On a blisteringly hot afternoon this month, an unusual gathering took place in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in the west African country of Burkina Faso. Shaded by red and green striped canopies, a couple of hundred people stood in reverential silence around a laptop. On screen, a man with a carefully clipped beard, dressed head-to-toe in white, addressed the crowd via Skype from Japan.
