AFP, OUAGADOUGOUYour country is one of the poorest in the world, battered by a bloody jihadist insurgency and last year underwent two military coups, so, if you are a citizen of Burkina Faso, what can you do?
Well, instead of plunging into despair, you can turn to the safety valve of laughter — making light of some of the country’s many problems.
Just in time, one of the Sahel nation’s best-loved comedy series is set to return to the TV screens with the aim of providing precisely that kind of therapy.
Photo: AFP
Bienvenue a Kikideni (Welcome to Kikideni) follows the rivalries between a village leader, an imam and a priest, using their squabbles to provide a gently satirical take on insecurity, religious fundamentalism, pandemics, tolerance, feminism and other sensitive issues.
“It lays bare the facts of society,” actor and director Aminata Diallo-Glez said.
However, “these themes are always addressed in a comic tone, with a lot of humor in there,” Diallo-Glez added.
Kikideni began life in 2005 under the title of Three Men, One Village, and came back for a second series five years later.
It returns for a third series of 20 26-minute episodes — and true to type, making the show has been affected by the security crisis.
Diallo-Glez said that she was “very moved to be completing the project.”
“Before, we used to shoot in Ziniare 35km north of the capital, Ouagadougou, and sleep there, but we can’t do that anymore,” she said. “We then looked for a village, Wanvouss, fairly close to Ouagadougou, which met the requirements for a set in a somewhat rural environment.”
The three characters at the heart of the plot bicker over their differences, but always find a way to coexist, said Ildevert Meda, who plays the role of the priest.
“It’s daily life with big human rivalries, but at the same time we show that being different is not a hindrance, but an advantage,” Meda said. “We show that contradiction is possible and that you can live in peace and social cohesion.”
“People identify with it because it’s so human,” he said.
Some of the humor touches delicately on the country’s deep security problems.
Since jihadists swept in from Mali in 2015, more than 10,000 people have died, a non-governmental organization count showed, while at least 2 million have been displaced.
More than one-third of the country lies outside the government’s control.
In one episode, the village debates whether it should mount a collective defense against the insurgents.
The imam, pumped up, declares rather ludicrously: “My fists alone are enough to deter any enemy” — a discreet reference to the junta’s announcement in April of “general mobilization” against the violence.
The imam is played by Rasmane Ouedraogo, a 70-year-old actor who in real life is a member of a civilian militia, the Volunteers for Defense of the Fatherland, which supports security operations against the jihadists.
Filming for the third series is set to finish at the end of this month.
The show would be broadcast on Canal+ and Burkina Faso public television early next year, the production company said.
Ouedraogo said that the show was popular in other African countries, but its theme — of people getting along despite their differences — would resonate further afield.
“All the problems raised here are ultimately universal problems,” Ouedraogo said. “Whether it’s in Europe, the Americas or Africa, it’s the big question of today: How do we live together?”
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