A Discussion with Father Augustin Some, S.J., Director, CERCLE, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
With: Augustin Some Berkley Center Profile
July 11, 2014
Background: In July 2014, as part of the Education and Social Justice Project,
undergraduate student Hopey Fink interviewed Fr. Augustin Some, S.J., the
director of the Center of Studies and Reflection for Students (le Centre d’Etude et de Réflexion pour Collégiens, Lycéens et Etudiants, CERCLE) and member of the Jesuit community in Gounghin,
Ouagadougou. In this interview, Some discusses the Jesuit history of CERCLE,
the center’s history, and the populations it serves.
I read the website a bit—it’s well-organized! I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about
the history of the study center.
Yes, we have worked on it a lot. Father Jean can tell you a lot more about the historical aspect. He was part of the first Jesuits here. He saw that there were students studying along the road, with no light. It was necessary to find a system to support these people where no one else was.
The fathers decided, at the time in the [1980s], to help the young people grow up together. They wanted to create a space with chalkboards and light. A calm, quiet place to study. They searched for a space where we [Jesuits] live is our own property. But it is not our property in terms of land—it belongs to the parish. The Jesuit father at the time was on good terms with the parish so now, the land is the parish’s property. But the buildings—they belong to the Jesuits. It is not our property one hundred percent.
The institution itself is Jesuit. And we are running it as Jesuits, according to our own way of educating people, with Jesuit pedagogy.
Once the buildings were constructed, we created a little library. And we started having support courses to be able to aid those who could not go to school. For example, I know a student who quit school after three years of trying the BAC [baccalaureate exam]. But then he returned here, and registered, and was able to follow the support course to take his BAC. They are to recuperate those who do not have the means or those who have failed already.
Our mission is first to offer a space that is quiet and calm for studies. Second, to accompany—to accompany each student in care of the whole person, or cura personalis. The pedagogy of accompaniment says that we know everyone, and that we listen to everyone. We understand that a student’s social life could affect his studies. There are many students who have family troubles, but through accompaniment, we are able to help them understand where they are. The demand becomes bigger and bigger.
How many students do you serve?
We had at one point 1,000 students. Now we have about 400. It was not numerous at the beginning. There were two or three Jesuits here at the start, and several scholastics were sent to help. These young Jesuits would give courses—in math, French, English, and philosophy.
It is not a middle school. It is not a high school. It is not a college. It is simply a center, a center for study and reflection. You come to study, reflect, and follow your life. We have trainings and support classes. You can come to sit down and do research. And we say it’s for collègiens, lycéens, and étudiants—those who are in middle school, high school, and college. That is where the name comes from, Centre d’Étude et Réflection pour les Collègiens, Lycéens, et Étudiants. At the base, it is that.
There are some in primary school who are interested in CERCLE. We must integrate them in time. We accompany everyone. We have operated like this, with a system of administration that mimics that of a middle school. We have a director of studies, who organizes the schedules and presents the candidates for the exams.
In 2012, the provincial decided to suspend the support courses, because the calm was gone. CERCLE was reminiscent of a middle school because the demand was too big. We had over one thousand students registered and milling around. The original goal of CERCLE was to create a calm space for study. But when you have young students hanging out and going to classes, there is shouting; there is singing; there is talking. So we stopped the support courses and returned to this mission.
This explains the decrease in enrollment numbers, because people used to come specifically for those classes. Me, when I came here, I wanted to stress that each student got individual attention. When you register to become a member [of CERCLE], you are accompanied. It used to be that students would come just for the course. But we wanted to be sure that they were getting more than that.
So now we have supplementary courses, but they are only offered to people who are already registered as members. These are generally offered for those in the exam grades. We have a course in philosophy, in science, in math, in French, and in physics-chemistry. We accompany those in the exam grade, but it is not obligatory. Those who want these supplementary courses can follow them. We invite professors specialized in each subject to teach these courses. Effectively, we hope that these help students grow and deepen their knowledge.
We want to cultivate a culture of excellence—the magis, going deeper. We utilize what we call formation intégrale to form students, people, to be able to be with and for others. To this end, we proposed a series of activities to supplement studies. Students organize them in group work. If you are doing in economics, do not sit just with those who study economics. If you study with someone who does English literature, you will both benefit—mixing is a blessing. They organize themselves. When they have a problem, there is usually someone who can help them. There are many university students who come here to study and who are always able to give younger students a hand. They benefited from older students helping when they were younger—it is like a circle. It is always the students themselves who take care of the libraries, too. They take shifts and learn useful skills.
There are some cultural activities that are part of integral formation as well. Students come here to form themselves and to be formed, and our duty is to accompany them in this regard. We have sports, theater, and also spiritual exercises. We don’t make any distinctions at CERCLE; your spirituality is yours, and we do not make a distinction, whether you are Christian, whether you are Muslim, whether you are animist. You are a human. Everyone has his or her place. We are not interested in asking people what they practice. But we do offer spiritual activities.
