It is only a few months after the release of his first book, an essay entitled “The Humiliated Africa, the Hell of the Truth” whose dedication day was held in September 2021. that the Pan-African Senegalese writer Mimo Dia Leydimen returns with a new literary production this time «Our Black Tears» at Éditions l’Harmattan.
In this book, which can be classified in the field of engaged literature, he deals with geopolitics and the history of Africa, ethnic problems, religious wars, the organization of African black society and negrophobia. Themes such as selfishness, scourges such as ethnocentrism among African blacks but also and above all the racism that the peoples of Africa suffer in the West, their new land of immigration and settlement also treated there.
The Malian question is addressed in this book in a rather tense political context. There are edifying passages on the fall of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta but also the disappointments of his son mounting himself on a yatch in good company. The question of successive coups in the country has been dealt with explicitly in this book.
The Peuls, this nomadic people for millennia, their origin, their history, their religious beliefs, their system of societal organization, their hierarchical clan, tribal and especially the question of castes among others have been studied, analyzed in its finest detail. The Peuhl wars of religion in Africa, the installation of Islam, the stories of the Peuhl conquerors between the 17th and 18th centuries led by Sheikh Omar Foutiyou Tall, and other conquerors or head of war or tribe like Koly Tenghella Ba, Thierno Souleymane Baal, Soni Ali Ber, Ousmane Dan Fadio Dème and Ahmadou Amadou were entitled to the chapter. The history of the formation of their empire, from longevity to dislocation; the disputes between the Dogons and the Peuhl, but especially the killing of the latter in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and the Central African Republic, is a problem that the author posed: Why do we attack the population regardless of their geographical location? Why this deliberate massacre of this ethnic group and who is behind these targeted massacres?”
Talking about the genesis of the Peuls, was also an opportunity for the Pan-Africanist to ask contemporary questions. That is why it was necessary for him to talk about racism against blacks in the West, especially in France, his country of residence. The case of the late Doctor Amadou Barry, a Guinean professor killed by a Franco-Turkish Damien Aktaf was discussed. The causes, the consequences, the organization of the demonstrations that resulted, but also the progress of the judicial file before the French court.
Another poignant story, that of Sarah Baartman, the Hottentote Venus, this woman of South African origin, who was exhibited in a Parisian human zoo like an animal, who was prostituted, mutilated brilliantly, chosified, his body exhibited and his genitals exhibited at the Museum of Man in Paris, was erected in this work. The aim is to show how much human barbarity has been imposed on black man over the centuries.
In short, you can discover for yourself the other themes covered in this book «Our Black Tears» by Mimo Dia Leydimen A book that promises to emulate among readers who are fond of black African history.
