Mauro Lupo

Mauro Lupo notre nouveau Directeur de Bureau Régional à Praia était récemment en formation au siège.

Italien de 45 ans, Mauro totalise une expérience de 19 ans dans le domaine de la coopération au développement. Son diplôme d'Ingénieur Civil en poche, il a quitté l'Italie pour 2 années au Cap-Vert en tant que volontaire en service civil au sein de l'ONG Africa'70. Il enchaînera ensuite de nombreux postes à responsabilités en tant qu'expert génie civil et gestionnaire de projets auprès de bureaux d'étude, de la Commission Européenne, successivement au Niger, en Guinée, à Sao Tome e Principe et au Maroc.
Avant de rejoindre Lux-Development, Mauro travaillait en tant que task manager des projets /programmes secteur infrastructures à la délégation de la Commission Européenne à Rabat. Mauro nous confie aujourd’hui qu’il ne regrette pas les six ans passés au Maroc. Bien au contraire, il y trouvait sur les marchés tous les ingrédients pour une bonne cuisine « fatt’ a casa ». Pour ne pas accumuler des grammes inutiles, Mauro pratique le tennis, la musculation et des raids en moto tout terrain. Outre les atouts de son expérience professionnelle et culinaire, notre nouveau directeur régional maîtrise parfaitement le Portugais et le créole capverdien.

Benvindo Mauro !

La foret classée du Kou

Un patrimoine naturel et culturel à préserver

Témoignage de stage au Burkina Faso d'Amélie Brenner

Senegal film-making pioneer dies

BBC Online

Sembene Ousmane

Ousmane fought for the Free French forces in World War II.

One of the pioneers of African film-making - Senegalese writer Sembene Ousmane - has died after a long illness at the age of 84.

Ousmane is credited with making the first feature film by a director from sub-Saharan Africa, 'The black girl from....' in 1966.

His latest work, Moolaade, won awards at the Cannes and Ouagadougou festivals and he has won two prizes at Venice.

He was born in the Casamance region of Senegal and went to an Islamic school.

Later he fought for the Free French forces in World War II.

Before the publication of his first novel, The Black Docker, in 1956, he worked in a car plant in Paris and was a trade union activist.

He made a total of 10 films during his career.

Much of his work focused on the effects of colonialism and religion, as well as the rise of the African middle class.

He was also a co-founder of the biennial Pan-African festival of film and television of Ouagadougou (Fespaco).
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RFI.fr
Doyen des cinéastes africains, Sembène Ousmane aimait à se surnommer l'aîné des Anciens.





Né un 1er janvier, en 1923, au Sénégal, en Casamance, ce grand patriarche était un pilier, une figure tutélaire : c'est lui qui réalisa, en 1966, le premier long métrage produit et réalisé en Afrique noire : La Noire de..., l'histoire d'une jeune sénégalaise immigrée en France réduite en esclavage par ses patrons blancs.

Coup d'essai, coup de maître pour ce cinéaste de 43 ans. Car avant de choisir le 7ème art, Sembène Ousmane avait été maçon, docker, militant syndicaliste engagé, et écrivain.

C'est pour faire passer ses idées au plus grand nombre qu'il se tourne vers le cinéma. Après avoir consulté André Bazin et Georges Sadoul, deux références de la critique, il part étudier le 7ème art à Moscou.

Tous ses films portent un combat et un engagement. Ancien tirailleur sénégalais, Sembène Ousmane évoquait les pages les plus sombres de son continent.

Jusqu'à son dernier film, Moolaadé, dénonciation de l'excision des petites filles dans l'Afrique actuelle.

Cri de colère et film militant qui remporta le prix Un Certain Regard au festival de Cannes il y a trois ans.

Libraries in the desert

May 31st 2007 | TIMBUKTU
From The Economist print edition
Preserving ancient literature in the desert

The imam of manuscripts and mosque

ANCIENT and mystical as Timbuktu may be, these days it leaves many a traveller hot and even a bit disappointed. Yet it still houses some amazing treasures. Among them, in old family homes, is a wondrous literary past that was in danger of disappearing but may now, with luck, be preserved.

Scholars are scrambling to preserve thousands of manuscripts that detail daily and academic life hundreds of years ago on the edge of the Sahara desert. Hidden from Moroccan invaders in the 16th century, French colonisers in the 20th and random thieves and tyrants in-between, bundles of old documents are at last being recovered and conserved in new libraries in Timbuktu.

More than 150,000 manuscripts, dating back as far as the 12th century, tell of battles, astronomy, the sciences and the music of the day. “We must preserve them because it is our history,” says Abdulrahman Ben Essayouti, imam of Timbuktu's Great Mosque. “Writing remains but stories disappear. It's not just for Timbuktu but for all Muslim culture.”

Written mainly in Arabic but also in some African languages, the documents are being collected in public and private libraries. Visitors can inspect a 12th-century copy of the Koran written in gold or a manuscript written on a gazelle's skin when paper was scarce.

Timbuktu was established over 1,000 years ago as a seasonal camp for Tuareg nomads. Before long it became a famously rich town, bustling with gold, ivory and slave traders. It also drew Muslim scholars from across the world; in its prime, the University of Sankore boasted 25,000 students. “It was a melting pot of cultures,” says the imam.

But the sacking of Timbuktu by the Moroccans at the end of the 16th century led to its demise. The manuscripts were scattered across the desert, where fleeing families hid them in chests or elsewhere in their homes—for hundreds of years. As a result, the history they told was increasingly transmitted orally, from generation to generation. Now, as scholars persuade owners to set up the libraries, it may again be read on paper.

Timbuktu is still isolated, and Mali is one of the world's poorest countries. Aside from a handful of tourists, salt caravans from across the desert and, nowadays, American soldiers on anti-terror exercises, it has few visitors. But this may change. “If we conserve these documents, people will come to read and understand more,” says a scholar, Abdul Kader Haidara. “And people will realise that Islam is a tolerant religion.”

LD Delegation to Hung Yen

LUX-DEVELOPMENT’S HIGH-RANKING DELEGATION PAID A VISIT TO HUNG YEN
(Newspaper article translated from Vietnamese)

Yesterday 31 May, the high-ranking mission led by Mr Robert De Waha, Deputy Director of Lux-Development (Luxembourg) paid a working visit to Hung Yen. Madame Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, Vice Chairwoman received the delegation.

On behalf of the People’s Committee, Ms. Vice Chairwoman presented briefly the characteristics and conditions of the province, socio-economic achievements of Hung Yen and the accomplishments attained during the implementation of health support project VIE/017. The project with total budget of 2 987 200 euros, was kicked off in October 2003 and will be completed in December 2007.

The disbursement of the project has now reached 73% of the total budget.

Ms Vice Chair-woman praised the contributions of Luxembourg funded Project VIE/017 to the development of overall health care sector from the provincial to grass-root level by delivering training courses to health workers and equipping health facilities with appropriate technology so as to meet the needs for health care of people.

At the reception, Mr Robert De Waha expressed delight over the working trip to Hung Yen, a province with dynamic economic development, solving social issues of Vietnam.

He also acclaimed the support of the provincial authorities in the implementation of Project VIE/017. Mr Robert De Waha affirmed that Lux-Development will make every effort to successfully complete the remaining project activities in line with the agreement between the two Government of Luxembourg and Vietnam.