Social Art: Water for the Present and the Future
BARKA’s Social Art program utilizes theatre to educate and entertain. In a largely illiterate environment, this is a powerful way to get important concepts across to a wide audience and have them be remembered. In 2015, BARKA was commissioned by One Drop Foundation to create an original play about water, sanitation and hygiene. We also seized the opportunity to illustrate the key role that women play in water resource management, and the need for good governance.
For more information about this project, visit our project portfolio here.
Aoua makes fun of men.
Aoua getting even racier making fun of men.
The Queen
An audience member
Rapt children- they loved it
In Daltenga/Kanougou village
Performance in the bush
A village elder and minister
The sand diviner explains to the kind what the sand says
Firman kept the audience in stitches throughout
A Fulani girl enjoying the show
Although the culture in Burkina is quite homophobic, men are free to openly display affection toward one another and often hold hands in public
Women were not used to laughing so raucausly
The dude with the hat is cracking up
The Queen sharing her wisdom
The Diviner prepares the sand
Queen dispensing wisdom
Solo, the lead actor, would warmup by dancing even in heat above 120F
Divining the problem in the village- it has to do with a precious liquid
Must be the dolodrome scene
This elder is a master dancer of Gour’mache dance
“Look there, she hasn’t made her water payment”
The directors Nongodo Ouedraogo and Hyacinthe Kabore from Espace Culturel Gambidi
The diviner during an evening performance
Esu at the soundboard with Chacho, our chief technician
Firman, the chef’s griot, temporarily turned to stone by the Diniver for making too much noise
Some unofficial help from the Peace Corps
These two water committee members were stealing money from water users
Maitre Kojo, our designer and drummer
Just like summer theatre in Central Park
Ah yes, the stage
Our protagonist gets taken by Genies to hear a message of the Spirit of Water in a Scrooge-like dream which transforms him
Boly recording attendence, and audience reactions and debate highlights
The play begins with Aoua walking past a broken well to fetch water from an open stream
Tanti and Solo speak with the crowd in Moré in Daltenga
An elder speaks
Chacho showing off
Some audiences were more intimate than others
The king decides to call on the diviner for some spiritual help
Odette dancing during warmup
Kids with cellphones
Chacho getting it just right
That’s right
Peace going to great lengths to get the shot
Mariam Thiombiano
The women backstage
Ina and Esu greet village elders after the performance
Lucy and Mariam
Aoua and Odette strike the pose
Firman Dialga backstage
Esu backstage
Kalla and Mariam, king and queen
Chacho and Bolly
Lucy Sawadogo
Karim
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Debate after evening performance
Kalla
Backstage: Arouna Kalla and Karim Combari
A woman with child salutes the performers
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We were met in Boungou with traditional dancing
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Setting up the podium
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Temperatures were often in the 120F range
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Watching from the shade under a tree
A young girls takes the mic
Odetti warming up the crowd
Odette enjoying her warmup antics
A school in the bush
King summons his ministers to solve the problem
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Ready to take this show on the road
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Crowds sometimes approached 1000 people
Ina and Kojo making music during the scene
A young child enters the debate
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The stage was built by a local metal worker
Peace and Bolly tag teaming
Peace always at ease with the mic
A well deserved curtain call
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The horse chases children away from the polluted water
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Ina and Kojo
We encouraged girls to speak
Boys spoke more often than girls
Peace engaging the audience in debate after the show
Warming up the crowd before the show
High school principal
Firman, the partner in crime, says there are other ways for women to pay their water bill
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A student shares his opinion
The community gathers to celebrate
The well is fixed and order in the village is restored
Students brought desks from classrooms for seats
Take a bow
The Diviner freezes the annoying griot
The sand diviner’s dramatic entrance
The women decide to withold their bodies until the men repair the well
The Queen holds a meeting with women
The sand diviner makes an Invocation
Let’s see what the sand says…
The king thinking about how to handle the problem in the village
The over-zealous griot, always entering at the worst moment
The king shouting at his griot in frustration
“No Water, No Sex”: Aoua thinks it’s a great idea
Here at the dolodrome (local bar) the committee members hatch a plan
Firman hamming it up.
Things take a tragic turn when the baby with diarrhea dies of dirty water
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The community gathers around the family to help brace the loss
It is plain to see that he is mis-using funds meant for clean drinking water
We video documented each performance and are currently editing a film of the project
Principal and students
Sound effect of pouring water and swimming.
The panhandler cares about only one thing- gold
In his monologue, our protagonist justified his bad behavior to himself
He’s satisfied with his decision to steal from his village
They couldn’t contain themselves
Audiences loved it
Chacho getting into it
Odette and Boly address the crowd after the performance
We performed for 5333 high school students
School audience
In a dream, the spirit of the dead child visits the father and gives him the 9 laws of clean water
Video was primarily shot by Esu, Peace and Ina
Schoolkids
Students were often quoting the play at school for days after performances
A woman of the village faints after returning from her arduous walk to fetch water now that the village well is broken
During this emotionally poignant scene the audience often laughed to see actors weeping
The king having some problems due to the sex strike
A student performs for peers in the show’s warmup
A shepherd warns the gold digger not to use such chemicals near the river
The head of the water committee misuses funds
Students would stay at school late to watch the play
An evening debate
The play performed at 15 high schools
Our first performance at a school
Chacho replaces a bulb
Electrcitiy was provided by a generator
Peace setting up the video special effect
Peace multi-tasking as usual
Peace and Chacho making it happen
Karim, Mariam and Aoua backstage before the first performance
Karim hamming it up, Aoua not sure if she’s going to hit him
The griot begging for forgiveness from the Queen after he was caught spying (in drag) at the women’s meeting
Our hero, drunk with grief after losing his child
The village well is fixed now that the community has abided by the message of the Spirit of water
People gasped when Aoua disappeared behind the curtain and then saw a video image of her pumping the well
The king dancing in celebration that the sex strike has ended
They danced to the hottest song in the land at that time
“Hmmn, I don’t think we have a record of any payment from you”
Things get serious when a child dies due to dirty water
The king’s suffering made people laugh because he was a foolish king
The entire team
Last minute preparations for the stage the night before opening night
The troupe with the final 8 actors and two game leaders and creative team
Opening night: The two sheep had everybody cracking up
Details of the play came about through improvisations in rehearsals
Roles were also developed
Hyacinthe showing the actors what he means
The larger rehearsal group with 16 actors
The chosen actors meet for the first time
The physical training was rigorous
Partner exercises
Rehearsals were for a total of 4 weeks before the run began
chief of kanougou speaking after performance
The chief of Daltenga speaks up
