RARE p. 25

Série RARE page 25

42 x 29,7 cm

Papier Keaykolour A 3 noir

Porte-plume Standardgraph noir

Plume Joseph Gillot 1950

Encre J. Herbin recouvrante verte

Photographies non contractuelles, cadre inclus

Texte du tableau :

of the XX^th century! I bought the French translation of Evans-Pritchard’s classic: Sorcellerie, oracles et magie chez les Azande and I inhaled each sentence of it with pride and delight as if I was finally discovering the true spiritual  roots of my love. Each of these fabulous forgotten age-old rites was a piece of Vee’s inner crown: Mangu,  the witchcraft substance; Ngua, magic and medicines; Gira, taboo; Sinu, spell; Benge, poison oracle; Abinzu, witchdoctors; Mbisimo, soul;  Atoro, ghosts; Mbori, superior being…

I realized particularly how intensely the life of my wife, thus mine, was surrounded by sorcery. I knew she was superstitious, like every African; I knew for instance how hard she was to convince to call on our good neighbours Proust and Balzac in Père-Lachaise cemetery, because nobody in Bangui would dare to confuse a cemetery with a parc; it made me smile when she cried out : “Heysee! Pardon!” because I was whistling a song at twilight as if I wanted to attract spirits, ghosts and demons all around. I smiled – I even was moved – when I discovered an amulet – a gri-gri made with a magic walnut sealed inside a small leather enveloppe – sewn into the lining of my jacket so no other woman could ever seduce me… All these magic plants, herbs, powders, bark shavings <copeaux d’écorces> and nuts were directly sent from Bangui with their precise instructions (how to boil, mix, swallow and apply) through DHL after hours of expensive mobile unending conversations with an expatriate  marabout from Mali or Sénégal – not even a Zande! – whose name I was not allowed to know…

– Let me talk to your friend the sorcerer, darling, just once.

– Why ? (shouted with an angry voice) Why do you want to mind my business ?

– I would just like to tell your guy: “Stop duping my wife, you fucking crook!”

– Heysee! Pardon!

Vee knew very well I was teasing her, but still, she didn’t  like me to watch her cooking and preparing her secret stuff in the kitchen.