I’m Carlos Battaglini and I left everything to become a writer. Here you will find posts about my curious life in Liberia and other African countries. It is also where I immerse myself in the burning light of African literature through brutally honest book reviews. Welcome to your home and thanks for joining me on this adventure.
I left everything to become a writer, join me on this adventure.
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The Beautyful ones are not yet born by Ayi-Kweih-Armah is a novel that tells the story of a railway traffic control clerk in Ghana, who is disenchanted with life and the course of events in his country. The main character remains nameless, as Armah simply refers to him as ‘the man”. He feels very lonely and misunderstood…
Things Fall Apart is a classic piece of African literature, and why not, of world literature. The story portrays a typical African rural reality (Nigerian in this case), where the relationship between religion, white man and the colonisation of the African continent is explained. Certainly, back in the day in Africa (as on other continents…
DID CONAKRY EXIST? The time had come to tour the capital city of Guinea Conakry. The city, which on naming it provoked sighs and rolling of the eyes among the people I knew, deserved its space and its moment. So at breakfast time, while some Chinese tapped noisily away on their laptops, I got help…
CAN I SAY SOMETHING? Imagine an airport. Can you think of an airport and feel what it is? An airport, a kaleidoscopic space, a mental multiplication, a neurological trampoline. And meanwhile, I listen to her. And whilst I am checking in, I see her. I see Roseline moving rhythmically, to the beat of a wish.…
The narrator’s voice maintains an objective and firm tone throughout, but on page 130, the narrator surprisingly expresses an opinion about the new, cruel Reverend Smith, saying that he should have known that the Kingdom of God does not depend on the masses. “He should have known that the kingdom of God did not depend…
ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF MONROVIA, LIBERIA. IN THE MIDDLE OF DEPRIVATION AND AN IMMORTAL ENERGY, we get out the Toyotas Prado and make our way to a crumbling school that was hosting several scattered polling stations. It seemed as if the whole neighbourhood had already voted at these tables because the rooms were practically empty;…
“IT’S IN A STATE, MAN, GREECE IS IN A STATE,” says Frankie, a Liberian, as he noisily walks around his Portuguese friend, Gilberto’s kitchen in his kiwi green, scraggy shirt. “It’s in a state, man, Greece is in a state! I just got back from there and Jesus, it’s all stress and pressure; the bank…
I SLEEP IN GBENEQUELLEH IN A TINY ROOM with no mosquito net, hoping malaria in Liberia doesn’t recognise me. Deep into the night, an overwhelming silence alternates with the roar of generators. I am tired and can hardly sleep. The next morning, Fred springs straight up, so he has obviously had a good rest compared to…
GOAL. Goooal!!!! That was a goooooal !!! Goooooooal!!! The whole Samuel Doe Stadium erupts. It’s party time. We embrace, we’re all Liberians today and we are dancing with everyone. Gilberto is engaging in consensual fondling with the girl sitting behind us and someone is slapping me on the back as if they’d known me their…
WHY AM I SAYING ON EDGE IF EVERYTHING IS CALM IN LIBERIA? IS EVERYTHING CALM IN LIBERIA? Ladies and gentlemen: the moment of truth has arrived. We find ourselves in the decisive final round, the moment many Liberians have been anxiously waiting for: the presidential elections. Everyone has been summoned, to decide the future of…
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ON THE UNSTOPPABLE ROAD TO INSANITY that stems from any mental insistence (please keep reading). Now. That I have just got back from Europe – from the “white world” – I want to scream out the following: In third place: when one is reunited with the land where one grew up after a considerable journey,…
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ONE DAY MORE In LIBERIA (ONE DAY LESS…) I am exhausted as I start to write. It’s been a hard day again and the last thing I fancy doing is tapping away at a cold keyboard. So. It’s time to evoke Stevenson and remind myself that not a day went by when the author of…
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Now. I walk down the hill of UN Drive towards my house in Mamba Point and I see her. It’s as if the Liberians who are randomly walking around on the street move to one side to let her go by. It’s like the Moses effect, when he parted the sea. She is like a…
