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Hemley Boum Biography

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“He loved her the same way hurt children love: with passion and selfishness.”

Source: Days Come and Go

“Grown men send children into battle throughout the world, all the time. Old men create conditions for conflicts, fuel hostilities, and pretend to defend core values—good against evil—whereas all they are doing is ferociously protecting their privileges while coveting the riches of others. They hatch toxic strategies, then send their children charging at the enemy. To hide their deadly avarice, they speak with conviction about courage and patriotism while bunkered in their headquarters, in offices or on television sets while the blood of youths is spilled in combat, their spirits mangled by the ferocity of battles that will pollute their souls forever. This vicious cycle starts all over again with every generation, because no war is ever won for good. Hatred feeds the desire for vengeance, which is transmitted alongside genes. The first drop of blood spilled at the dawn of the world triggered the bloodshed that we stubbornly perpetuate all over the earth.”

War Evil Battle War And Peace Bloodshed Against Evil

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“Terror is a bottomless pit. Did you know that, Max? When you think you have hit rock bottom, that your heart cannot take any more of it, something unexpected happens and the dread and anguish spike as if your brain is acknowledging your imminent death. Then you realise that you can still fall further than you already have.”

Fear Loss Grief Terror Days Come And Go Hemley Boum

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“Museums of primitive art are filled with masks, figurines, bas-relief sculptures, all looted from all over the world and robbed of their meanings. For those who created them, life resided not in the object itself, but rather in the spirit that inspired it. A corpse, even one artistically entombed, is still a dead body. They are no longer works of art, but simply objects. They are beautiful, whereas they should be alive, From time immemorial, humans have sculpted to magnify their gods. There is a reason why some religions are against any depiction of their gods while others are committed to the practice. There is some form of highly human insolence in recreating the god that created you, and there is a risk of adoring the tangible representation in itself instead of the discarnate deity. That is what sculpture is: both a tribute and a challenge to the gods. Some spiritualities tolerate this ambivalence, others don't. Others yet use representations to further tighten control over their flock and guarantee their submissiveness. They select the artists and dictate the dogma they should represent. Sculpture is both the easiest and the most delicate of art forms. It is more than just hewing a form out of a compact block, or reproducing a model: you have to breathe life into It. That is not something you can learn or improvise. There is always some part of yourself that you infuse into the material. In our modern world, where art is a business like any other, techniques are taught, but the magic, on the other hand, is still a gift, midway between bliss and suffering.”

Art British Museum African Art Colonial Theft

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“I wish I could write their individual stories in the book of our lives with indelible ink, because we cannot compel the world to share our affliction, but we still have the duty to honour our dead. Tina said it: all it takes is for one person, just one, to burst into grief for the others to take up the song of mourning. That is our mission. That is our duty as survivors. We are all survivors in this country, to varying degrees. To survivors, the Lord, in His languid Mercy, grants unending years of contrition. This, at least, is necessary; otherwise, where would the salty water in the oceans come from?”

Grief Lord Sorrow Congo Nigeria Cameroon Hemley Boum

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“No one taught me how to analyse a book, how to read from a safe distance, how not to lose sight of context, how to grasp the things left unsaid. No one taught me about schools of thought or even the ideologies meant to give depth to a mundane story. No one taught me aesthetics, language... All these, I discovered in high school while studying the classics, and broadened this knowledge at the Higher Teachers' Training College in Yaounde, from which I graduated as a French teacher. But I had already developed a habit. All my life, I would read the same way l had started off—intensely, passionately, instinctively—and sentence fragments would stick with me […] Books soothed my soul, made me angry, made me strong. They made me laugh and cry. They pushed me to examine existence with my own mind, to trust my intuition, to stretch my mind to perceive—against the backdrop of characters, nature, and plot—the intricate symphony of time that beams our being to the world. As a child, reading made me feel less lonely, less insignificant, less vulnerable. As an adult, I developed enough discernment to understand that, while reading had not made me a better person, it had made me more levelheaded towards my own motivations, and freer.”

Reading Days Come And Go Hemley Boum

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“Non-violent resistance supposes that the almighty enemy, at the very least, considers you to be a human being, capable of logically arguing why you disagree. It supposes that this enemy is ready to hear your demands and find common ground. Yes, Bamileke maquisards took up arms! But did they have a choice? Colonial masters feigned departure, but their cruel puppets continue to safeguard their interests through murder. We were cheated. Our struggle has been used to different ends. And, you will see, they will chop off any head that stands out, and then falsify our history. In fact, they won't; they will not even bother to record our history." "Who is "they?" I asked. "This 'they' is 'we’,” replied Louis. "We are the ones killing ourselves. Our killers are encouraged, trained, and funded by the former colonial power. But, and this is what makes it worse, we ourselves are the ones doing the dirty work with senseless enthusiasm," he added. That was how Cameroon—not just myself as an individual, or my village, Ombessa, or Bafia and Yaounde, the places where I had lived, but also this multi-layered, nuanced, bruised entity called my country—took shape in my mind.”

Colonialism Boko Haram Cameroon Days Come And Go Hemley Boum Bafia Bamileke Maquisards Ombessa Yaounde

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“Misery wreaks havoc. The yawning gap between this place and the rest of the country is unfathomable to anyone who has not experienced it. Boko Haram recruits them like child's play because the sect at least offers a tangible, immediate solution. As shocking as we might find it, their message appeals to some. Dying for God is more thrilling than dying of hunger, humiliation, or because the neighbourhood dispensary has run out of antibiotics. Maybe one day someone will study just how personally distressed one must be to weaponise faith against one's own people, but that is not my job.”

God Hunger Humiliation Boko Haram Days Come And Go

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go

“A woman’s body is exceedingly more demanding than her heart.”

Body Bodies Woman S Body A Woman S Worth

Book:Days Come and Go

Source: Days Come and Go