Burkina Faso musicians helping to beat plastic pollution
A frontman and his band from Burkina Faso are raising their voices to boost awareness about plastic pollution in Ouagadougou. Zabda and his Moogho Band are hoping to mobilize their fans.
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00:00The venue is packed and his message is clear, protect our environment, plastic pollution
00:15features big in his performance.
00:21Zabda is a big name in Burkina Faso, as a musician he is well aware that what he says
00:26and does carries weight.
00:32We are asking ourselves, also as citizens of the world, how can we contribute to preventing
00:37and raising awareness about environmental destruction, to alleviating these problems?
00:43What's our role?
00:45That's where we say that art can also be used as a means of communication to bring about
00:49a change in behavior.
00:56Zabda is the founder of the association Wakat, which uses art and culture as a tool to raise
01:01awareness of social and environmental issues.
01:04In this workshop, women including a trader, a local politician and an actor are learning
01:10about the damaging effects of plastic trash and what can be done about it.
01:15They are then trained in how to communicate this message to others through role play and
01:20storytelling.
01:26In the north of Ouagadougou, Marianne Pogo is one of the women trained by Wakat as an
01:31environmental ambassador.
01:33She buys waste plastic bags collected by local women.
01:37Many have fled the Islamist militant insurgency in the north.
01:41This is often their only way of earning a little money for their families.
01:47Marianne who is a film actor also earns about 150 euros a month by selling the bags to
01:53a recycling company.
01:58I am motivated by two things.
02:00The first is to keep the environment clean and the second, I earn a little from time
02:05to time.
02:06I buy from them and sell them on.
02:10In Burkina Faso, people mostly use single-use plastic bags.
02:14That's where another ambassador comes in.
02:16Maimouna Sawadogo has a small workshop in Ouagadougou where she sews bags from wax print
02:22fabric.
02:26Zabda and Wakat want to promote these alternatives to plastic.
02:32Then fishmonger Aseta Sawadogo sells the bags.
02:36She is another Wakat ambassador.
02:39To many people, the price of 1,000 francs, the equivalent of 1 euro and 50 cents, is
02:46quite high.
02:47But Aseta has found a way of convincing her customers.
02:54It wasn't easy at first, but now the women understand that the plastic bags are a serious
02:59problem.
03:00It's not good when you use them.
03:02They can cause so many illnesses like cancer.
03:05The women come and buy the bags.
03:07I let them pay in installments, taking 100 francs, 200 francs, little by little, so it's
03:13paid off in the end.
03:16Zabda is also active off stage.
03:20Since 2021, he's been visiting schools.
03:23Today, he is in a school in the village of Lumbila, east of Ouagadougou.
03:30Teacher Kotimo Pogo is also one of his ambassadors.
03:40Children are quite capable of passing on information.
03:43Often when you teach a child something, they'll go home and say, Daddy, Mommy, we learned
03:48something today.
03:49The teacher said not to do that.
03:51The mother often learns that way.
03:54There are other parents who come to the school to ask us questions.
03:58They say their children have told them not to do this or that, and so they ask us if
04:02it's true.
04:04Meanwhile, Zabda is busy picking up litter in the schoolyard with the children.
04:09All the elements of the project are important to him, but he says working with children
04:14is the most important of all.
04:18If I want tomorrow to be better, children are the bearers of tomorrow's ideas.
04:23Children are hope.
04:24Children are the future.
04:27Then he gets out his skater and turns the schoolyard into a concert venue with a new
04:32song that's about plastic bags.