At a time when the lack of travel begins to weigh on our ability to dream and look towards great horizons, in which the curiosity towards the world does not know how to feed itself, the desire for adventure and diversity has been kept at bay for too long, we are went in search of travel stories that open the heart and spirit. Adventures of different people, on different itineraries, stories that allow us to experience a piece of the world more. For each of our guests the question is “What world are you missing?” asking them to take us there with their stories. Per Achille Mauri, editor, television producer, writer and above all a man of rare depth, there are at least two journeys that have opened his heart and mind. Here he tells us aboutAfrica of black magic, the one then told in a documentary, “Magic of Africa”, but above all it tells us about that extraordinary place that “held” him for two years in the Kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) where he also brought with him the his family and some of his collaborators at the publishing house.
“In the sixties, one Easter day I receive a letter from King Aho René Glelé, descendant of the God Agassou, inviting me and a friend who at that time worked with me at the magazine” Planet “which dealt with paranormal to join him in Dahomey (in present day Benin), a small state overlooking the Gulf of Guinea, to know the invisible world. He told us that it was time for Europe to know the secrets of the forest, of water, of fire, “water is chatter, fire tells the truth and it is important that this oral culture of ours be transcribed. We will wait for you, in the meantime, send us an Olivetti typewriter, lots of paper, carbon paper ». We sent everything, but it took six years to hear from them and for the official invitation to finally arrive. We received precise directions and once we arrived, my friend Simone San Clemente and I took everything away and we started a seven-hour journey to do only 120 km, stopping to buy everything: 4 or 5 kids, mice, chickens, all obviously alive. . We arrived in Abomey and the next day they held a ceremony in our honor that lasted a week. It was a hallucinating week, making us sleep even with snakes, with a frightening amount of alcohol, dancing all the time… and we were “initiated” ». It was an adventure of total delirium. By the end of the week we were ready to discover voodoo ceremonies. We were supposed to stay 22 days, we stayed there for two years. It almost became a possession, even returning was difficult, I had my wife, my children and half of my collaborators come, trying to harm everyone as little as possible ».
“The first evening, the same evening we arrived, they lit the fire and I felt like I was with my relatives, I recognized their faces, I felt the kinship. Africans are our relatives… in good spirits. In the meantime we have created the national moods, the French, Italian, Spanish, the African is naturally in a good mood. That daomei it is a very special ethnic group, it is no coincidence that it has been chosen by many anthropologists for their studies, because it has preserved many things well, the toponymy, the spiritual side ».
For the past two years, Achille Mauri, together with Gabriella Cristiani, Oscar winner for editing with the film «The last emperor» has produced the documentary «Magia d’Africa» in five episodes for RAI. It took four years to assemble all the material.
“You have to make folklore decay, black, the concept of race to see people. When it happens people are no longer black, they are relatives, uncles, dressed in funny ways. It was a great adventure. The only problem with Africa is that you expect a lot to eat, it takes hours and hours. We have been taken everywhere, we have participated in all the ceremonies and I have never seen anything dramatic, the chickens, yes, those are sacrificed, otherwise there is nothing bloody. They took us to see where money originated thousands of years ago. When the population living here captured prisoners, they took the strongest ones and lowered them from a cliff with a rope, down to the sea. Here a particular shell attached itself to the corpse, ate the flesh and remained attached to the bones. These shells were used as we use money today … money has man inside “.
“When I was alone with my friend, we were taken naked into the forest to meet the gnome. When you meet him you have to tell him what you want by killing the kid you have with you. I asked what the gnome was like, how I could recognize him, but the answer was: “We don’t know what the gnome is like.” I was naked, with a white bandana on my head and a kid, but I had nothing to ask: you do not ask the gnome for something material, it is he who asks you, who forces you to become better. He is an external power and I confess that I did everything I could not to meet him and so he did. My brother had a very strong mystical religious crisis and as a child I had the nightmare of receiving a vocation that could ask me for something very different from what I wanted. My friend instead met the gnome. It was a two-meter-tall man in a white raincoat who handed him a bundle of herbs. My friend wanted a child and couldn’t get him. He returned to the village with the herbs, immediately took them and cooked them for hours and then poured everything into a demijohn. My friend’s wife drank a glass of that drink every day and got pregnant. ‘
To live experiences of this kind, we must get rid of all skepticism and accept the idea that what we see is not all that exists and that perhaps we have lost the ability to see beyond what our eyes see …
“We in Europe have lost a great deal. The strongest thing I’ve seen is the psychiatric clinic. I went to that of a famous curator all over Africa. In addition to the patient, he required the whole family to participate in the session. It was a great ceremony where everyone said something. The therapy took place with the whole family present, this means putting your head inside the context, to understand who can be the real enemy. I learned a lot from that trip. I still try to change if I can. Change is a form of balance, even if you don’t always change for the better. Traveling can make us change. And it can be addictive ».
«I have not attended rites, rites do not exist. I have participated in many ceremonies, unfortunately almost everything has disappeared, black magic is not known. We have witnessed voodoo ceremonies, for example, in which a spirit takes possession of the body of one of the participants and begins to do absurd stunts.. People can recognize which voodoo has taken over the body and some mothers take their children away because this spirit can choose one of the children present, lifting it up in the air: that child will have a destiny. The spirit can decide that a child will be a drummer or go to a convent or whatever. But one of the most amazing things I’ve seen is traditional medicine. I saw a 4 year old boy with stiff legs. He was massaged by the doctor every day for an hour – I have the footage – with a rag soaked in a mixture of herbs. After two years he had an athlete’s body. In Africa, when you go to a doctor, you first get a glass of fresh water, then they give you something to eat, then more water or blueberries. And wait. The waiting time is the time that the doctor dedicates to another patient; you can stay 4 hours or 3 days. The doctor uses the time he needs and you who are waiting know that you will have your time when it is your turn. We get nervous if we have to wait at the doctor and then our visit lasts 20 minutes. For them, going to the doctor is healing the spirit. This is their welcome ».
(Photo: © Fausto Giacconi and Franco Lecca)
Achille Mauri will open, on January 29, the Seminar of the Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri School for Booksellers which, for the first time, will take place online. The event is organized by the homonymous Foundation of which Achille Mauri is President.
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