THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER
C.S Lewis's Narnia tales have several ways of entering into Narnia- the Other World. Each instalment of the tales brings another method. Once the children stand looking at a picture in a frame: a picture of the ship The Dawn Treader. While looking at the picture it becomes more and more real, until all of a sudden they taste the salt of the sea, they feel the wind that fills the sails and they find themselves stending on the deck of the Dawn Treader.
This is something similar to my experience when I visited Keita's mother and two sons in Segou on my way to Djenne.
I have hundreds of pictures of Keita's two sons Moussa and Lassina and of his mother. Every time he went to Segou I asked him to take more photographs. I know the backdrops of his house and yard. I know everything but in stills only. To arrive into this world the day before yesterday was as if someone had switched on the animation-a change of state from a two dimentional still photography world into fully fledged three dimentional reality.
The meeting with Keita's mother was unforgettable and heart breaking. This fine old African woman has lost three of her sons and Keita, always her favourite son, is the only remaining son, the one she loved more than the others.
'If you take him to Europe, will he stay a very long time?' she wanted to know.'When he comes back, will he be able to walk again?' 'With the help of God he will' I replied. And we cried and embraced.
The boys were extremely polite and a little curious- although I felt I had known them for years they had never of course heard of me. We phoned Keita so they could talk to him.
'There is a toubab woman here daddy,' said Lassina. 'She is a friend of yours.'
'It is not his friend, it is his wife' said Keita's mother.