Obili Blues

written by Ada Bessomo

Le sel offert au miel

Nous ouvrons désormais les yeux
En danseurs obscènes des tours de reins
En chants brûlants de maux sexuels
Les réveils dans le ventre du vide
Sont désormais notre révolution
Obili, quartier du sud de Yaoundé, capitale camerounaise, est pour Ada Bessomo le symbole même de l’amer. Comment réconcilier en pareil lieu l’estime de soi, l’appel de jours meilleurs et l’amour d’un pays qui gonfle ses muscles contre votre souffle, comme pour éprouver votre patience, étrangler son propre avenir?
We henceforth would open our eyes, as obscene dancers of moving kidneys, as songs burning with sexual aches, alarm bells in the stomach of emptiness, today constitute our revolution. For Ada Bessomo, Obili, a residential area in Yaounde, capital of Cameroon, is the epitome of bitterness itself. How does one, in such a context, reconcile self esteem, a recollection of better days and love for a country that flexes its muscles against your breath, almost as if to test your patience, to suffocate its very future?

Ada Bessomo

Ada Bessomo, author of Bémols saugrenus published by Les Vanneaux in 2007, in the present collection, gives voice to the spaces of courage, rupture, rebellion or intimacy, with, at the end, a return to the founding essences. The return of rhythm as initiation to the sun and to the rain, the eventual opening of salt to honey.  Bessomo is the founder of the Vaste Songe association in Lille. He hosts literary encounters since 2001, and cultural programmes on Lille Campus Radio.