Dinosaurs, pizza and renaissance art: the Maga perspective
on Mischa in Cameroon (Cameroon), 18/Jun/2010 06:10, 34 days ago
One of my best friends in Maga is Akilo the baker, who works in his brother’s bakery from about five am to ten am each day, and then runs a café by the side of the market from six pm to two am where he gives me free cups of coffee. He’s a nineteen year old orphan and was brought up by his grandmother in Yagoua, a town a bit further South than Maga on the Chad border,where he did various jobs from raising horses to selling eggs to taking people illegally across the border on his motor bike. Although he hasn’t been to secondary school he speaks excellent French which he learnt mainly by watching dubbed films in Yagoua’s video clubs when he was younger (the video clubs are huts where an audience mainly made up of teenage boys pay a few pence to sit on the ground to watch the television. I have neverseen a woman in a video club). The video club has given him an extraordinary view of Western culture and the world in general which is shared by many people in Maga and goes far beyond the standard belief that ‘all white people are rich’. Below are a few of our typical conversations, to give anidea of how warped our exported Hollywood worldview really is. A: I have two questions about some things I’ve seen that I thought were a bit strange.Me: Okay.A: In Jurassic Park there were dinosaurs living on the earth. Where are they? Do you have them in your country?Me: Actually, dinosaurs are extinct. We have some skeletons in England though.A: Oh(he sounds a bit disappointed). I have another question though. I’ve seen in some films that people in the West stick candles in their cakes. Do you really do that?Me: Of course. That’s really normal.(In Maga some people think I’m extravagant because I burn up to three candles at a time during power cuts).  A: Mischa, do you know about pizza.Me: Yes, I love pizza. In England I eat it all the time.A: I know all about pizza.(I’m a bit surprised- although Akilo is a baker and someone in his extended family married an Italian in the Extreme North pizza is only available in two expat restaurants in Maroua)A: It’s a kind of cake isn’t it?Me: Have you ever actually eaten pizza?A: Oh no, but I’ve seen lots of adverts for it on Canal (the satellite TV station). It comes in a square box.Me: If you open a restaurant one day(one of Akilo’s grand ambitions)you could serve pizza.A:(Firmly).Mischa, Maga is not ready for pizza.   A: Can you draw?Me: No, but my sister can.A: Like Leonardo.(I am extremely impressed. I can’t imagine how Akilo found out about Leonardo da Vinci).A: I saw a film about him. Does he come from your country?Me: No, he was Italian, although he spent a lot of his life in France as well.A: Is he still alive?Me: Oh no, he died about five hundred years ago.(Akilo looks surprised)A: Did he die when the Titanic sank, or is that a made up story?(It suddenly clicks. Leonardo di Caprio played the character of an artist in the film Titanic.)Me: The Titanic really sank, but the story about Leonardo and Kate in the film is made up.(Akilo is disappointed, but not as disappointed as when I told him about the dinosaurs).