Today, industrialized countries are looking for ways of development and lifestyle that could solve the risks to which we submit Nature. When I started living and working with the Senufo people in 1969, a year before the first celebration of Earth Day, I found a society that lived largely in harmony with Nature.
The Senufo with whom I lived in the village of Sirasso, lived in a traditional and self-sufficient agrarian mode little affected by colonization. French and industrial influences did not determine their daily life, social structure, values, or beliefs.
Coming from the United States as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I had to work to help the people of Sirasso transition to the modernization goals of the young nation of Ivory Coast. However, my generation of the 1960s in the United States sought a more communal life, less materialistic and more respectful of Nature and the environment. When I arrived in Sirasso I felt I had found a way of life that many young Americans were looking for.
Although I was there to guide them towards the 20th century, I found they were my teachers on how to live a sustainable life in harmony with Nature. As with many self-sufficient indigenous peoples, their main beliefs were related to living with Nature. This kinship with Nature was called “animism.” The Senoufo have taught me so many valuable life lessons and a new way of looking at relationships with people and Nature.
Next: Connecting with Place – The rhythm of a rural agrarian life.
Adobe and thatch villages, which seemed to rise from the ground, forming an integral part of the landscape, once embodied the Senufo universe in the region of northern Côte d’Ivoire. The family enclosures of a traditional village came together in a natural design like a labyrinthine beehive. (Read More >>)