, laboured a bit underneath. When the driver hit the pedal a thick blue cloud of smoke erupted which made all the passengers run frantically out of the bus, fearing that it might go up in flames. But then everybody clambered on board again and we continued – for just a few miles, when driver and assistant crawled again underneath. Two bush mechanics who Came by stopped briefly, too a look and then continued, having given up. With the drover approaching all the multiple stops imposed by way-layers in uniform – police, customs and What have you! – very, very slowly, each time moving from sixth gear to fifth, fourth, third, second and first, until the bus came to a final Stop.
Until we finally reached the town of KOUBRI after the sun had set. And here a team of mechanics, alerted earlier by clellular, started to work underneath the bus in the dark. When they had finished the bus driver told me:
"You know, Sir...
I told him:
“Yes, I do know.”
He looked at me, and I told him what I knew...
“You have been driving without any breaks for the last 150 miles or so'
Whereupon the driver looked at me:
“ How now?”
My answer:
“Well, by the way you approached all those road-blocks, police, customs and all the other way-layers in uniform. Slowly, very slowly because of NO breaks whatsoever! BIG laughter all around.
Addendum:
The vast majority of passengers were market women from MALI – it was thus truly pan-African ! – who days before had done their shopping of medicines at TEMA or ACCRA in Ghana – mainly imported medicines. The flacons were duly checked, but the women were then at each and every stop allowed to proceed with their goods after the usual dash had been paid... But whenever I wanted to observe that transaction I – the oyingbo pepper – was chased away, back into the bus: I was simply NOT to witness the act! I was NOT amused... having in mind those contaminated Chinese milk products which by that time were around not only in China but most probably so also in Africa... Just as thousands of tons of contaminated milk powder found their way to Africa after the Chernobyl nuclear incident twenty years earlier, just as did hundreds of tons of contaminated TURKEY meat from Poland after same incident.
from GG =gallivanting gerd
Mailed it to KONGI, who replied almost immediately:
Gerd,
God save Africa
Wole
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
Postscriptum ref those ‚bad roads’ as mentioned in DER SPIEGEL:
Those roads in Burkina – and elsewhere im West Africa – were not always in such a bad state. Years back west Africa really enjoyed some very good roads, paid for by the World Bank, the EU and also “The Arab Fund for Africa”. But since those excellent roads have simply disappeared because of NO maintenance whatsoever. And so buses and lorries tend to driver round in circles around those world record-deep portholes full of water during the rainy season.
Which gave me the splendid idea for my new job, as described in an e-mail to a very good friend, who – by chance – Is the new EU delegate or ambassador to the CONGO, sitting on hundreds of millions of EUROS to spend. Here is a copy of that e-mail:
Mon très cher Délégué,
ci-inclus ce que j'appelle une 'offre incontournable'.
(My dear Delegate,
here is what I call an offer that you simply cannot refuse..)
I am counting on:
a. your rapid positive reply, and
b. your prompt forwarding to the relevant department in Bruxelles.
Many thanks in advance !!!
Le Votre
le Meilleur
PS 1:
I shall then start packing my suitcase, but as the Brits have a habit of saying:
" I shall hasten slowly".
PS 2:
I shall inform the NOBEL as soon as I have received your prompt and enthusiastic reply attachment:
The MOST brilliant idea yet to save Africa’s infrastructure
On my most recent trip by land from Lagos/Nigeria through Cotonou/Benin, Lome/Togo, Accra/Ghana to Ouagadougou/Burkina Faso in September 2008 – by public transport (“travelling with the people”) - I was made aware AGAIN that
many of the overland roads,
financed since 1960 by the World Bank;
Arab donors and the EU, are in a sorry state.
Many stretches of road have either completely disappeared or wear thousands of pock-marks, some dozens of inches deep, and thus represent real hazards both in the dry and the rainy seasons. This being so, those roads cause immense delays and wreak havoc on cars, busses and lorries, causing deaths and injuries.
NOWHERE – and I repeat: NOWHERE ! – have I ever seen a single road repair team at work!, as we used to know them in the Good old days of the ‘Public Works Departments’ or PWDs.
I have therefore come up with what is - undoubtedly - the
most brilliant idea to save – at least - this part of Africa’s infrastructure:
As soon as the relevant department of the EU has found the necessary funds (not difficult to find, so I am sure!), I shall Then and therefore embark on a tour of Africa’s major overland roads, starting from Mauritania in the North to Namibia in the South, and then backwards from South Africa to Egypt.
Equipment needed:
- a very common car, NOT a 4x4 ! Registered and insured
- fuel, unlimited
- a digital camera , to document the damages visually
- a digital recorder to record interviews where necessary
- a GPS, to exactly locate the stretches involved
- a lap-top to document descriptions
Honorarium:
- 10 man-months per annum
- salary on D 1 (EU scale) level
- per diem according to EU levels
- hotel expenses – same
Qualifications:
I have been travelling (and living) in Africa since 1962,
worked as a correspondent for German, Swiss, Austrian, French, Dutch, Irish and US radio stations; Newspapers in same countries since 1965
Recommendations from relevant persons will be supplied upon request Among others from
Wole SOYINKA, formerly head of Nigeria’s ‘Road Marshalls’ (!!!)
Available
as from January 1st, 2009
Gerd Meuer |
