Living Water: a look at sufficiency in Cameroon
Abstract
In this interview Blick Bassy, a long-term campaigner for the preservation of water resources, talks about his vision of sufficiency. Many people in Cameroon who live without permanent access to tap-water intuitively manage water resources frugally. Their approach is rooted in a more direct relationship to water which, being visible, is almost a living thing. But in Cameroon and other African countries, water plays a vital spiritual and cultural role too. Ultimately, raising awareness about the scarcity of water resources can be achieved not only by focusing on water’s universal character as a common foundation for all, but also by using the art of music to shape new perceptions about water, as demonstrated by Blick Bassy.
Full text
Students from the Lycée Henri IV taking part in the ‘'Tous des Héros" [We're all heroes] water project, organised to coincide with Blick Bassy's concert at the Scène de Bayssan on 19 March 2024.
1The concept of sufficiency, particularly as it applies to the challenges of water management, is increasingly gaining traction in various countries, including France. What do you think is the position in Cameroon and West Africa in general? Is this a concept that resonates in public debate and people’s perceptions of water?
2Blick Bassy: I would like to answer your question by talking about my personal experience. I grew up in Cameroon, dividing my time between the capital, Yaoundé, and the small village where my grandfather lived. Villagers lived a naturally frugal life. Sufficiency was not theorized as a concept or explicitly acknowledged, but it was nevertheless omnipresent in traditional lifestyles.
3For example, we ate what we harvested, and the only food we purchased was more or less to eat that day. We lived with very little, but it was not a source of frustration: we had no need for more. One of my many memories is of my grandmother using dried meat to give her sauces a meaty taste, using the same “infused” pieces of meat again and again. What we ate tasted of meat although we weren't actually eating meat, which was reserved for the end of the year. And that was fine!
4This natural sufficiency was also very obvious in terms of water management, particularly in the villages where most people obviously had no access to running water. Water was drawn from wells, stored at home in containers and managed with great parsimony. An experiment I got the chance to run with Action Against Hunger in Ivory Coast provided an eloquent illustration of people’s deep-seated, instinctive attachment to frugal water use. The project involved negotiating the supply of running water in certain districts of Abidjan to give low-income families access to water thanks to extremely cheap payment plans. After an eight-month trial, almost 90% of families had cancelled their plan because they couldn’t pay, even though we’d negotiated prices that were meant to be compatible with their financial means. What was happening? The fact was that by moving too fast to make running water from a tap available, we had somehow managed to extinguish the spontaneous sufficiency of local residents.
5I believe the critical point lies in whether or not people can actually see their water. For many years people’s habits were forged through this visual relationship: every day you could see the water container and how it got progressively emptier. This ability to see water directly shows us, without the need for any intermediaries, the impact our daily water use has. In this situation we can observe that water use is extremely moderate and frugal. It is a relationship that is more or less reciprocal: people manage the water, but the water also manages them! Water sees us. I myself grew up with this frugal relationship to water. My brothers and sisters and I would go to the well to collect water, and each of us was then responsible for how much we used. Depending on how much water was left at home we knew that one cup more, or one cup less, could have real consequences for our future needs, because fetching water at night was impossible. I believe this was a healthier relationship to water than how we live today, where water in developed countries simply flows from taps and showers.
6With the experiment in Ivory Coast, the switch to a water supply system meant people could no longer see their water, and they weren’t given information beforehand on how it worked. So it upset their habits and deprived them of their points of reference. How could they keep track of their water use without being able to see how their stored water changed? This shift from an approach based on stored water to one based on flowing water requires a real change in perspective. I’m convinced that tying access to running water to a gauge system, or similar, that makes it easy to measure changes in the amount of water used would make the transition easier and encourage people to use their water frugally.
7The spontaneous sufficiency in water management that was such a feature of my childhood is not only encountered in villages. In built-up areas of Cameroon we also see enforced sufficiency resulting from disruptions in the water network. Because the companies that manage water supplies do not operate properly and the infrastructure is not always operational, many people are forced to have a borehole at home, fetch water from a standpipe, or simply collect rainwater. This is a case of imposed sufficiency because the public system doesn’t work. People are back to managing their stores of water again.
8You seem to feel a degree of nostalgia about this frugal relationship to water. How can this frugal philosophy continue to be passed on while also making sure as many people as possible have access to running water?
9B. B.: We clearly have to work to make sure that everybody has access to running water and suitable modern infrastructure. But it is true that I do feel a certain nostalgia. I feel nostalgic for a world where everybody really understood the importance of water. I keep thinking of seeing, looking: observing our water every day means we have a more direct relationship with it. This ability to see creates a relationship that is almost reciprocal: you look at each other, you see each other. In my childhood water was a living thing. Today it is dead because we no longer see it. Paradoxically, abundance reduces water’s vitality because the illusion of unlimited access makes it less important in our eyes.
10But it doesn't have to be this way. I believe education is a key component in rekindling the relationship between water and consumers. We should be teaching kids from the earliest age to be aware of how their bodies work, explaining to them that not only is the human body over 50% water, but that their bodies need water to function, more than any other resource. Like this we can help forge a new relationship to water. I think that once we realize just how important water is for our bodies to function, and by extension for our lives in general, then our relationship to water resources changes more or less instantly, and quite naturally. I’m a big believer in education and focusing on the body as levers that make it easier to change how people think about water, how we portray it and our relationships to it.
