Scan barcode
A review by ohnoflora
Alpha. Abidjan to Gare du Nord by Bessora
5.0
The heart breaking story of an Ivorian man trying to make his way to the Gare du Nord to reunite with his family, of whom he has had no news since they left to make the same journey. A graphic novel but laid out more like a collection of photographs with captions underneath. Mostly there are two to a page, sometimes one larger one. The illustrations are impressionistic but vivid, people's faces sketched out and staring - sometimes at the floor, sometimes searching the horizon, sometimes directly out at the reader.
I overheard a student this morning saying that the wall would make America "safer and more free". He was being provocative - riling up his peers on purpose - and, like Trump, I don't even know if he believed what he was saying -but I hope that with this book in his hands he might begin to think again.
I think it's important that the main character is a migrant, not a refugee. It challenges us to empathise with someone the press and politicians have told us is lazy, free-loading, a "benefits tourist", not worthy of our hospitality. This book challenges these assumptions: for example the page that shows an American tourist in Mali, skin pink and peeling. The caption says: "You see tourists in Abidjan, Bamako and Gao. Americans, French, happy people touring around Africa on bicycles. And what have we asked of them? Us, plenty is asked of us. They put up barriers, bang, bang, bang, barbed wire, bang, bang, bang, sniffer dogs trained to find illegal migrants, sniff, sniff, sniff, and watchtowers. We can't just go touring when we want."
It shows us that the world is impossibly weighted in favour of a very few privileged people, people who then despise others for not having the same advantages as them, for daring to dream, for daring to want something more, for daring to want to live. Borders are inhumane. Walls are inhumane. Why are we still building them?
I overheard a student this morning saying that the wall would make America "safer and more free". He was being provocative - riling up his peers on purpose - and, like Trump, I don't even know if he believed what he was saying -but I hope that with this book in his hands he might begin to think again.
I think it's important that the main character is a migrant, not a refugee. It challenges us to empathise with someone the press and politicians have told us is lazy, free-loading, a "benefits tourist", not worthy of our hospitality. This book challenges these assumptions: for example the page that shows an American tourist in Mali, skin pink and peeling. The caption says: "You see tourists in Abidjan, Bamako and Gao. Americans, French, happy people touring around Africa on bicycles. And what have we asked of them? Us, plenty is asked of us. They put up barriers, bang, bang, bang, barbed wire, bang, bang, bang, sniffer dogs trained to find illegal migrants, sniff, sniff, sniff, and watchtowers. We can't just go touring when we want."
It shows us that the world is impossibly weighted in favour of a very few privileged people, people who then despise others for not having the same advantages as them, for daring to dream, for daring to want something more, for daring to want to live. Borders are inhumane. Walls are inhumane. Why are we still building them?