LifeLife
Dancing into the future
An unusual project gets young prostitutes off the street in Burkina Faso – By Andrea Jeska
After more than 20 successful years in Paris, the dancer and choreographer Irene Tassembedo has returned home to Burkina Faso to help young women whose lives have gone awry.
Steam rises from the floors and wafts from the ceilings, the smell of sweat hangs in the air and bare feet stomp on the ground. The drummers in the corner are sweating, too. As they increase the tempo, the dancers move their feet faster and faster. As the hour draws to a close, dancers and drummers alike collapse, exhausted, in the corner. They look like they’re pleased with their efforts.
Irene Tassembedo angrily addresses the girls in the group. They’re lacking in discipline, ambition and willpower, she says. She has seen nothing but timidity and substandard efforts. The girls lower their heads until their teacher stops venting.
One would not have suspected that a dance school exists in this street on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The dirt road is nothing special and no sign is affixed to the sand-colored building.
Back in the big leagues!
The Bundesliga takes Africa – a new export champion – By Bartholomäus Grill
Waiting for Ernst Huberti” – the period without football during the summer used to be described that way, borrowing from Samuel Beckett’s famous play. At some point, the sports program “Die Sportschau” and its host showed up again, and with that the ball began to fly up the field anew. Kickoff time for the Bundesliga! And it’s now been back for a few weeks, only this time around it’s not just the fans in Germany who are on tenterhooks but fans across Africa, too. This season sees German professional players take to the TV screens in 40 sub-Saharan countries. That’s never happened before.
The ambassador of football
Hervé Tcheumeleu publishes Germany’s only African sports magazine – By Jan Scheper
The African Challenge was founded in 2005 and reports in three languages. Its main focus is on football – especially on African players in the Bundesliga.
Hervé Tcheumeleu is a busy man. He is the publisher and editor of The African Challenge, Africa’s only sports magazine to appear in Germany. The 33-year old greets us in the national costume of his home country, Cameroon. His editorial offices are painted green and gold, and are located in the Berlin district of Wedding – home to 2,500 Africans. More than 18,000 Africans live in the German capital.
Tcheumeleu tells us he originally came to Germany to study biotechnology. But soon after, he discovered journalism. “It was like a vocation,” he says. “I wanted to do something for all of Africa.”
Five years ago, he started LoNam, a social magazine for Africans living in Germany. Today, it has a circulation of 10,000 and comes out every second month in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The African Challenge is LoNam’s sports offshoot – and its focus is on football, particularly on Africans playing football in Germany, both professionally and as amateurs.
The power of ancestors
A visit to the village of the Rain Queens in Limpopo province, South Africa – By Odile Jolys
The rain rituals still followed in the northwest of the country show that old traditions can go along with modern democracy. Even practicing Christians keep up the old ways.
The royal village of Khetlhakone clings to the green hillside below the Modjadji Nature Reserve. This little-known national park in the subtropical province of Limpopo is named after a dynasty of Rain Queens. Their magical power has ensured the well-being of the local Balobedu people since the 19th century.
The village shows no sign of luxury. Families here have electricity but share their water supply. Maize kernels, peanuts and spinach leaves are laid out to dry on the floors of the mud houses. Kept away from the public eye, a five-year-old girl is growing up – the future Rain Queen Modjadji VII. Her mother died at the age of 27, a few months after Modjadji’s birth.
You must be barefoot to go into the round meeting-place at the entrance to the village. This sandy space, surrounded by a thorny hedge, is where the grand rain ceremony takes place every year in October, when spring comes to South Africa. “Anyone can come,” says Ballpen Molokwane, a member of the royal family.
The ritual is performed by the queen or the regent. Its focus is Makobo, a holy cow. The animal is named after the woman who once bore a child to an infertile king; it embodies the ancestors who are being asked to send rain. In these people’s faith, the dead remain in the world. They can wreak havoc and they can bring blessings; and they are the spokespeople for mortals before God.
A monument disintegrates
Ever since his return to Formula One, Michael Schumacher has been bringing up the rear – By Frank Bachner
He was received like a Messiah: The return of the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher after three years was supposed to jazz up Formula One racing. Yet half a year later, disenchantment is all there is.
The telephone switchboard simply collapsed. It was rather modern, designed to cope with a large amount of incoming calls, yet it was not up to the Michael Schumacher myth. Everybody wanted tickets for the German Formula One Grand Prix in Hockenheim to see Michael Schumacher, 41, the seven-time world champion. He had announced his comeback a few days prior to the event, after a three-year break. The return of the superstar in a silver Mercedes: a human legend in a legendary car.