The Senegalese writer Boubacar Boris Diop (Dakar, 1946) receives Juan Manuel Pardellas, journalist and CEO of welcomeafrica.org, with the serenity of someone who has dedicated his life to looking at the world without haste but with depth. In this conversation, published in the August issue of the NT magazine of the Canary Islands airline BINTER, Diop describes a career marked by travel, curiosity and commitment to Africa. "Travelling has been my real university," he confesses, recalling that each trip has allowed him to learn more about other cultures as well as his own.
The interview reveals an author who values Canarian hospitality - not only towards visitors, but also towards the young Senegalese migrants who arrive in canoes - and who vindicates the need to understand the migratory phenomenon through compassion and not fear. His words draw a bridge between Africa and the Canary Islands, two shores that, he assures us, share more than is usually recognised.
Diop does not shy away from political issues: he warns of a new colonisation disguised as globalisation, defends the use of African languages as a tool for emancipation and recalls the figure of Cheikh Anta Diop as an intellectual reference for an Africa in search of its own voice. Aware of the challenges of the present, he also lashes out against the power of social networks, which he accuses of "atrophying privacy and impoverishing journalism".
Between reflections on sovereignty, culture and migration, the author draws a lucid and critical portrait of the African continent, but also a profoundly hopeful one. A conversation that invites us to rethink the relationship between Africa and Europe, and to listen carefully to what the journey - and those who travel - have to tell us.
Read full interview here.