The Tyranny of Comfort

The tyranny of comfort

The safety of the known

The flatness of “been there done that”

The love of imperturbability

White rice.

The dictatorship of comfort

The comfort of the predictable

The fear of the unforeseen

The quest for the stable

Plain water.

Raised to believe that life is a long, quiet river

Incapable of seeing past the screen of her iPhone

In these back-country villages where we are born, the city is the limit.

Abidjan-sur Lagoon, Dakar-On the Sea, Kinshasa-By the River

If you know how to swim, you can make it!

When others come head first, you come feet first

When others eat fufu with their hands, you use baguettes

When others are on the highway

You took the dirt road less travelled

Apparently, you threw away the rules book.

We weren’t born to be spectators.

In the morning, if you plant cocoa beans in Abengourou

In the evening, you can drink hot chocolate in Geneva

In January, if you plant cotton in Bobo-Dioulasso

In December, you can be well-dressed like Papa Wemba

Trust the pepper for it is brutal honesty, forget the sugar for its hypocrisy.

1+1 don’t make two anymore

They cloned Dolly

Bin Laden, they eventually got him

She has a baby on her back, one in her arm, one in her belly, on a boat to Lampedusa

So you, what are you afraid of?

Carry your cross, wear your thorny crown, success is at the end of the bridge.

Where I come from, on the shores of the great and mighty Congo River

We say:

Lamuka [ Wake up]

Telema [ Get up]

Toleka [Let’s go]