Wednesday evening. In recent days I changed cap, I swapped my clothes against other construction outfits, and guys are on their own. Je suis devenu l'architecte et comme ils maîtrisent maintenant leur affaire, je ne donne plus que quelques directives, je m'éclipse ensuite en moto ou en bus vers d'autres destinations. L'arbre fini sa croissance sans moi.
Seulement ce soir je suis énervé, ils n'ont pas avancé comme prévu et moi qui voulait absolument finir pour passer à autre chose demain, jour de l'inauguration, je suis obligé de charretter. J'ai commis quelques négligences que je payes à présent. La structure des bancs a été mal faite, les planches de bois ont été découpées à l'arrache, rien ne colle, et je n'avais pas vérifié ça avant. L'outillage is crap and they stole my driver, night fell and it began to rain. Damn I get angry. After several hours of hard work and a bad mood it catches the blow but I understand that you will not end tonight. 2:00 am, he must place it rains. I'm tired but okay, we will end quietly tomorrow morning, I am proud of these guys who are there with me in the middle of the night to make this thing, I think they also take the game
figures.
When I was little my grandmother gave me my Christmas bonus for a ticket of 10 000 as she said. These are the old, old francs. 10 000 old francs former is 100 old francs and 15 of our new Euro. Their fifties will be happy, it's easy, the CFA franc is like money Mom. A worker on a construction site is mostly hired by the day, he will earn about 1000 or 1500 CFA. If he qualifies he can expect 3000 or 3500. A taxi is 200 f, a liter of gasoline exceeds 1000 f, the wand 150, you can eat properly in the street for 300 f, the peanut vendor who carries his tray on his head all day 1000 will be f benefits if he sold everything. The cigarettes is 500 and 10 grams of hemp in 1000, the packet is 2500 sheets !
The palaver tree is one of the least expensive in the south, it will cost less than 2mi from CFA (3000 euro) including salary guys. It weighs about 3 tons, measuring 6m high with a wingspan of 10, it consists of 15 sheets totaling approximately 40 square meters of glass, it was completed in 3 weeks to 7 people, plus the help of Achilles and doual'art.
Sultan.
I attended the concert in the Red Zone, Maka residence at the foot of the buildings, a team of rappers Cameroonian not kidding. I saw Sultan Hoshimin a fucking pirate leg lying around, cap down over his eyes, screwed on the ears, voice and incredible technique. Type need not be ashamed before Iam, NTM and Assassin best time is that here there is something and claim to represent, he knows his subject and sets fire, I was stuck. Big up, respect for one who encourages young Cameroonians to grow and think against all odds, one who warns against the vampirism of babylon.
Magema.
Michèle Magema lives and works in Paris, she offers a facility called "Black Bodies Swinging," she pays tribute to martyrs of women too often forgotten in the shadow of their dead husband. The study focuses on Princess Andrea Douala Manga Bell born Berroa's wife Roudolph, hanged by the Germans in 14. After the hanging, the family is deprived of his possessions, she left the palace of the Bells (the one behind which I built my tree), move to a place called home at Parc des Princes in Bali. In the now abandoned house on land belonging to Prince Rene, Michele exposes fabric 150 forms of varying sizes, 150 bodies were hanged. You walk to the piano in this strange and disturbing settings shoving these fruits macabre, the place still exudes the history of Cameroon in the making. Off bells ringing regularly, a delegation approached ... Ladies and Gentlemen: The King! Here comes René Douala Manga Bell with its escort, the man has honored us with his presence, the moment is memorable. All around the site hoardings hung with white sheets on the inside with the face of Andrea and silkscreened black sheets on the outside, with inscriptions in giant letters, among which we can read: "The trees bear fruit in South."
forms of fabrics were made up to 5 or 6 Doual'art charming girls who did not take long to get to know with my guys, I think even say a kind of complicity was born between the two groups. Complicity merely stimulate the work of each other ...
Baptism.