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At first we did not talk. Never ever. Not even whenever I’d set foot in his motley Nissan Sunny, which was attempting to be yellow and I’d make some friendly, open comment. Now, I am not saying that I’d come out with harmless banter about the weather, no, it gets worse than that; my tongue…
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HE SPEAKS CALMLY, KEEPING THE SAME TONE OF VOICE THROUGHOUT. He moves his hands slowly, only half looking at you, steadily interrupting your rushed arguments and shakes his head a couple of times as you speak. Every two or three minutes, as we talk over dinner at the Royal Hotel sushi restaurant, the UNMIL policeman…
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Things Fall Apart is a novel that narrates the story of Okonkwo, an Igbo farmer and warrior who settled in the fictitious village of Umuofia (Nigeria) at some point between 1860 and 1890 (during the pre-colonial era and emergence of colonialism). Okonkwo is scarred by the negative image that he has of his own father:…
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FEAR IN BLACK AND WHITE. Some people have started leaving the bar, forming a scary, irregular line. “This bar is mine and I want to tell you loud and clear that over there by the bar, there are some guys who have bought their drinks outside and brought them in here. This bar is for…
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As we return to the car, I share with Fred and Alex what Kapuscinski once wrote about Liberia in his masterpiece, The Shadow of the Sun. How he’d be decapitated if he didn’t hand over money to the boys who watched over him whilst he slept. Fred can’t contain his laughter while Alex recoils in…
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IT’S FULL OF PIGS. That’s what we found upon arrival at the next village, Green Hill Quarry, in Liberia. The village is shaped like an L-shaped slide. It’s so inclined that it feels like we are sliding, wheeee. The dirty pigs, which are emaciated with protruding bones, are scurrying all over the village. They eat a lot,…
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“GUINEA? WHY GUINEA? Why would you complicate your life?” the Lebanese landlord asked me, frowning and bringing a hand to his head. “Why don’t you go to Namibia? It’s a wonderful country”. A few hours later, while I spooned rice into my mouth, Sophie paraphrased the words of her French friend, “Guinea is the dump…
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RUN. RUN. When we ran in Monrovia in among the shacks, trampling the earth and the sand, dodging dilapidated huts, I would brush against the zinc ceilings that were caving in. Sometimes I would stop and a bunch of kids…
I KNOW RIGHT FROM THE START THAT JOKERS IS NOT MY KIND OF BAR. The moment I step foot out of the taxi, I can sense a certain carefreeness and self-confidence in the air, and that certainly isn’t my type…
ONE DAY MORE In LIBERIA (ONE DAY LESS…) I am exhausted as I start to write. It’s been a hard day again and the last thing I fancy doing is tapping away at a cold keyboard. So. It’s time to…
Africa
Ingrid still had not recovered and she was lying down, her body paralysed into a triangular shape and submerged in a deep dream or horrible nightmare. It was time for lunch and we had to leave the lush green of…
WHY AM I SAYING ON EDGE IF EVERYTHING IS CALM IN LIBERIA? IS EVERYTHING CALM IN LIBERIA? Ladies and gentlemen: the moment of truth has arrived. We find ourselves in the decisive final round, the moment many Liberians have been…
Why Nobody Knows When He Will Die is a book that consists of ten stories on different subjects of everyday African and Liberian reality, many…
Helene Cooper tells us that she had ancestors on the colonisation ships coming from the United States, specifically Elijah Johnson, a man with a lot…
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Heart of Darkness narrates the story of a sailor named Marlow, who one day decides to join a naval company that takes him from London…
I have often felt that I was going to climb the wall in Liberia. On some occasions I see her. The lady, who every night…
The Beautyful ones are not yet born by Ayi-Kweih-Armah is a novel that tells the story of a railway traffic control clerk in Ghana, who is disenchanted…
Americanah is the story of Ifemelu, a Nigerian girl who decides to leave her country for a period of time, to go and study in…
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FOR A WHILE NOW I HAVE TRIED TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT AFRICAN LITERATURE, a far from simple exploration for a European dominated by the…
The Beautyful ones are not yet born by Ayi-Kweih-Armah is a novel that tells the story of a railway traffic control clerk in Ghana, who is disenchanted…
