Let’s go a little deeper today. Let’s talk about the origin of life and water symbolism in African traditions. Let’s talk about The Source From Below, the first tale in my book Tales for the Evening. “But it doesn’t sound like a tale…” Before the book even came out, some of my friends who read…
It wasn’t a house, a job, or a relationship that made me doubt relocating a second time, it was a face cream. I’ve always believed I’m not a tree; I can move. If I’ve done it once, I can do it twice, three times… even a fourth time. I trusted my own drive and the…
In one of my previous posts in the diaspora series, I wrote about becoming both (read here). But during my recent trip to the Western Cape in South Africa, I discovered something I wasn’t expecting: becoming different, simply by creating a new identity. I spent time in a beautiful city in the Western Cape region,…
You might be a parent in the diaspora trying to teach your children your mother language so it doesn’t fade away. Or maybe you grew up abroad and, for one reason or another, never really learned your parents’ language. Now that you can make your own decisions, you’d like to catch up, to stop feeling…
If Part 1 was about belonging, and Part 2 about homesickness in the diaspora, this final part is about what comes after both, the moment you realise you no longer have to choose. Because after the shock, the longing, the guilt, there comes a gentler season: one where you stop trying to decide which world…
This is Part 2 (Part 1) of a three-part series exploring the idea of “home” in the diaspora. These are mainly personal reflections and pieces of conversations with friends. Today’s post is about homesickness, or, as they say here in Germany, Heimweh (pronounced haim-vé). Somehow, I think the German word feels more intense, heavier, more…
This is Part 1 of a three-part series exploring the idea of “home” in the diaspora. These are mainly personal reflections and pieces of conversations with friends. Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about home. Maybe it’s because of the conversations I’ve been having with my friends, all of us scattered across the world, all…
Long before debates about gender equality, polygamy, and the Sustainable Development Goals, the Kingdom of Foumbina had its own grand saga of love and power (the book). He courted her. She refused. He insisted. And she answered: “I will love you… if I am yours alone.” “But I will be king,” he said. “A king…
In the story Eyon, the Name Maker (book here), there’s a moment when the main character receives a sacred stringed instrument from the ancestors in a dream. That scene was inspired by a well known Fang-Beti legend in Cameroon. Oyono Ada Ngone and the birth of the mvet In Fang-Beti tradition, there is a legendary…
Some weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend. He likes to call me Prof, and I like to call him Dear Colleague. He started the conversation with: “Prof, there will be a street renaming in Berlin on August 23rd. Will you be around then?” I replied: “I will be, but probably trying to catch…
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