Monday, 23
Two weeks later.
I've started Fenton's second book Chasing Hornbills, the title of which refers to a Diola tradition where people chase hornbills in favour of their good luck in life. Because i use Internet a lot - even sometimes indulging in social media, games or music being stuck on the sofa unable to make a move - i'd like to make use of him again. As we are here in solitude, the two of us rarely having people around, do we fling ourselves into the net to get connected to the world. Nevertheless, it is to the detriment of our productivity. We both tend to be down when nothing happens where we are somehow included or at least reflected with our project. In these times of darkness no perception of a transcendent authenticity can reach our minds and provide the way out of a here and then occurring depression. That is why i stick to the idea of keeping an Internet connection in order to prevent isolation. We also watch television and DVDs to dive into other worlds as well as to recognize the work of filmmaking. Though, they're not as interactive in terms of a face-to-face exchange like the World Wide Web is. Little by little we have been developing our house, our land and our lives. I say little by little, but actually we have achieved a remarkable amount in just a few years in which, between us, we've built five houses, raised two children, developed a travel business, travelled around, written and published two books, and much more. The secret of such productivity? I don't have an internet connection at home. (p36)
Monday, 9
Half year ago i bought a book at Timbooktoo, a sophisticated bookshop in Fajara, The Gambia. My friend Yvonne from Basel had been visiting me last June and I was keen to introduce her to "my" bookshop. The time I was teaching at Diana Mariam School I always went to their Café upstairs during my breaks to relax and recover. Several times Yvonne mentioned an English writer, who had lived in Casamance and who she knew about from her travel guide to Gambia. She also told me that he had died in a car accident. But somehow I wouldn't hear of it. Only when we reached at the bookshop and saw both of his books displayed on the counter - respectively she spotted them, because she knew his name - I realised. Back home I immediately started and almost finished half of it. Then I stopped, because my life became difficult that time at the beginning of living at The House of Culture Tintinto and during rainy season. I was scared and the book made me even more afraid. But later, when I felt home and settled, I continued once in a while. Yesterday, after spending the night at the Independence Stadium in Bakau to follow the artist ST and his album Gambiana I found time and leisure to open it again. The first few lines I read matched somehow my point of view - saying it bluntly, because of course my experiences differ from his completely. Further, my perception is not the same. For example the way he is generalising Africa as such I don't agree with. Also "we all believe what we want to belief" in a way could be explained a bit more detailed - why do we believe what we believe considering personal history and Zeitgeist as well as cultural and political circumstances within life and education. However, I thought of i'd like quoting him here what I am about to do now.
Belief is maybe my biggest conflict; myself a biology graduate non-believer and Khady (his wife born and raised in Senegal) a superstitious Muslim. I have such a strong sense of wonder of the world and of the science behind it, of which knowledge is increasing all the time, that to reduce life to "God created it" seems to me massive simplistic.
Beliefs of all kinds are very different in Africa, for example equal opportunities for women and views on homosexuality. I feel that in the UK at least, we've evolved enough so that these days you have to work hard to be, for example, sexist or homophobic. But I'm aware that this is my toubab mentality.
I have met many well-educated, western-valued Africans who are horrified if I suggest gays should not be punished, even executed, or that God may be a human invention. There simply isn't a discussion around these matters. African society has not had the history the West has over the past few hundred years that has caused many to question their religion or the history of the past five decades surrounding equal opportunities in all its form. Africa's different and therefore I can make a distinction and roll with it.
A point many commentators seem to miss is the importance we play upon the individual in the West and the rights and choices attached to that person. In Africa, this is not so important and a person is viewed in terms of their relationships with others, for example as a brother or sister, a father or mother, son or daughter, a Chief, a Diola, a Muslim and so on. All of these relationships carry obligations that are considered more important than anything an individual might prefer had he or she been given a free choice. The right to an education instead of working for the family or the right of a man to practice homosexuality rather than to marry and produce children. The happiness of the individual is considered less important than the well-being of the community, and failure to maintain the traditions of the ancestors is thought to bring bad luck.
I'd never survive here without an open attitude but one thing that does make me chuckle is when other toubabs can reconcile their religious beliefs and yet laugh at some of the superstitious beliefs of local people. We all believe what we want to believe.
Squirting Milk at Chameleons. An accidental African. Simon Fenton. Published by Eye Books in 2015. p 163, 164
I never had the chance to meet him. Now five years later he probably would see things different and it is a pity not being able to talk to him.
May he rest in peace and power.
Friday, 15
