Excerpts from a Prolific Thinker

  One of the first concept children learn from a very young age is that of the consequences of actions, or lack thereof. ‘If you touch the socket, you will get electroshocked’, if you walk barefoot, you will wound your feet’, ‘if you eat too many candies, you’ll get cavities’. An action, or more precisely ‘your’ action, will bring about a reaction, presented as direct, unequivocal, and sometimes immediate. The principle of education is therefore to reinforce this messaging by identifying in every woe that occur to their children as a direct consequence of an action they posed, preferably one which was earlier banned. ‘You see, I told you not to eat this much cake, now your tummy hurts’, ‘sorry you fell on the football pitch, but I told you not to run this mindlessly’. And the pattern can go as far as ‘I told you not to marry her/him, see how you are struggling now’…as an extreme example of the series. It sounds very basic and infantilizing for anyone older than 15 years old...

  Young, fragile, plagued by complex challenges and yet full of passion and energy. The African continent is often defined in similar terms than its large youth. If history attests that the oldest known human skeleton was found in Eastern Africa, there seems to be a gap in data and historical research between the estimated living period of Lucy, 4.2 million years ago, and history of the continent as it unfolded thereafter. When it comes to Africa, there seems to be less interest about its past and long history than its future, expected growth and upcoming challenges. There seems to be so much more to be done than already achieved, so many needs and so little resources. Needless to say that Africa holds huge proportion of natural resources. 30 per cent of the world’s mineral reserves, 8 per cent of the world’s natural gas, 12 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, 40 per cent of the world’s gold, up to 90 per cent of its chromium and platinum as well as the largest reserves of cobalt...

  When moving between cities and regions in Africa, you leave tarmac (and sometimes dust) to meet the prominent nature, a green decor that imposes itself to the few who dare confronting it. A luxurious nature that can only partially be grasped, even by the most famous painters, from Van Gogh to South African John Pemba. The natural rhythms of Africa’s rural areas seem to be altered over time by the penetration of the urban way of life. Traditional houses are progressively transforming, with cement and steel rooftops being marks of an unstoppable evolution towards modernity, if one subscribes to the dichotomic comparison between tradition and modernity. In actual fact, tradition and modernity remain intertwined in the wooden boutiques selling essential staples from local produce to telecommunication recharge cards, even deep in the dense forests. City dwellers bring their gadgets and services in response to emerging business opportunities. Mechanics are now established across the ...