The Abandoned Baobab

"I just wanted to live, without fear, without knowledge, to live on the instinct of which I was totally unaware, over which I had no control."

"I felt like running to the village, staying underneath the baobab tree, and crying"

"I am absolutely against all mixing. Each race should remain as it is. Mixing the races gives rise to degenerates; that is not racism. I am speaking scientifically. You are black, stay with black people. Whites should stay with whites."

"A system of preestablished values, a healthier approach to sexuality prohibit such a situation. Hence the woman’s early marriage. Abortion was rare in any traditional village."

"Sexuality is culture and atmosphere"

"The plane left the sun in an intoxicating and almost painful rage. It took my breath away and instinctively I clutched the armrests. I felt as if I were being torn away from myself."

"White folks, they’re all the same. Their infatuation with what’s Black. And, once colonialism had displayed it, Africa had begun to show her backside and her skin across the world to command attention."

"From now on, I would look at human beings by enclosing them in their bodies"

"I thought I was having a fine time with them, but I was actually even more frustrated: I identified myself in them, they did not identify themselves in me."

"I want to be with him, while at the same time I rejected him, not because I didn’t want him but because of our surroundings."