Communication Afrique Destinations

TRIBUNE: Development

Fifteen years ago, a friend told me the story of this young European who worked for a project financed by her country in Man. She had an all-terrain vehicle, but since she didn't live too far from her workplace, she preferred to get there on foot or by bicycle. She only used her vehicle to travel outside of Man. This upset his Ivorian colleagues. One of them ended up explaining to him that it did not look good for a European to travel by bicycle in Man, especially since she had a very beautiful and powerful car at her disposal. She explained to them that she did it because she didn't want to pollute the atmosphere by wasting fuel, and that it felt good to walk or ride her bike to work. Nothing helped. His Ivorian colleagues did not budge. She didn't take their remarks seriously. So, faced with his stubbornness, they spoke about it to the prefect who was also scandalized to learn that a European, having a car, preferred to use her legs or a bicycle to go to work. He also tried to reason with her. As he did not succeed, weary of the fight, he seized the embassy of the young lady. And it is her ambassador who manages to convince her not to create problems for her country by shocking the local populations. Eh yes! When you come from a civilized and rich country, you do not behave like a savage from a poor country when traveling by bicycle. She hadn't understood that those of us who travel by bicycle don't do it for ecological or sporting reasons, but because they couldn't afford a car.

A few years ago, one of my elders, now deceased, who was the director of one of our large companies, told me of his great shame when one day, while receiving French personalities at his home in village, one of the peasants he had invited to lunch, certainly to give the illusion that he was close to his people, and who could no longer manage with his knife and fork left his cutlery in the middle of the meal to eat squarely with his hand. He was ashamed because in his mind, the Frenchman was probably wondering how, with all the means at his disposal, he had failed to civilize this peasant.

A few days ago, my younger brother and colleague Soumahoro Alfa Yaya reacted to one of my columns by deploring that we are abandoning our traditional architectures to build in our villages what he called "concrete houses with seamless contours poetry. In return, a lady told her how part of her family had risen up against her, because she had wanted to build a large mud brick hut in her village with all the conveniences. “It is you, the executives of this family, who must set a good example, we replied to him. We want the village to evolve, we want you to build permanent houses. And the poor lady said she had to give in, so as not to "shame" her family.

“As painful as this observation may be for us, we must make it: for the Black, there is only one destiny, and he is white. (Frantz Fanon in « peau noire, masques blancs » ("black skin, white mask"). The drama of the African is that he wants to develop. And for many of us, to develop is to live like Europeans, in the same type of habitat, with the same amenities, and in the same way as them. Eat like them, and the same food as them, dress like them, talk like them, drink the same drinks as them, like their music, etc. For a long time, Ivorians made fun of the Burkinabè because their capital was cluttered with bicycles, while there were very few in Abidjan. It was the symbol that they were poor and we were rich. Yes, when you are rich, you travel by car. When you are very rich, you own several cars, even if you don't know what to do with them.

The result of all this is these messy towns and villages, without souls, without charms, without poetry, as Alfa Yaya would say, full of garbage and plastic bags, unable to seduce anyone. I think it's time for us to stop a bit to reflect on who we are and what we want to become. I read somewhere that the greatest traveler is the one who has gone all the way around himself. Let's take this tour of ourselves, and we will discover treasures.

By Venance Konan
*This article has been translated from French into English by Marcus Boni Teiga

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Communication Afrique Destinations