Africa
ON BRINGING MY HEAD ABOVE THE SURFACE, I DISCOVERED A GIRL WITH DREADLOCKS (the rasta style triumphed on Room Island), a girl in Bob Marley colours, green, yellow, red who slowly sat beside the boy who was snoozing before my belongings. Unconsciously dragged along by the waves, I left the water and headed towards a…
MONIQUE, THE WOMAN WHO HATED (AND LOVED) GUINEA CONAKRY, had allowed another truce with this country on disclosing to me, “if you go to Conakry, go to the islands: an authentic oasis”. Samory smiled inside the red wine Peugeot and started the engine before slowly saying, “Carlos Battaglini heads to Los Islands. Carlos Battaglini will…
“If you go to Kindia, you know: go up Gangan and go and see my Guinean family”, said Monique, my Belgian friend in Liberia. Despite the fact that Monique had left Guinea with a bad taste in her mouth, she thought a lot about her “family”. So, Samory made a phone call and nodded his…
I COULD BARELY SEE IT. But, according to Samory, the tall, skinny building rising up behind us had been the Presidential Palace. I turned around and for a fleeting moment I managed to see a huge golden plaque, a whisper of gold and a majestic flag of Guinea Conakry. After turning around, we had already…
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…
“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…