With the Feb. 22-March 1 Pan-African Film and Television Festival of
Ouagadougou (FESPACO) underway in Ouagadougou, filmmaker Apolline Traoré is
urging young Burkinabés to rediscover their heritage through “Let’s Go to the
Museum.” As ambassador for the National Museum of Burkina Faso, she hopes to
make it a cultural landmark and counter modern distractions eroding historical
awareness.
Despite housing an estimated 14,000 artifacts across four
categories—ethnographic, contemporary, archaeological, and miscellaneous—the
museum, founded in 1962, remains largely
overlooked by the country’s youth.
“Our children are glued to their screens; they no longer read. They
don’t even really know what our ancestors’ culture was,” Traoré observed. She
believes modernization shouldn’t overshadow the importance of “preserving
our roots.” “We need to understand where we come from,” she said,
calling on young Burkinabés to embrace their history through this first edition
of the initiative.
‘The beautiful aspects of
our tradition’
“I had never set foot in this museum despite living in Ouagadougou,” said Bazongo,
who attended the Feb. 23 launch with her children. “I see that an incredible
effort has been made, and I congratulate the organizer.”
Like her, many attendees at the opening night praised the timely initiative.
Rachel Kocty called it an “exceptional event”
at a time when culture in Burkina Faso has been somewhat sidelined. Another
participant, Gouba, described it as a way to “reconnect
with our own history.” “The museum is rising from the ashes, and this
motivates us to cherish our heritage,” he said.
For Léila Werem, the project is vital. “It allows us to see
the beautiful sides of our traditions and realize they are not as bad as we’ve
been led to believe,” she said.
Culture and religion: Not opposites
In Burkina Faso, as in much of Africa, young people sometimes find
themselves torn between modern religious beliefs and efforts to reclaim their
cultural identity.
Though a Catholic but not a regular churchgoer, Traoré
encourages an open-minded approach. “I don’t think there is a contradiction,”
she said. “It’s simply about adaptation. Of course, we need to know our culture
and promote it in our own way, but everyone is free to worship the God of their
choice.”
She believes a strong educational foundation rooted in heritage is essential for this balance to become a reality. “If you have a
solid cultural foundation, you can engage with the world easily, no matter
where you come from,” she explained. “But when that foundation is missing,
that’s when people get lost.”
Ultimately, she insists, “the only real problem is a lack of roots.”