In Togo, dance steps can play an important role in urban sanitation. This is the approach of the Togolese Federation of Sports Dance (FTDS), which has launched the “”Territories united by citizen action for the environment through sport (Traces)” project. The aim is to raise awareness of solid waste collection and recycling in three councils through ballets and choreography.
The councils in question are Agoè-Nyivé 1, Golfe 1 and Golfe 7 in the Greater Lomé Autonomous District (DAGL). The initiative is part of the Lomé Urban Environment Project (PEUL III), financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) to improve the attractiveness of the Togolese capital.
For Elom Attissogbé, Secretary General of the FTDS, it is “no longer possible to dissociate sport from the protection of nature”. And the timing is right for the implementation of Traces, as the discipline dubbed “breakdance” (an American-style dance style combining acrobatics and hip-hop) has been admitted for the first time to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games themselves focused on the eco-responsible practice of sports.
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Over the next three months, the Togolese b-boys and b-girls (breakdancers) will be touring the whole of the DAGL, distributing cleaning equipment (brooms, dustbins) to schools and municipal workers. The Agoè-Nyivé high school was the first to benefit, in particular to maintain its multisport complex, due to be inaugurated in August 2023. As a reminder, Lomé generates 350,000 tonnes of household waste per year, most of which ends up in the middle of beaches and reaches the depths of the ocean.
Benoit-Ivan Wansi