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Authors: Maryse Condé
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fifty-year-old who escorted his wife, a Congolese, this time from Kinshasa. Patrick was a former deep-sea diver. For years he had lived on offshore oil rigs from Indonesia to Gabon, from which he escaped every two weeks to blow his phenomenal wages plus danger money in the brothels. At the age of fifty, when the hour of retirement had sounded, he had decided to settle down in Cape Town, where the climate suited his arthritis of the knee, contracted in the ocean depths. During the meal he held his audience captive, recounting quite simply how he used to dive down over a thousand feet, brushing against the fish and the coral amid the silence and darkness of the ocean deep.
But at dessert, however, the conversation got bogged down in inescapable terrain. Life as a mixed couple. In the ensuing brouhaha everyone had a story of prejudice, rejection, or exclusion to tell, and oneâs heart never knew whether to laugh or cry or do both at the same time. In fact, no society is prepared to accept the freedom to love.
The most spectacular tale was that of Peter and Latifah. To prevent this union, which he considered unnatural, the sultan Rachid al-Hassan had his daughter locked up in one of the wings of his palace, the Palace of the Wind. Here she was watched over day and night by four ferocious hounds and six old hags who fed her nothing but curds in order to incapacitate her. She had escaped with the help of a guard who had poisoned the hounds with meatballs and drugged the old hags with a sleeping potion. Up to this very day the radio in Sokoto is still broadcasting the description of Peter as a wanted person and public enemy of the sultanate. The sultan has never given up hope of jailing him after having first castrated him with a fine blade inset with ivory dating from the eighteenth century.
Stephen refused to give in to the general gloom. He began by cheering up his audience with his sardonic erudition. The mixed couple is a very old and honorable institution. Caâ da Mosto and Valentin Fernandes can testify to it. It dates back to 1510, when a group of Portuguese from Lisbon, including criminals fleeing the kingdom, settled at the mouth of the river Senegal and, adopting the African custom, took up with black women. Although they were held in contempt by their fellow countrymen, they were adored by the Africans and called themselves lançados em terra , those who are thrown onto the shore, or tango mâos , the tattooed traders. At the same time, 1512 to be exact, other Portuguese were washed up on the shores of Brazil, near São Paolo, one of whom was João Ramalho, who took as his wife the daughter of a Tamoia Indian chief. On June 14, 1874, Lafcadio Hearn married Alethea Foley, a woman of mixed race from Cincinnati. In the same humorous vein, Stephen then asked why we only take into account the biological element. Isnât the union between a Spaniard and a Belgian a mixed marriage? Between a German and an Italian? A Czech and a Romanian? An American and a French woman? And after all, arenât all couples mixed? Although they may belong to the same society, the spouses themselves come from different social and family backgrounds. Even if a brother married his sister it would be another case of mixed marriage. No individual is identical to another.
He brought out a sense of pride in the guests by painting in glowing colors the day when the entire world would follow their example. Yes, the mixed couple would conquer all! The greatest thinkers of our time are saying that the world is in a state of hybridization. You only need two eyes to see it for yourself. New York, London, cities of hybrids. Hybridized cities.
In their enthusiasm Piotr and Bebe proposed they join forces, and pursue and repeat the âArt for the Peopleâ operation. Could he select lines from poems or meaningful quotes by writers? They would be blown up into giant posters and displayed in the markets, the bus stations, the railroad
But at dessert, however, the conversation got bogged down in inescapable terrain. Life as a mixed couple. In the ensuing brouhaha everyone had a story of prejudice, rejection, or exclusion to tell, and oneâs heart never knew whether to laugh or cry or do both at the same time. In fact, no society is prepared to accept the freedom to love.
The most spectacular tale was that of Peter and Latifah. To prevent this union, which he considered unnatural, the sultan Rachid al-Hassan had his daughter locked up in one of the wings of his palace, the Palace of the Wind. Here she was watched over day and night by four ferocious hounds and six old hags who fed her nothing but curds in order to incapacitate her. She had escaped with the help of a guard who had poisoned the hounds with meatballs and drugged the old hags with a sleeping potion. Up to this very day the radio in Sokoto is still broadcasting the description of Peter as a wanted person and public enemy of the sultanate. The sultan has never given up hope of jailing him after having first castrated him with a fine blade inset with ivory dating from the eighteenth century.
Stephen refused to give in to the general gloom. He began by cheering up his audience with his sardonic erudition. The mixed couple is a very old and honorable institution. Caâ da Mosto and Valentin Fernandes can testify to it. It dates back to 1510, when a group of Portuguese from Lisbon, including criminals fleeing the kingdom, settled at the mouth of the river Senegal and, adopting the African custom, took up with black women. Although they were held in contempt by their fellow countrymen, they were adored by the Africans and called themselves lançados em terra , those who are thrown onto the shore, or tango mâos , the tattooed traders. At the same time, 1512 to be exact, other Portuguese were washed up on the shores of Brazil, near São Paolo, one of whom was João Ramalho, who took as his wife the daughter of a Tamoia Indian chief. On June 14, 1874, Lafcadio Hearn married Alethea Foley, a woman of mixed race from Cincinnati. In the same humorous vein, Stephen then asked why we only take into account the biological element. Isnât the union between a Spaniard and a Belgian a mixed marriage? Between a German and an Italian? A Czech and a Romanian? An American and a French woman? And after all, arenât all couples mixed? Although they may belong to the same society, the spouses themselves come from different social and family backgrounds. Even if a brother married his sister it would be another case of mixed marriage. No individual is identical to another.
He brought out a sense of pride in the guests by painting in glowing colors the day when the entire world would follow their example. Yes, the mixed couple would conquer all! The greatest thinkers of our time are saying that the world is in a state of hybridization. You only need two eyes to see it for yourself. New York, London, cities of hybrids. Hybridized cities.
In their enthusiasm Piotr and Bebe proposed they join forces, and pursue and repeat the âArt for the Peopleâ operation. Could he select lines from poems or meaningful quotes by writers? They would be blown up into giant posters and displayed in the markets, the bus stations, the railroad
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