happy anniversary

(the Chief of Koupela being carried back to his courtyard after the horse race)

Saturday marked my stage's six-month anniversary of being in Burkina, and I got to spend it feeling very culturally adventurous at the annual festival for the chief of Koupela. My Prefet invited me, since he's from a village just next to Koupela. He also had a wedding to go to, so he left me in the care of the chief's brother and sister to get a tour of the compound and festivities.


The festival is held every December, on whatever Saturday coincides with the big market of Koupela, and lasts for about three days. There's traditional dancing, demonstrations, parades, horse races, and lots of eating and drinking. We were there for only the very beginning of the fete but I still got to see some very cool things. The sister showed me around their family's compound, the graves of her father and grandfather (the previous chiefs- there was also a ceremony unveiling a statue of the grandfather in the center of town that morning,) and explained things I would never have known otherwise. (Example: we walked by a pile of feathers on the ground and she steered us around the spot because that's where they performed the chicken sacrifice that morning.)


Chiefs (in french it's chef, but that doesn't transfer in english) don't have the same power they used to, but they still have a very important position in society. They're extremely highly respected- in attendance at this celebration were all of the important government and business figures of the region. And the chef still has power to pronounce judgments on certain things and make decisions, it's just subordinate now to the national government. I got to eat at the lunch reception held for the chief and a number of these officials- the old man sitting next to me pointed out who was who, which was very helpful.


So all in all, a completely fascinating day, and at the end of it I got to feel even more legit by bringing home, on the taxi brousse, the two roosters the Prefet's friend gave me as a gift. Happy 6 months to us!!