Dossier articles from the past 3 months
The Bororo culture is one of movement. There are different sorts of movement. First of all there is the perol, ‘the great movement’, mostly for political or environmental reasons. It is a real migration and happens only in exceptional cases. For example, the great perol that brought part of the Wodaabe into the territory of…
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The Gerewol is the festival of bodily beauty. The young Bororo, after spending ascetic months in the savannah, paint their faces with the most extravagant designs to accentuate their extended lines. On a pre-selected plain, the various groups set up camp with small huts made of branches and mats. The enclosure for the livestock is…
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The cult of physical beauty is most important. The rules of aesthetics are followed by the entire group. Gently but firmly, the mothers try to shape the physiognomy of the new-born child in the hope of affecting the collective appearance of the group. From birth, the head of the child is delicately squeezed between the…
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The Bororo belong to the large ethnic family of the Peul, better known as the Fulani, Fulbe, Poular, Fula, and Fellata. The origins of the Peul are still a mystery though there is no shortage of theories, some rather imaginative, in this regard. One theory, for example, says they came from Mesopotamia, having crossed the…
Read moreThere are at least eighteen countries, where children are recruited and used in armed conflicts. From regular army to rebels, from guerrilla movements to drug cartels. The phenomenon has assumed the status of a humanitarian disaster. Dahara was 15 and had never used a weapon until he arrived in Libya, together with his eighteen-year-old cousin…
Read moreIt is estimated that there are 152 million children in the world who are compelled to work with 72.1 million of these in the African continent alone. Out of these, 31.5 million are engaged in heavy and dangerous work. Covid-19 has aggravated the situation. Before sunrise, Jean Pierre sets out on the rough path that…
Read moreThey travel alone. They may fall into the hands of human traffickers. They often end up in detention centres without knowing why or for how long. The mental health repercussions may be irreparable. Maria Lourdes is just seven years old and is travelling with some people she does not know. Together with others she has…
Read moreBorn in the Caliphate and indoctrinated to believe in a ‘different world’. The images are few and taken from a distance. They show boys from 9 to 15 years old with Kalashnikovs in their hands, shooting as they run. They throw themselves to the ground and immediately rise again, shooting all the time. Behind them,…
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The discovery of oil, together with its geographical position, has brought Guyana to the attention of the major actors, local and distant, that are present in the Latin-American scene. The United States, in particular, has been working for some time to guarantee the security of the country within which United States oil companies operate, for…
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The recent discoveries of oil have brought Guyana to the centre of international attention. Many interests are at stake. Guyana is a South American country located on the Atlantic Coast and wedged in between Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname, bordering these countries to the south, east and west, respectively. The country is characterised by dense rainforests.…
Read moreIn 1966, Guyana became independent of its mother country and joined the Commonwealth as an autonomous entity. Legislative power was entrusted to an elected assembly composed of 35 members and, in 1970, the new Constitutional Charter was launched and the ‘Cooperative Republic of Guyana’ was proclaimed with Arthur Chung, judge of Chinese ancestry, as president.…
Read moreEconomically, with a per capita GNP of around $5,000, Guyana is one of the poorest countries in the world with much internal inequality between the shanty towns and the rich financial centres. Almost 40% of the population lives in poverty and the country is in 125th place according to the UN index of development. The…
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The Colombian environmental and peace activist has played a key role in establishing a protected area in the Amazon, providing small farmers with access to…
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One day, two friends named Ebopp and Mbaw went off in search of a good site to establish a farm with fine fields of grain and…
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Young people will play an important role at COP30 in Belém, Brazil. This will give young people a greater voice in climate action and policy-making at…
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