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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“I have typhus, not today.” “Cool, come and watch the match then.” The first message is from Jacques, implying we will not be playing our usual game of tennis at the Ocean View compound at Mamba Point today. The second message is from Gilberto after finding out that I no longer have any plans. Rousseau…
I’ve never had to deal with them. I don’t know what they talk about. I ignore what they like. In meetings, all countries are usually present but them. I have received emails from colleagues of all nationalities but them. There are a lot of them but you never see them in restaurants, in bars at…
AT FIRST I THOUGHT THAT THE BODY THAT LAY THERE MUST BE THAT WOMAN WHO LOVES THE GENERATOR. That woman who usually spends the whole day stuck to the powerful diesel engine that spurts out burnt smoke into her face. And warmth into her soul. Warmth. That woman who almost always ends up fast asleep…
I can’t help it. I am reading an interesting novel about a violinist who loses his talent out of the blue, but I cannot help it. Pages fourteen and fifteen have been violently wiped off the screen that is my eyes and I can no longer breathe. The pages are suffocating under the weight of…
Cooper goes on to express her appreciation for the support and assistance received. Referring to six friends of her, she says “the six of them helped me figure out what I wanted to write, how I wanted to write it, and how to live with myself after I wrote it” (“my Liberian friends and cousins…
Blue Clay People tells the story of William Powers, a North American aid worker in Liberia back in 1999. Powers lands in the African country as a member of the NGO Catholic Relief Services (CRS) with the task of fighting against poverty and saving the rainforest in a country gripped by the peril of a…
WE LEAVE GBARNGA BEHIND. It hits us that this time we are going for good and we are suddenly overwhelmed with sadness: the green and red has got under our skin by now. But before leaving Gbarnga, we have to attend several institutional appointments in the area. So we get into the Toyota Land Cruiser…
IN GHANA, RELIGIOUS CONCENTRATIONS HAVE A POWERFUL STRONGHOLD. ‘Empowerment’, as the phenomenon is called, is full of clergymen whose faces are shown on many street walls announcing the next encounter and encouraging people to join the movement, to adhere to the cause. Near Independence Square some children play football on a scrap of wasteland where…
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…
Going back to Helene Cooper’s life, it became considerably more complicated when the Liberian civil war broke out, a factor that forced her to move to the United States, specifically to Knoxville, Tennessee, where her status changed radically, becoming a second-class citizen and realising for the first time that she was black (an Irish boyfriend…
Latests posts
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…
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HE RAISES HIS HAND. In the middle of the trial, the man with the gold earring raises his hand and asks for permission to go to the bathroom for a minute. The judge looks at the two police officers and concedes with a slight nod of the head. In Paynesville they continue talking about the…
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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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I HAVE HAD A FEW DRINKS TOO MANY, and shit, now I forgot what I was going to say. Eeerm, basically with today’s post I intend to talk about those who leave Liberia. About those people you meet in this country and that some day or another will disappear into thin air, swish swish. That’s…
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They say that nobody ever saw that Spanish woman who worked for the embassy again. They say that when the war broke out she chose to stay in Monrovia. They say that after a few months she just stopped phoning. Her emails never arrived. She no longer spoke. She disappeared. Josep is now on the…
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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…
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I HAD JUST BEEN TO EUROPE. I HAD JUST BEEN TO SPAIN. I HAD FELT THE HEAT. I had felt the heat. I had felt the cold. Loads of iPhones, brother. Is it impossible to enjoy the present these days? Thousands of heads all looking downwards and pushing buttons. Hey, those hamburgers with onion are…
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“BECAUSE IF NOT, I’LL DIE”. Sitting at a round, plastic table. We drink some Club Beers. Our pupils dilate and take on the form of small sugared ovals. That go up and down. Kevin comes closer to us and tells us, “Because if not, you die… So this weekend I went to Buchanan. You have…
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“THE SWEDES ARE WAITING FOR YOU IN THE PARKING LOT,” said an early morning voice to me in a firm tone. I quickly ran down the stairs and left the building, only to find the Swedish Ambassador to Liberia and his whole team waiting for me in a Toyota Prado. My nose made out a…
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The House at Sugar Beach is an autobiographical novel (it may also be considered quite simply a novel) written by the journalist and diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times, Helene Cooper. Cooper is a woman of Liberian origin who, over time, acquired American citizenship. In the novel, Cooper recounts her childhood and adolescence whilst…
Read moreAfrica
Our football team has won and we’re all celebrating at the Red Lion, under the influence of Club Beers and other natural juices. Like every other day, nightfall is punctual and dictatorial. Waving Flag is playing in the background, waking…
There is someone in the kitchen. It’s a young man of medium height. His name is Anthony and he moves stealthily. As if he were wearing socks instead of shoes. Anthony opens the pantry, takes out some fruit and brings…
He always starts talking at about quarter past or half past seven in the middle of UN Drive. Actually, he doesn’t talk, but rather screams, shouts, and quite often sings. I listen to him. I see him. I see him…
Africa
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 White canon. And now here, in Accra – who would have thought so a few…
BUT LOOK WHO’S THERE. As I walk into the Red Lion I spot Ramon sitting opposite a German donning a dirty and scraggy beard. Only a tiny table separates them, and they are there, forehead to forehead, as if they…
Cooper goes on to express her appreciation for the support and assistance received. Referring to six friends of her, she says “the six of them…
Nonetheless, there are also a series of characters that are respectably accomplished. This is the case of Blaine, Ifem’s smart boyfriend, through whom we sharply…
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SAMUEL IS THE BOSS. That’s what I realise on the next day from the way they all stare at him when he greets me. One’s…
“BECAUSE IF NOT, I’LL DIE”. Sitting at a round, plastic table. We drink some Club Beers. Our pupils dilate and take on the form of…
Regarding the novel’s title, one wonders why beautyful and not beautiful? It seems probable that this has been a slip in the English spelling, which…
Going back to Helene Cooper’s life, it became considerably more complicated when the Liberian civil war broke out, a factor that forced her to move…
Don’t miss
IT’S HERE. Rick comes to fetch me in the morning at the Hilltop Hotel in Gbarnga and we get into the Toyota Land Cruiser. Vroom,…
What is it that’s so important you have to say? Well, here goes. Friends, readers, comrades and others, it’s time for me to take off…
