"The heat is
intense. You're struck by the desolation, the misery and horror of the
place. For this is Ouidah, the once notorious lave capital of the world,
which supplied all the men for the mines and plantations of Brazil,
Haiti and the Southern States. Scratch a Brazilian, they say, and you
will find Ouidah, the Portuguese for help, written on his soul. Ouidah
is an African Auschwitz."
the crazy system of French banks and how they, long after
'releasing' their colonies, still hold a grasp over francophone Africa
by means of its currency.
"Everybody in French Africa loves a
Peugeot; Peugeots can take the most punishing roads, often at fairly
high speeds and - this will come as a surprise to devotees of the Land
Rover - with the airconditioning working beautifully. Gone are the days
when you saw British cars all oer French Africa. An old Range Rover,
abandoned in the centre of Lomé, stayed there for three years before it
was finally taken away by the authorities. In all that time, nobody
touched it; nobody took the wheels, or anything out of the engine.
Nobody wants British cars. They are not built for the roads, not even
Land Rovers, never mind Range Rovers. They are as uncomfortable as hell
and the air-conditioning never works."
"It was a genuine African conversation, a cross between a union
negotiation and a diplomatic two-step. You ask a question or make a
proposal. The African disagrees or is uncertain, but doesn't want to
offend you so he agrees. But it's a formality, he uses symbol words or
codes. Like a diplomat saying yes when he means perhaps and perhaps when
he means no. He has observed the rules of courtesy, but has conveyed
his true feelings. The problem, of course, is interpreting the signals.
But in spite of what many people say, this is not a particularly African
approach. Cynical Europeans will always tell you, 'Ask an African if he
can arrange for the sun to rise in the south and he will say, No
problem. How can you deal with people like that?' Invariably they are
the people who say 'We must have lunch some time' and do not mean it, or
'The cheque is in the post'. When the Japanese do it we say they are
inscrutable. When the Arabs do it we go into raptures about their
courtesy and hospitality. Why should the Africans be criticised so much
for saying things they don't mean?"
His continuous phonetic writing of somebody's German accent in the
Cameroon section is irritating, as well as the never ceasing literal
french translations.
"Baoule, like all the tribes along the
Coast, are hooked on gold. But as far as I can gather they are the only
ones who value gold dust more than nuggets, ingots or whatever. They
even developed their own elaborate system of weighing the dust with
special scales they balanced on their fingers and different weights for
different transactions. Female weights were used for uying or lending
money; Male weights, which were a little heavier, for sellin or repaying
a loan. The difference between the two weights was, of course, the
profit or interest on a loan. Then they had 'royal wights' which were
heavier still. Here the difference was, in effect, a tax levied by the
chief on the tribe.
The weights were based on animals or fish and each had a different
meaning depending on who was using it. A weight shaped like a cock meant
'He might look proud, but he has still started life as an egg.' This
was generally used by moneylenders as a reminder to clients that they
still owed them money which might well have some connection which the
Mafia's habit of stuffing their victims' mouths with baby chicks. An
elephant weight meant, 'Follow in the footsteps of the elephant and you
won't get soaked by the dew.' In other words, I suppose, stick with the
boss and he will look after you. A crocodile weight meant, 'If you're in
the middle of a river you don't insult the crocodile.' Two crocodiles,
however, meant, 'Every man can swallow but we only have one stomach,'
which sounds like a nice way of sayin don't rock the boat or you're
going to get eaten."
