africa stack010

Text :

The secretary of the PAIGC for
the island of Sal told me that it
was time for « a powerful counter-
offensive on the ideological front,
to get ride of the Trotskyist
tendencies. » I had a hard time
seeing how Trotskyism could ever
pass through the flat, moonlike
horizon of Sal. Foreign to all such
theologies, the population
remained faithful to its native
Catholicism. And I, the unbeliever,
felt so much more at ease on
Sunday morning in the tranquil
little church at the end of the
Praia jetty than among the men
of the Party (who in the Cape
Verde Islands were nonetheless
the least hard-line in Africa, by
Far…). I liked to watch those
beautiful women pray, and if God
finally does exist, I’m sure he won’t
count it against me.