Why I Write

-

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” — Louis L’Amour

Why I write? Well. Good question.

Probably because it is easier than screaming my thoughts from my backyard and expect people to hear them and engage in discussions as a result.


More seriously, I started writing to give my thoughts a wider and more structured space to blossom. I remember the first lines that came out, by the lakeside (not the worst view to get inspiration isn’t it) after a very early morning swim. With music in my earphones, taking advantage of a work break, I opened a blank word document and let my mind coordinate with my typing fingers on how to organize the many words, battling to come out.

I wasn’t thinking while writing. As if the thoughts had been rehearsing the moment they would be jotted down on paper (or screen in this case). Few minutes and a couple of pages later, I stopped. As relieved from an unknown pressure. From that day I would look forward to those moments of mind-vacuuming where my mind would transcend its usual operating procedures and just for a few minutes or hours follow its own path, meandering through the valleys of thoughts, progressively piled up, waiting for an occasion to meet the world, well at least my world first.

I had planned, at some point, that I wanted to write, with only few ideas on when and what. I have been writing more academic papers and other documents related to my everyday work. But after a couple of years of also writing mainly for my own consumption, I decided to share a few of these thoughts here. I hope that through reading and sharing insights on our beautiful continent’s evolution (social, political, cognitive and others), we are able, together, to contribute to it, one building block at a time.

Would you join me in this adventure?

While you are here, I would love to hear how you landed on my page and what kind of content you would want to see my write about, share your thoughts through the contact page.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Palaver Tree

-
Image
Laid foot by the Ocean. After a quite shaky flight to the well-known home of luxurious seaside beach resorts. Beyond the humidity that welcomes the unaware visitor at the exit of the plane, something about the ambient air reminds me of what makes me both hopeful and desperate about Africa. A capital of natural resources that has been, in modern times at least, underserved, and utilized with too little attention to sustainability. Like a  c ow  (the animal of thousands symbols in Africa) which, instead of being nurtured and carefully milked, was slaughtered and sold, because it takes less effort and the expected direc t return puts corn on the dining table. A cow, yes. One that could support the farmer plough its land, tirelessly giving milk to nourish newborn and elderly. A cow. One that was revered as a symbol for prosperity and long-term wealth, but now is milked to blood. When will Africa become more than a cow left to the desires of those than never saw it grow, nor walked...
Read more

History and Stories

-
Image
  “The independence was barely two years old when the death knell for the African family” [1] Decottignies (1965). A few years ago, I remember being a young University student in Sociology in Paris, avid to understand my own continent and choosing, as naturally as it seemed to me, the “African family” as the subject of my assignment in my “Sociology of Family” class. Drawing by Linca Nikwigize   Check other arts pieces here  Natural. Or so did I believe. I thought I would be able to find ample and rich content on the “African family”, just like there is a rich body of work and analysis on other regions. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was (and still am) conscious that Africa is far from being a unique sociological entity. I was aware that what some would dare calling a country, Africa, was much more than the monolithic block that they envisioned. I understood that each region, each country and each Province holds a different arrangement of cultural, social, political and ec...
Read more

A PATH

-
Image
A path is a path. Even when it leads nowhere. Even when it circles back to where we started off, or at least the point at which we think we started off. In that context, both ends of the path coincide. A path knows no intentions, bad or good, no pretention beyond its shallow limits. Limits that can be blurred by the growing grass, the eroding soil, or the overflowing waters. A path can be wide or narrow, depending on the intention or the capacity of the one making the path. It is usually created by an external force that digs, with plow or wind or water, through the nature to make a specific corridor where strangers (to that nature) can penetrate the space, without ever merging with it. A path might remain visible for anyone to see among the green fields, and can sometimes get lost in the movement of high wheat fields, only allowing the walker to see few meters ahead and not preoccupied in advance of what the end of the path beholds. Image source : Picjumbo While a path will ...
Read more