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Film show in the squatters’ mansion
TOGO — Lomé’s Boulevard de la République is a prime location. Tinged with fumes from the hundreds of scooter taxis that ply up and down it all day, it nevertheless offers a view to the calm Atlantic Ocean where wooden fishing boats are going about their business in a quieter, less chaotic fashion. The Boulevard is home to air-conditioned international hotels and foreign embassies. Two of these prime sites – both former mansions, and one the
former home of the Egyptian Embassy – have been taken over by a
group of homeless people.
“Somehow they invaded them and they are living there now without paying anything to the owners,” explains Macaire Gbikpi, the Bible Society’s Faith Comes By Hearing Coordinator. “They come from rural areas all over Togo – and even from neighbouring countries – in search of a better life. Then they end up here because they do not have funds to pay rent. “We are going to show them the film, Qui Est Responsable? L’Histoire de Suzanne (‘Who is Responsible? The Story of Suzanne’),” says Estelle Akouegnon, the Bible Society of Togo’s HIV/AIDS Coordinator. “I have been asked by a ministry working amongst these people to do the program with them because they are very vulnerable and need guidance.” Orderly chaos Inside the large, run-down house and around its spacious courtyard an orderly sort of chaos prevails. Nearly a hundred people are living here. They cook and sleep wherever they can find space and draw water from an open well in the courtyard. It strikes me – if no-one else – as slightly odd to find two hair ‘salons’ here, both doing good business. As we arrive, the residents are cooking a meagre meal of either veyi (brown beans), akume (maize porridge) or fufu (yam porridge) over their charcoal fires. To these bases they add moyo, a thin, spicy tomato relish. Already pregnant Looking around, I notice that the community includes a large number of young babies. I note, too, that quite a number of the women are pregnant. It is not what one might expect in such a setting. “People come here already pregnant to deliver their babies,” someone tells me. “They do not return immediately to their villages because their husbands want them to stay and make money in the city.” When Mrs Akouegnon, the Bible Society of Togo’s HIV/AIDS Coordinator, starts the discussion afterwards people get really animated. They are not at all shy about expressing their views and a couple of young men who react strongly and loudly against the suggestion of sexual abstinence get a scolding from an elderly lady. The young women, too, have opinions to air and some start discussions
of their own while the main discussion is still in progress. They just
have to share their views with the people sitting next to them.
By the time the proceedings come to an end some of the older residents are fast asleep, oblivious to the significance of what had happened around them in the courtyard. Learned something Mrs Akouegnon judges the evening a success. “I have been asked to come back and lead more discussions on what we talked about tonight,” she says. “Hopefully we won’t struggle with the electricity like we did tonight,” she adds, laughing. “I hope that somebody has learned something tonight. It is difficult for these people. It is only in this way, with strong visual material and then discussions, that we shall be able to influence them.” For more information about the film Qui Est Responsable? L’Histoire de Suzanne, see World Report 390/27. This story refers to project 87813. (WR 407/14 - 12.06) [5 photos] |
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After
a delay due to technical problems, the film show starts. By then around
200 people are milling around in the courtyard trying to catch what
is happening. The moment the dialogue becomes clear, they fall silent
and follow the action attentively. Passers-by stop to have a quick peek.
Even a dispute that breaks out between two members of the audience cannot
divert attention from the screen.