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SENEGAL – Mimo Dia Leydimen dribbles between the truths and lies of “Koolaado”

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Mimo Dia Leydimen “Koolaado - Between truths and lies”

There are books that, by the force of the subjects discussed, mark you with warm iron. Each of your nervous endings takes a blow. Koolaado is one of these books. A true pandoresque liner, a mixture of disappointed hopes and broken dreams. Loaded to crack, from the hold to the ‘tween deck, his human cargo is a digest of despair. Between naked truth and white lie, author Mimo Dia Leydimen has opened a vein and found the strength to unroll lines of blood with everything he had in his gut. This work reminds me of a phrase of my mother: her heart opened in her belly, to say that he put in this book all the suffering of the expatriate. And why not? As much as we call “expats” white people who emigrate to Africa, we can also call black people who have emigrated to Europe. Simple reciprocity.

Writer, activist, political activist and Pan-Africanist
Mimo Dia Leydimen is one of those young people who do not hesitate to shout their discontent in the face of the stranglehold of international powers over African economies and emancipation. He is part of that African youth who no longer wants to be a slave to people. In his positions and in his books he delivers “the grandiose spectacle of a real revolution, of a social transformation” that shake a Africa desolate and still plagued by colonization. Mimo Dia Leydimen is a young person… so many things at once, that one hesitates to jump into the list. A young man like him, who has so many strings to his bow, it’s rare to find one. He is a writer, activist and political activist, a convinced Pan-Africanist, a fervent opponent of international organizations, a critic of the WHO and committed on the monetary front to an exit of the CFA franc, he wants to defend the sovereignty of Africa. After two fine works, “L’Afrique humiliée, l’enfer de la vérité” and “Nos larmes noires”, he returns in less than a year with a work that will make people talk about her: “Koolaado – Entre vérités et mensonges”.

“Koolaado – Between truths and lies”
Her father was soon orphaned – her father, a former Senegalese rifleman, was assassinated in a war between Senegal and Mauritania -, “Koolaado” in the absence of paternal authority was torn from her mother. He joins his aunt Halimata, on the paternal side, in Tabacounda. He drops out of school, sinks into delinquency and ends up in prison. Back in the village, in Boundou, he switched to transportation. It worked for him. After escaping sharia (amputation of hands), he emigrates clandestinely in France to his uncle. There, he is put on the street. Rebelote. He sinks into drugs. When he learns of his mother’s death! The news stuns him so much that he finds his mind again. Thanks to his friend Catherine, he finds work under a false name. When the pot of roses is discovered, he is expelled from France. Catherine is four months pregnant.

The author paints a picture of the bankruptcy of Senegalese society on every level; a society that spends its time ruminating on the old secular traditions: Senegal is a country of caste, marital irresponsibility and exacerbated submission to a retrograde way of life. He also talks about immigration. This book is also the desperate attempt of a man who is trying to give colour to his life. Young people who give up everything to go to sea at their own risk. And, who, when he arrives at Europe (the slap!), the latter has nothing of this Eldorado so much dreamed of. Something quite rare in African literature, the author addresses the theme of climate.

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I loved the message behind this work. A message that can be summed up in these words: “There is only the promised land that saw us born. Africa has nothing to envy to the West. It should be the opposite.” This new discourse takes on the old narratives: The grass in the neighbor is always greener. Oh no! The lives of migrants, who most often work under the table, are not at all jojo. This book gives the reasons – in the smallest detail – that force some people into exile and they are multiple. These include financial necessity and various forms of persecution. Usually, people immigrate to escape some discomfort at home. One goes to the other in the hope of finding under a more merciful sky: refuge, rest, peace. This triptych is in short the main thread of this work. Mimo Dia Leydimen confides to her book her truths, her fears, her lies, her fears, her hopes.

       

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