This morning we finished the benches, everything is ready, polished, nickel. I go to prepare myself, I have pressure. When I return to Doual'art, the whole team is there, I brought the printer and we do I print photos directly under the tree for distribution to the team. Gradually people are coming. The family had wanted to greet me Bonabéri came, Mr. Nyam is there too, they are all traditional dress. Doual'art has invited a panel of dancers and drummers Sawa. After the presentation, the coronation of my elders and thanks, it was the turn of Head of Bonembapé to speak. He speaks of history, memory and openness, he speaks of the relationship and that increased between tradition and modernity. Of course my Lord, the chief executive is not there and I'm told he now regrets his decision. The musicians sing a song and then brings the whiskey, the site is called, we're all sitting there under the tree. I must say it does not remember the good memories even if today no one interrupts the moment by shouting. I think the Princess Charlotte, who is not there. Then we'll dance until the night until a story thief comes to my ears.
thieves.
I had to undergo some minor petty thefts but painful since my arrival. It must be said that many youth are struggling to find enough to live in this city and that the coup is a temptation especially when it comes to hardware or money to a stranger. Yet everyone knows that it is not uncommon for popular justice impactor itself, and each week a thief caught by the mob is beaten death or burned on a pile of tires ...
Ring
When you cross the river, beyond Bonaberi after slaughter, are found in the bush, a fantastic place called Bonendale is on the shores of Wouri it it's cool. It's called the artist village because many artists live in the old German houses a plantation. Tonight there is a performance collective Autodafé up for the occasion of the meeting of Kapsiki (which includes Blaise Bang who lives in Strasbourg and I salute here), and Dominique Malaquais.
The story is that 5 Cameroonian artists have lent their works for the opening of the National Museum of Yaounde at the request of the Minister of Culture. He had promised that the government would buy the parts, but works for 5 years mouldering in a museum that everyone does not care and that person fails. The water passes through the roof and the only visitors are the bats, cockroaches and rats. Obviously artists never receive a penny of CFA. Finally they decided to recover those paintings in their general indifference. They say they could have anything out of this museum that the guards did not bother to check.
Bonendale We are in the bush around the Thunder met Dom, a geodesic dome whose nodes are horn zebu. The crowd forms a circle. Taxis and motorbikes around bringing light. Amid Arletta reads the narrative of this story first in French then in English, she's invincible and class of Tina Turner, with 30 years younger. When completed his presentation is meant to rise the music of Ravel's Bolero. And darkness comes a strange procession advances to the sound of the march. A slowly silhouettes appear, they are bearers dressed in black, their backs are inscribed the names of the artists involved, on their heads they bear paintings, torchbearers follow, I have no camera but I shoot the scene with my own eyes, the parade circled the dome I look at the five paintings carefully. When the tour is done, a procession starts as everyone follows the loan. Soon the entire village of Bonendale is there and the crowd and the guests are completely mixed. A torchlight we go behind these strange religious giants of art. After about ten minutes walk we reach a kind of large circular square enclosed by a concrete barrier. Here the stars are placed at the center in a heap. A choir sings hymns while pouring gasoline on the paintings. I am beside Anastasi who begins to understand what happens, he does not believe and protests, "they will not do that, they have no right" to my left voices s 'raise: I give my 100 000 and 200. Yet he will go to the end and in the same strength and dignity that all that preceded it, 4 porteurs de flambeaux s'approchent, les gens crient à présent.
On met le feu aux oeuvres. Incroyable puissance de cet acte, les émotions se bousculent en moi, elles sont d'une épaisseur de mangrove et de cette cérémonie de brousse je pleure et j'adresse une prière intime à tous les artistes qui engagent leur vie dans des combats de fous. Respect.
Fantasia urbaine.
