The walking dictator

Armel J. Ngamaleu

Jean Gaumy – Prison walking courts. Caen, France. 1976.

 

 

The walking dictator

 

It is a friend-enemy, an impostor, a dictator.

It is part of our clothes now.

It no longer leaves our faces bare and free.

 

It is red, blue, white, yellow, green, black…

It is bicolored, tricolored, multicolored.

It has various geometrical forms.

 

It has a tail, sometimes two tails or ears.

It makes prisoner our head when it has two tails.

It handcuffs our ears when it has two ears.

 

It swallows our voices.

It suffocates us, protects, and irritates at the same time.

It is sometimes clean, or so dirty, but we respect it…

 

It has mutated human faces and urban landscapes.

It is a new personal and collective dictator.

It is on the mouth, the nose, the neck, the chin,

 

On the forehead, on the arm, in the bag, in the pocket,

In your hands or on the floor…

And what else do I know?

 

Armel J. Ngamaleu

 

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