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Maybe you once showed up at a party and realized too late that it was a costume party. Or, maybe you realized too late that it was not a costume party. Maybe you joined the Peace Corps and found yourself in a little hut at the end of a dirt road, surrounded by a gaggle of curious children. For one reason or another, many people end up in a place where they are the weird stranger. |
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| When children throw rocks at you, total strangers want their picture taken with you, and when people start talking to you veery slooowly and louder than usual, you know that you are now yovo. | |
| People have many names for the weird strangers among them. Some call them dang for'ners others call them Ausländer, étrangers, or @$%^(#&^%. In West Africa many people call them yovo, which means "talking dog." | |
I was yovo many times. Deep in the West African bush, pouring palm wine libations for the ancestors of the village or haggling with my taxi passengers, I learned the true meaning of yovo. On this website, I've begun to document some of my experiences in Africa.
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| In January 1990, I left Germany for a 6-month journey to Africa. On my bicycle I crossed France, Spain and Morocco. There, I joined a another German guy with his dog and snakes. I loaded my bike on his pickup and together we crossed the Sahara (together with some French car traffickers) and traveled across West Africa. Eventually we got sick, and sold the dog and the truck to get the money for the plane tickets back home. |
In early 1991, I returned to Yikpa, a village in the mountains in southern
Togo, where I had left my bicycle. I found
my bike and all my possessions where I had left them, and I decided
to stay for a while to learn more about Africa. My hosts were pleased
about this decision and allowed me to ask their ancestors for a
piece of land where I could build a house. I also bought a small
Toyota van and started working as a bush taxi driver. |
| Read the story |
"yovo - yovo bon soir ca vas bien - merciiee"