Dimanche, dernier jour du SUD, il est midi sous un soleil de plomb et nous sommes réunis au stade d'Akwa pour la performance de Pascale Marthine Tayou, une des stars de l'art contemporain camerounais. Le fils prodigue veut rendre hommage au commerce informel si répandu dans la ville de Douala et actuellement mal mené par certaines décisions gouvernementales. Il propose de les réunir et de les organiser dans une sorte de manif artistique, une fantasia urbaine. Il y a là les vendeurs d'arachides, de beignets, d'agrumes, les vendeurs d'eau, de cigarettes, de médicaments, les cireurs de chaussures, les vendeurs de peluches... Comme dans le projet des Bendskiners de Manga et Mouillon, l'opération est complexe à orchestrer. Tayou voudrait réunir 500 vendeurs ambulants, mais beaucoup d'entre eux, si peu habitués à être pris en compte, ne prennent pas la proposition de Doual'art au sérieux et pensent qu'il s'agit d'une farce malgré la promesse de récompense. D'autres seek to exploit the situation, and link with a bag of orange they distribute to 3 or 4 kids that they can then ransom. Anyway thanks to the efforts of the entire team, things fall into place, everyone gets a shirt stamped SOUTH Urban and Fantasia, and a bracelet. Tayou was that these sellers are usually independent and disorganized for an army coup and exhibit in the streets of the city place vital to the functioning of the country. They are now 200 in place, ready to march, a brass band leads the parade. Three columns and not clocked, the Fantasia gets under way in les rues de Douala. Avec les gens qui suivent, et le troupeau d'invités nous ne sommes pas loin de 500 personnes à s'étaler sur au moins 200 mètres linéaires, encore un moment impressionnant que nous offre le SUD. La fantasia traverse les quartiers, bloque les avenues mais reste très disciplinée. Sur son passage les gens s'interrogent, c'est quoi ça, c'est pourquoi ? On leur répond à la volée, et pendant plus d'une heure la horde défile fièrement, à bon rythme, malgré le soleil et les charges que certains portent sur la tête et que d'autres poussent difficilement en charrettes. Après avoir décrit une grande boucle dans la ville, nous terminons la procession au parc des Princes (instead of installing Magema). There, in the same discipline that has marked the entire event, vendors will pass before Santa Claus ....
Valerie, the accounting Doual'art, sits at the table and receives one to one vendors who attended the performance. In addition to the "knitting" they'll keep it gives them a green ticket, a ticket of 5000 CFA. I am placed here, 10 meters behind her, and still without a camera, I record on my hard biodiscs the 200 faces in them. They average between 7 and 25 years, and I assure you that Father Christmas here is not a man grotesqueness big-belly, white beard and red cap Coca Cola. Father Christmas for all these people today is the sweet face and smile of a beautiful Cameroonian named Valerie who tends them, against all odds, 5000 Shs. Imagine that for most of them it is a work week, for others it may be even 15 days. Receive the money after 2 o'clock parade time, and without selling merchandise, it is a miracle. I see them take the ticket (7.5 euros) and ask what happens to them, many think first of all that is false, some go running and singing. The smallest tend their two hands as if they were receive a host, then they say thank you to Valerie when their eyes light up with genuine happiness. Others do nothing and expect to pass without taking their due, then we overtook them by serving their forgetfulness, they do not. Didier Schaub then used their hands and one by one he thanked them warmly for their participation ... I tell you that we live rare and powerful moments here.
Koko is the last event of the South: the opening to the last post, district Nkololoun, sculpture Koko Komégné. I've already talked about Koko is a wise old man, a painter, at 57, he is the Dean des artistes de Douala et depuis mon arrivée, j'ai eu le plaisir de partager nombre de bières et de discussions avec ce Monsieur, du côté de Bali ou de Deïdo. Aujourd'hui c'est son jour. Le dernier poteau est l'endroit où il a grandi. On l'a appelé dernier poteau parce que jadis la ville s'arrêtait précisément là et au delà c'était la brousse. On est à l'endroit où brûlait le dernier lampadaire urbain du Sud Est de Douala. Pour Koko c'est une forme de consécration, laisser une trace dans la ville, un monument sur le lieu de son enfance. Sa famille s'est déplacée pour l'occasion et il a revêtu sa chemise de fête, celle qui représente 30 ans de combat. It was first painter in words for signs of shops, singer, musician, he ran a tavern, only to paint pictures. He told me that one does not become an artist, but a vocation is God who decides, and God knows that here when we told his family that one is an artist, it's almost a curse, a life of misery in perspective.
