Top 15 Véronique Tadjo Quotes

As a bat, somewhere midway between a mammal and a bird, with my foxy-looking fangs and snout and my translucent wings, I harbor but one regret: having let Ebola escape from my belly. It was dormant in me until Man came and wreaked the splendour of the forest.

I'm a trespasser in the Kingdom of Death. This is his private domain, his empire, where he rules with absolute power. I feel like an astronaut floating in space, a thousand miles from earth. The slightest tear in his spacesuit and he’s lost. The slightest tear in mine, just like him, I’m lost too.

Humans today think they can do whatever they like. They fancy themselves as masters, as architects of nature.

We were here to last. We were here to spread our shade over the remotest lands. We were here so our foliage would murmur the secrets of the four corners of the world. But human beings have destroyed our hopes. No matter where in the world they are, they wage war on the forest. Our trunks crash to the ground with a sound like thunder. Our naked roots mourn the end of our dreams. You cannot destroy the forest without spilling blood.

We spoke of conquest. We spoke of destruction. We spoke of boredom. And hetold me how he was finding life painful, of his inter-minable languor, and of his feeling of insatiable emp-tiness.

He left his vast country inAfrica. Now he lives in the big city of stone. And it isbetter for him, this exile. An exile where the inhabi-tants have respect for a white stick, where the stateensures his wellbeing and where facilities enable himto read and write

Pour libation, summon the gods,utter sacred words, assemble diviners and sorcerers recapture the present, make peace, return to the earth,the spell

I check to see if there is any mail for me. Stamps from my coun-try. I pick up the newspaper. Here, there is a great dealof talk about South Africa

I searched for such a long time. At the begin-ning, an image, an ebony-warrior coming fromAzania. Then it was like a three-way mirror re-flecting my past, present and future. I searchedfor you everywhere: in my books, at the cine-ma, within my weaknesses, under the finefolds of my smile

With you I have rediscovered simple words,rediscovered the joy of evenings spent chat-ting, nights spent holding hands, hoping for acity that will not leave behind a bitter taste ofdefeat in the mornings. Maybe together, wewill make it. Please, do not reproach me for unleashing a storm upon this sleepy city, formislaying dreams made of rare pearls and fe-tish gold

We spoke of conquest. We spoke of destruc-tion. We spoke of boredom. And he told mehow he was finding life painful, of his inter-minable languor, and of his feeling of insatiable emptiness

But sometimes I say to myself, ‘There, Afri-cans are fighting, dying and I am doing not h-ing, My life is sheltered in the heart of this cityof stone. I just don’t know, I just don’t know.

You fly to another place. Home, to a big city ofstone. You leave as one does. One alwaysleaves. But you do not know if you will everreturn. I am leaving, I am leaving, will I everreturn? I am leaving you today. Yesterday, Ihad left you

Somewhere, a young man wallows in his suffering - his wound so deep he cannot draw a distinction between love and destruction. When he fights, he wounds his adversary like a fighter in search of victory.

...love is the colour of hope. Bitter today, sweet tomorrow. You should not throw away your wealth of tenderness and let the honey-filled caresses dry up. Do not be wicked just to prove who you are, just to expose your wounds to the skies.