Agou
Spanish international newspaper El País published an English and Spanish version of the story Saskia Houttuin and I made for Dutch newspaper Trouw! The 1300 words piece has appeared on their website, accompanied by a slideshow with 13 of the pictures I took in and around Agou, Côte d’Ivoire.
To read the story, click on one of the two pictures below:
New work for Dutch newspaper Trouw:
It has been forbidden to hunt for Ivory Coast's pangolins since 1974, but the law has never been maintained. Now it is known that the coronavirus may have been transmitted from animals onto humans through a pangolin, Ivorians are fighting for a ban. But it's not easy.
Now that Ahmed Fofana, 21, is out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic, his grandfather's old shotgun comes in handy. For years it lay in pieces in the shed. "It was no longer used," said Fofana, who took the time to give the weapon a second life. Black, wrapped tape and some simple welding now hold the long barrel and wooden butt together.
Almost every day at dusk, he walks out of his village, the rifle in his hand. Agou, a small town in the southeastern department of Adzopé (Ivory Coast), is surrounded by forests and fields. It's an ideal hunting ground. In the 'brousse', as Ivorians describe wild natural areas, Fofana hunts for his next meal. He sums up the animals he encounters: "Gazelles, deer, hedgehogs, rats, pangolins, snakes". If it's edible, he shoots it.
He prefers to do something else for a living. "But I have no choice," he explains. Due to the corona virus, he lost his job as a moped taxi driver last year. "As the man of the house, it is my job to find food for my family." Read the whole story, by Saskia Houttuin, by following this link.
