I read this novel of my fellow Barnabà Enzo and found it extremely interesting for the issues related to immigration, as well as to understand the mechanisms that lead to our fellow men to abandon their homeland to pursue the European dream.
The Cunegonde is protagonist is, a name etymologically means "one who defends the race."
Si tratta di un romanzo di estrema attualità in un’epoca come la nostra di grandi trasformazioni culturali e di grandi migrazioni in cui il problema dell’integrazione è più che mai sentito e discusso e che ci riporta alle origini di questi spostamenti analizzandone con sagacia le cause anche e soprattutto psicologiche, dove l’uomo, rispetto alla donna, è visto piuttosto come un “compagno di viaggio”verso la realizzazione di sé come persona e come madre.
L’innata tendenza alla salvaguardia della stirpe ( e qui la scelta del nome della protagonista non poteva essere più azzeccata) spinge Cunegonda a cercare for the child she is carrying a better world, even though both the beginning and end of the book, the author gives the reader the decision whether or not this better world is really ours.
Reading this book puts us ahead of many reflections, not only on the African reality, it is good to know that if we want to live with peace of mind this move towards an increasingly multi-ethnic, but on that of women, of all times and place, on the female that the author was able to skillfully explore and analyze, focusing on what is the principal feature of femininity, that being a mother and come tale perpetuatrice della specie e protettrice di una natura che sempre più viene defraudata, profanata e stravolta dalla competitività umana.
Cunegonda, però, non è solo la protagonista della vicenda ma anche l’io narrante e, a trent’anni, decide di raccontare la sua storia, in un lungo flash-back.
Proprio la scelta stilistica dell’io narrante contribuisce a creare l’impressione che si tratti proprio di un racconto autobiografico e non si pensa più all’autore, il quale ha avuto la grande capacità di identificarsi talmente con l’universo femminile da farci dimenticare che egli is actually a man.
What it must be stressed, in fact, is not only a thorough knowledge of the customs, language, traditions and beliefs, that of Barnabas is now an attentive and experienced Africanist, as the capacity and ability with which he can step into the shoes of a woman and a universe to explore, among women, especially since, Cunegonde belonging to a different civilization, it appears dark, mysterious and often seemingly difficult to interpret.
hard in appearance only, because in fact the feminine aspects are common to women of all civilizations, since these are the most instinctive and intrinsic to the nature of carriers that want life and hence more likely to acceptance, altruism, empathy, sensitivity, patience, compassion and cooperation.
That also represents the feminine energy of life and indeed, as the mother welcomes her son and loves him as it is, so she accepts life and it is offered, in an almost abandoned.
But the illusion of a better life, more free from natural disasters, not only for themselves but especially for the future of the child she is carrying, in addition to his mother's death states that il definitivo distacco dal mondo originario , spinge la protagonista ad affrontare ogni sorta di peripezie sempre sorretta dalla speranza, quella speranza che noi occidentali, ormai sommersi da tutti gli oggetti che potevamo desiderare e apparentemente aperti ad ogni opportunità, forse non abbiamo più, non abbiamo più la molla che ci spinge ad affrontare la vita con il coraggio di cui Cunegonda ha dato prova in questo racconto, che vuol essere anche un documentario , la testimonianza di un mondo per noi tanto più difficile da comprendere quanto più la nostra vera natura è intrappolata in una serie di consuetudini ormai consolidate da secoli, come se fosse appunto racchiusa nel ventre di un pitone.
Sorretta the strength of this hope, she faces a real odyssey that brings, along with an occasional fellow traveler, crossing almost the entire north-western Africa, as the map which, together with an essential and timely glossary Barnabà placed at the end of the book.
Cunegonde, in fact, moves from Ivory Coast to Mali, from Guinea to Senegal, Mauritania to the Western Sahara from Morocco to Tunisia, where finally, after two years of violence, humiliation and blackmail of various kinds , is able to embark on a ship bound for Italy, with the child in the meantime had given birth and who had supported and not undermined his will to move to Europe.
Cunegonde's journey throws us into a weird and wonderful world, fascinating and cruel, in spite of the first colonization and globalization then miraculously managed to survive, to organize itself, as rightly said in his acute and thorough Serge Latouche preface, which states verbatim that "colonizes the market was much more than what the state does not colonize the market" so that even in Africa, everything is commodified and monetized.
And the preface of Latouche adds value to the book, not only the documentary which presents some of the lesser-known African realities, which leads us to reflect on issues much wider due to globalization and how this affects the countries of the South into a desert, instead of creating opportunities for improving their living conditions, in their territories and resources which it presents and instead causes them to adapt to the Western way of life that is perhaps not the most appropriate to the natural reality of those places.
Enemy of consumerism and of instrumental rationality, Latouche is one of the sharpest critics of the universalist ideology of the market dominated by utilitarian connotations is nothing but a creation of Western ideology, a West that on behalf of their identity, wants to impose a cultural imperialism to the rest of the world.
Reading this novel runs smoother and lighter, even in the most in the most raw and rough, and we often encounter in popular African proverbs cleverly embedded in the text, as you can see from these short steps carryover of example:
discover that the elders are the repositories of knowledge and what they can see sitting, a young man does not see it even if you climb up a tree. Later, I heard a phrase that mi affascinò perché mi parve che la sua bellezza desse ulteriore forza alla verità che conteneva: «Quando muore un vecchio è come se bruciasse un’intera biblioteca».
Tre giorni dopo consegnavo a Ben i miei certificati di nascita e di nazionalità, necessari al rilascio del passaporto. Aspettando di entrare in possesso del documento, un proverbio venne a martellarmi ripetutamente la mente: «Per quanto tu corra, non riuscirai mai a sorpassare il tuo naso». Sperai con tutte le mie forze che questa volta la saggezza africana non dicesse il vero. Di frequente volgevo infatti lo sguardo dietro le spalle e avevo l’impressione che la mia esistenza, benché gremita a thousand events, had been very short .
Here and there, of thorn bushes caught the plastic bags that had covered the ground, turned into sarcastic simulacra of fruit. The heat was stifling and the dazzling scenery, without light and dark, changing at the whim of the sand and wind. It was not surprising to find that damp more veil hanging in the air, the immaterial substance that, in our parts, filter and soften the image of men and things, inviting us to slow down the pace of life.
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