Are the majority of students Christian?
Perhaps the majority are actually Muslim. But there are also some Protestants and many Catholics. Everyone is here together. The formation we give is formation for all—in human life, in spiritual life, in our community, and our country.
Yes, we have worked on it a lot. Father Jean can tell you a lot more about the historical aspect. He was part of the first Jesuits here. He saw that there were students studying along the road, with no light. It was necessary to find a system to support these people where no one else was.
The fathers decided, at the time in the [1980s], to help the young people grow up together. They wanted to create a space with chalkboards and light. A calm, quiet place to study. They searched for a space where we [Jesuits] live is our own property. But it is not our property in terms of land—it belongs to the parish. The Jesuit father at the time was on good terms with the parish so now, the land is the parish’s property. But the buildings—they belong to the Jesuits. It is not our property one hundred percent.
The institution itself is Jesuit. And we are running it as Jesuits, according to our own way of educating people, with Jesuit pedagogy.
Once the buildings were constructed, we created a little library. And we started having support courses to be able to aid those who could not go to school. For example, I know a student who quit school after three years of trying the BAC [baccalaureate exam]. But then he returned here, and registered, and was able to follow the support course to take his BAC. They are to recuperate those who do not have the means or those who have failed already.
Our mission is first to offer a space that is quiet and calm for studies. Second, to accompany—to accompany each student in care of the whole person, or cura personalis. The pedagogy of accompaniment says that we know everyone, and that we listen to everyone. We understand that a student’s social life could affect his studies. There are many students who have family troubles, but through accompaniment, we are able to help them understand where they are. The demand becomes bigger and bigger.
How many students do you serve?
We had at one point 1,000 students. Now we have about 400. It was not numerous at the beginning. There were two or three Jesuits here at the start, and several scholastics were sent to help. These young Jesuits would give courses—in math, French, English, and philosophy.
It is not a middle school. It is not a high school. It is not a college. It is simply a center, a center for study and reflection. You come to study, reflect, and follow your life. We have trainings and support classes. You can come to sit down and do research. And we say it’s for collègiens, lycéens, and étudiants—those who are in middle school, high school, and college. That is where the name comes from, Centre d’Étude et Réflection pour les Collègiens, Lycéens, et Étudiants. At the base, it is that.
There are some in primary school who are interested in CERCLE. We must integrate them in time. We accompany everyone. We have operated like this, with a system of administration that mimics that of a middle school. We have a director of studies, who organizes the schedules and presents the candidates for the exams.
In 2012, the provincial decided to suspend the support courses, because the calm was gone. CERCLE was reminiscent of a middle school because the demand was too big. We had over one thousand students registered and milling around. The original goal of CERCLE was to create a calm space for study. But when you have young students hanging out and going to classes, there is shouting; there is singing; there is talking. So we stopped the support courses and returned to this mission.
This explains the decrease in enrollment numbers, because people used to come specifically for those classes. Me, when I came here, I wanted to stress that each student got individual attention. When you register to become a member [of CERCLE], you are accompanied. It used to be that students would come just for the course. But we wanted to be sure that they were getting more than that.
So now we have supplementary courses, but they are only offered to people who are already registered as members. These are generally offered for those in the exam grades. We have a course in philosophy, in science, in math, in French, and in physics-chemistry. We accompany those in the exam grade, but it is not obligatory. Those who want these supplementary courses can follow them. We invite professors specialized in each subject to teach these courses. Effectively, we hope that these help students grow and deepen their knowledge.
We want to cultivate a culture of excellence—the magis, going deeper. We utilize what we call formation intégrale to form students, people, to be able to be with and for others. To this end, we proposed a series of activities to supplement studies. Students organize them in group work. If you are doing in economics, do not sit just with those who study economics. If you study with someone who does English literature, you will both benefit—mixing is a blessing. They organize themselves. When they have a problem, there is usually someone who can help them. There are many university students who come here to study and who are always able to give younger students a hand. They benefited from older students helping when they were younger—it is like a circle. It is always the students themselves who take care of the libraries, too. They take shifts and learn useful skills.
There are some cultural activities that are part of integral formation as well. Students come here to form themselves and to be formed, and our duty is to accompany them in this regard. We have sports, theater, and also spiritual exercises. We don’t make any distinctions at CERCLE; your spirituality is yours, and we do not make a distinction, whether you are Christian, whether you are Muslim, whether you are animist. You are a human. Everyone has his or her place. We are not interested in asking people what they practice. But we do offer spiritual activities.
Are the majority of students Christian?
Perhaps the majority are actually Muslim. But there are also some Protestants and many Catholics. Everyone is here together. The formation we give is formation for all—in human life, in spiritual life, in our community, and our country.
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