11What has led you as an artist to take such an interest in water? What role do you hope to play in shaping a new relationship to water resources?
12B. B.: My interest in water is the fruit of an extended period of personal reflection. Like so many before me, I noted a prevailing disorder, the chaos in the management of our ecosystems and our societies. Abusive exploitation of resources, armed conflicts, changes to our relationship with the living world and other living things, and so on. Faced with these mind-bendingly complex challenges, I sought to identify a common denominator, a unifying theme that would make it possible to restore ties and change mindsets. Water struck me as the perfect topic. Because water is the element that all living things are composed of, whatever their form, material or identity. Every element making up our ecosystem is composed of water. It is literally the source of life, in the physical and biological senses.
13Recognizing this, I placed water at the heart of my approach, working from the principle that it can act as the starting point for inventing solutions for many of the problems confronting us in today’s world. For we are all related through water. Over and above water, I believe that we would benefit from restoring nature and living things to their rightful place at the heart of our ways of thinking, seeing them as sources of inspiration. I believe that biomimicry is an especially relevant approach.
14Water’s universality evidently coexists with cultural differences. In Cameroon, as in other countries of Africa, water has a very powerful spiritual dimension. Every year, Sawa people from different coastal regions come together for the Ngondo festival in Douala. During the festival, messengers are tasked with gathering testimony from the ancestors, which they do by communicating with the forces and spirits of the Wouri River. This highly respected religious institution is very far removed from western ways of thinking.
15I believe it is essential to protect and promote this heritage of Cameroon’s cultural and spiritual ties to water. There is a nonprofit called La Route des Chefferies [The Chiefdoms route], founded a couple of decades ago, which is working on this. I have partnered with them to take part in a project called La Route de l'Eau [The water road], which aims to catalog all of Cameroon’s waterways and the ritual cultural practices in the regions they run through, and which often bear their name. The initiative gives us the opportunity to talk to local people and improve our understanding of their relationship to water and the role it plays in their lives in many different ways. I can think of countless examples. For women, the moment in the day when they head off to fetch water can be a pretext for getting out of the house and spending time with other women. And water is linked to numerous ritual practices, some of them part of daily life. There are water rituals carried out before planting certain types of tubers. Water occupies a place that extends far beyond simply practical household uses. And this place becomes even more central when water resources are not easily accessible.
16My work as an artist centers on this need to protect and raise awareness of our heritage. My most recent album, Mádibá, is dedicated to water. I tried to evoke the scarcity, necessity, and energy of water as well as its life-giving power but without lecturing. I composed each track like a fable so I could tackle the subject of water in a way that is more detached and poetic. The fables also let me adopt the roles of different characters expressing their relationships to water: an elder, a woman, a bird, and so on. In the song Bengue I evoke the rain through the eyes of an elder telling his grandson that rain used to fall on the ground just behind their home, but no longer comes because humans have killed it. Rain no longer comes, not even if you wait for it all day. I felt it was essential to talk about the lack of water, the impact of pollution, the difficulties people have in accessing safe water.
17As part of preparations for one of my concerts in March 2024 in Béziers in south-west France, we organized a project with the 12-year-olds at Henri IV school in Béziers. The idea was to make a video where the kids talked about their ideas and visions of water. It was a wonderful project that helped remind them just how omnipresent water is in all aspects of their lives.
18Have you got any projects lined up that will deal with the same questions?
19B. B.: At the moment I’m working on a project in Cameroon that hopes to use virtual reality headsets to teach school kids about the different professions involved in the water industry. The fact is that young people are unaware of the range of jobs linked to water: maintenance, distribution, recycling, and so on. Immersing kids in this reality is also a way to kindle their interest in water and how to protect it, as well as helping create the next generation of professionals. I’m thinking hard about other projects on water-related topics that combine awareness and expression. Basically, my interest in water is far from exhausted.
List of illustrations
Title | Students from the Lycée Henri IV taking part in the ‘'Tous des Héros" [We're all heroes] water project, organised to coincide with Blick Bassy's concert at the Scène de Bayssan on 19 March 2024. |
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URL | http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/docannexe/image/7440/img-1.jpg |
File | image/jpeg, 396k |
URL | http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/docannexe/image/7440/img-2.jpg |
File | image/jpeg, 584k |
Title | Ngondo messenger during the festival |
URL | http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/docannexe/image/7440/img-3.jpg |
File | image/jpeg, 512k |
Title | Sleeve art for the album Mádibá |
URL | http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/docannexe/image/7440/img-4.jpg |
File | image/jpeg, 669k |
References
Bibliographical reference
Blick Bassy, “Living Water: a look at sufficiency in Cameroon”, Field Actions Science Reports, Special Issue 26 | 2024, 36-39.
Electronic reference
Blick Bassy, “Living Water: a look at sufficiency in Cameroon”, Field Actions Science Reports [Online], Special Issue 26 | 2024, Online since 10 August 2024, connection on 12 November 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/7440
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