How to speak of those who go on the roads of exile? Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe and Fred Ebami chose the graphic novel.
noble at heart, is the title of this four-handed book which has just been released by Calmann-Lévy. On the cover, in orange colors, two young men back to back and a subtitle The odyssey of Yaguine and Fodé – children of exile. Let us remember: Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara are these two children, left from Conakry in Guinea in July 1999, discovered in the landing gear of a plane in Brussels, dead of cold. They were 14 and 15 years old. Among their belongings are birth certificates, education certificates, photos and a letter addressed to European leaders.
It is from their tragic destinies and their hopes that the graphic novel was woven noble at heart : “ This book was born from our feeling of revolt, our feeling of urgency, our incomprehension which has lasted for more than 20 years before the fate of Yaguine and Fodé.confides the poet and novelist Marc Alexandre Oho Bambe at the microphone of RFI. These two kids, whose first names haven’t ceased to haunt me for more than 20 years, who appeared in rap texts, in my first collection DNAin The Lights of Oujda and now in Noble of Hearts”.
Beyond their own trajectory, Yaguine and Fodé embody in this graphic novel both those who defy the fences and walls erected in front of them and also a youth, called the Fugees, simply connected, who dreams, who raps his dreams, and intends to bring them to life. Therefore, if noble at heart is inspired by the lives of these two young men, he also distances himself from them and takes us on the roads from Conakry to Tripoli and also to Tangier, where the graphic novel begins: ” The first plate, a double page, represents the entrance to Tangier, with its taxis, its palm trees, its welcoming, lively side, and more particularly the Hafa café, a mythical café, very important in our history, where many stories meet and it is also the place, in the bay of Tangier, which faces Europe “, describes Fred Ebami to RFI, whose colorful illustrations, imagined like a film and offered in this book like paintings, give us to see the crossing of two beings, sometimes in motion towards their dreams, other times locked up and prevented .
A real cry-poem that tells of a youth ” thrown on the roads of exile », his hopes and his anger, noble at heart will soon be staged and on tour. See you especially in June in Morocco.
Extract : ” Yaguine and Fodé recount their journey, they recount their memories, their desires kept on a leash, their chained revolts. Recall their lives, as if not to lose them. Don’t lose anything. Not to lose themselves along the way. The road that leads to oneself is long, even longer the one that leads to the dream carried. Postponed. Deported to the field of reality. The camp of existence. Excluding vocals. Resist headwinds. Stay together, dignified and upright. Noble in heart. »
► Read also : Marc-Alexandre Oho Bambe: the “fugees” in the Lights of Oujda