The last post is a very busy intersection, and we are trying to block traffic for the ceremony, what matters! People who wonder what all those white, approached and asked: "What is that" it is precisely the title of the work of Koko, what ça en Duala on dit "Njé Mo Yé". Alors de droite et de gauche, par petits groupes, les uns et les autres racontent l'histoire et apprennent aux curieux ce qui nous réunit là. L'oeuvre fait 6m de hauteur et parle d'amour et de partage, elle représente un homme et une femme réunis dans un même personnage à 2 têtes. Les passants qui n'ont vraiment pas l'habitude d'être confrontés à une oeuvre d'art dans l'espace urbain sont vite intéressés pour peu que l'on prenne le temps de leur expliquer, bientôt eux mêmes expliqueront à d'autres. Koko prend la parole dans un concert de klaxons, on est tous agglutiné autour de lui pour l'entendre, puis Lionel Manga intervient. The senior leader arrives with his delegation, he is proud to welcome us into its territory and we will then invite the leadership to share a drink and end this first edition of the legendary Urban Douala now triennium.
Limbe-Bonendale
After all that here I am filled with emotion and fatigue, I feel asocials become, and I need to take off. Monday, I have only one desire, to see the sea and bathe in the waves and wind to clean my body and mind. I coach my friend to Achilles Limbe, we rent a taxi for the day and go. An hour and a half later and 50 kms plus loin, nous arrivons à Limbé, rappelez vous le village de pêcheur au début du séjour. Nous mangeons dans un endroit de rêve face à la mer, puis nous allons nous baigner à Semme Beach, quel bonheur alors qu'il fait 10 degrés sous zéro du côté de Strasbourg. Je pense déjà au retour, quelle histoire, comment revenir ? Le chauffeur de taxi qui vit à Douala n'a jamais vu la mer, il n'était jamais venu à Limbé. Après quelques heures de jeu dans les vagues, on prend le chemin du retour, la nuit est tombée. Ce soir Dominique Malaquais m'a invité à Bonendale, au village d'artiste pour une petite fête avec les participants de la performance Ring. I spend the night in the village home of the artist Goddy Leye. Dominica offers me the morning swimming in the Wouri, I like the idea very much. We will be guided by a man of incredible beauty, David Sword, a Sawa, boatmen, very good swimmer and Families River. What to see this man, we can only have confidence,
facial features are smooth and pure, his gaze is frank, it releases serenity and confidence, all in an athletic body of a meter ninety-five . Ladies, I dare say you would be conquered, this man is a work of art, a true masterpiece. Still I am not very comfortable because the canoe is a boat very unstable at the slightest movement makes it right or left and I do not know what is the current strength. Olympian calm of our guide and the scenery in which we operate have ended because of my fears. The man leads us to a place or a sand gives us up, we jump into the water, and for the first time I am in the waters of the Gods Sawas, away from my private pool javelisée. We swim in happiness, yet a great moment, it's just what I needed. In return he tells me about Mamiwata sort of mythical sirens that can be encountered along the river and can take us and lead us into the depths, David says he does not fear, I think. The sound of a chainsaw breaks the silence, and just as we passed a few meters from the shore shaft collapses, I think of mine.
Merry Christmas
As I end this note, I'm already back to cold and I'm back in my luggage no African masquerade, I did not gigabytes of photos or movies in the box . In my trunk there are 2 bags of skins headlamps and 20 kg of fruit Cameroonian Achille and Therese were willing to get me to Central Market. In terms of memories, dear readers, I tried to give you the best throughout this unforgettable stay. I hope you could get something, it's my Christmas gift from Africa to you all and I have not taken anything else.
soon
Frederick
Yannick 
