From Trouble to Relief

Towards an urban and attentional ecology of the bakoroman in Ouagadougou

Abstract

In this paper the authors investigate a less documented side of street children’s (bakoroman) lives in Ouagadougou, namely, their encounters with strangers in town. These encounters lead to resources such as relationships, goods, protective time and space, or learning opportunities and punctuate the narratives of the bakoroman. They are one of the main dimensions of their lives in the urban public space as they go back and forth between the street and their homes (institutional and family). As such, these interactions participate in the construction of their biographical trajectories and bifurcations. From minimum reciprocity to relational vigilance, a broad spectrum of interactions delineates the possibilities and limits of an «ethics of fragility». Across these encounters the children create their space in the city, through circumstantial pedagogies of living together. These interactions can be read as resources to regulate urban violence, other than institutional or charitable interventions.