“Un chagrin n’est jamais qu’une maison en reconstruction.”

Ngondo Moyula[1]

Dans son rêve Korotoumou reçut la visite de la chanteuse. Son chant s’élevait chaque soir quand le soleil tirait sa révérence. Un chant profond et nuageux, terriblement triste et qui faisait pleurer les gardiens de prisons. C’était le chant de la douleur, c’était le rythme de l’accouchement, c’était le chant des larmes, le chant de la joie perdue de vivre les derniers instants d’un monde que l’on savait perdu. Les larmes des geôliers devenaient une flaque, un océan. La chanteuse n’était plus dans une prison mais à l’intérieur d’une gigantesque barque de lumière. Chaque coup de rame l’enfonçait encore plus dans l’obscurité. Un néant sombre et beau. Un ailleurs  où elle pouvait entendre la voix des muets et des gisants lui dire :

“Rame plus vite. Quand tu arriveras au bout de ton chemin notre vie pourra commencer. ”

“Grief is never more than a house being rebuilt.”

Ngondo Moyula[2]

In her dreams Korotoumou was visited by the singer. Her song rose up each evening when the sun took its leave.  A deep and cloudy song, terribly sad, and which made the prison guards cry.  It was the song of pain, the rhythm of birth, the song of tears, the song of the lost joy of living the last moments of a world one knew to be lost.  The tears of the jailers became a pool, an ocean.  The singer was no longer in prison but inside a huge boat of light.  Each stroke of the oars sent her deeper into the darkness.  A sombre and beautiful nothingness, an elsewhere where she could hear the voices of the dumb and of the effigies saying to her:

“Row faster.  When you reach the end of your route our life can begin.”

[1] Forçat échappé de l`histoire (Angola/Cabinda)

[2] Escaped convict from history (Angola/Cabinda)

Audio Recording of Landa wo Reading “Korotoumou” in French

 Audio Recording of Landa wo Reading “Korotoumou” in English

Landa wo is a writer from Angola, Cabinda and France. Previous and forthcoming publications include Bellingham Review, The Blue Nib, Columbia Journal, Cyphers, Fiction International, Grain Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, Nashville Review, Raleigh Review, Salt Hill Journal, Spillway, The Common, Tule Review, The Cape Rock and several other journals and anthologies. Selected by Roddy Doyle as the winner of the 2007 Metro Eireann writing competition, Landa wo has won a number of awards including Eist poetry competition and Feile Filiochta international poetry competition in Ireland. Landa wo is politically engaged and his work deal with prominent issues of social justice, discrimination and cultural strife.