Issue 499 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

January-February 2017

Three decades of change in an African village

In the January-February 2017 issue of New Internationalist Chris Brazier completes a unique journalistic project by returning to the village in Burkina Faso, in west Africa, that he first visited in 1985 while making a film.

He visited in 1995 and 2005 to report on changes in the lives of individuals and on the progress of development in the community. The previous magazines have offered an intriguing insight into the lives of people battling against poverty and have reported on substantial positive changes in the life of the community – from the opening of a health centre and a primary school in the village to the first appearance of mobile phones.

Have the past 11 years of change brought further progress? And are the individuals that we have tracked over the three decades still healthy and happy?

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In this issue

  • Chris Brazier returns to the village in Burkina Faso that he has visited every 10 years since helping to make a film there in 1985.

  • How the village has grown - and some facts about how things have changed.

  • A photographic account of changes over the years in: housing; water; education; health; sanitation; food and farming; technology; and women.

  • Former military pilot François Moné has taken on the traditional role of Chief. He explains how he is using this to pursue the development of the village.

  • The latest instalment in the lives of Adama, his four co-wives and their 26 children.

  • When rich and poor worlds collide, money is inevitably a problem.

  • Mariama’s sons are all trying to make their way in the wider world. But how do you explain to Africans that the rich world is now shutting its doors to migrants?

  • Stories and photos you may have missed in the last 12 months. Compiled by Jo Lateu.

  • Mira Galanova uncovers a country at a crossroads.

  • Ego? Tick. Money? Tick. Power-hungry? Tick. A disaster for the world? Tick.