We are officially in a new group of countries, the group of countries under a new letter, C. It brings much excitement to the group. 

After a desolate stop on an island where no one lives nor has ever lived permanently and fresh from the horrors of the Burundi wars, we proceed to another beautiful country with another genocide. Cambodia: country of the fascinating Angkor Wat, the mighty Khmer Empire, silk weaving, and one of the most brutal genocides that wiped out 1-3 million people (approximately 25% of the population) under the eyes of the world. 

Enter Cambodia. 

But first, as always. Food.

Cambodia in Cabramatta

Participating Virtual Nomads are presented with city and/or place pseudonyms. The cities selected are random and have nothing to do with the origins of the people themselves. My pseudonym is Akureyri Lahore.

I am lucky to have a dear friend in Sydney, Langkawi Capri-Colombo, who is of Cambodian origin, so we can delegate the task of Cambodian food to her. She consults her network and comes up with a suggestion of three different Cambodian restaurants in Cabramatta, Western Sydney. 

Cabramatta in southwest Sydney is a suburb that since the 1980s has had a significant Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian origin population, including Cambodians. It is known for the rich food scene, numerous small restaurants, and many markets. The area has been through some social challenges in the past, but nowadays it is home to a vibrant cultural scene with a strong community feel and interesting food. My daughter Lisboa (17) thinks that the best place to get sugar cane juice is Cabramatta. 

So on a bright winter’s afternoon our party heads to Cabramatta. We find our way to one of the three suggested Cambodian restaurants, Battambang. Battambang gets its name from the country’s third largest city in Cambodia’s northwest. Battambang (the restaurant) is the highest rated of the recommended restaurants. Promising to serve authentic Cambodian food, it sounds like a good choice for our party. Moderately furnished, there are condiments on every table which include different chillies, pickles and vinegar.

When we arrive in the restaurant, the waitress tells us that the Fish Lemongrass Soup, known in Cambodia as Samlor Machu Trey, is the most traditional dish on the menu. Unfortunately no one in our party wants to taste it but we can see it well welcomed at other tables. It is usually served hot with rice. The ingredients are most commonly fish, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, tomatoes, tamarind paste, fish sauce, vegetables, herbs and chillies. There are several variations of the soup. Samlor machu is a Khmer language concept that generally refers to sour soups. Samlor Machu is not as well-known as other Southeast Asian soups, especially Pho and Laksa. Samlor Machu refers to a category of soups so the one offered by this restaurant is just one type and there are several others, such as Samlor Machu Youn (with chicken) or Samlor Machy Shrae. 

One of the dishes our party has is the Battambang Crispy Chicken with Garlic Fried Rice. We hear that this is a very popular dish in Cambodia. Our dish is not only served with garlic rice but also a soup with chicken. Technically speaking it is not a traditional dish in Cambodia but represents a blend of Cambodian touch with global influences. It is a dish of Thai and Vietnamese influence adapted well in Cambodia where fried and grilled meats are popular. According to our sources, it is a typical middle-class dish. Our party agrees that while it is tasty, it is not a thrilling dish. 

Another dish is Stir Fried Soft Noodle with Gravy, Num Banh Chok. It is a traditional rice noodle dish with stir-fried noodles and a fish-based gravy. As Cambodia has a vibrant street food culture, we learn that this dish is commonly served by street vendors. There are several variations depending on the available ingredients but it would typically have green vegetables and meat – as it is the case for our party. Again, this dish is similar to the cuisine of neighbouring countries where variations can be found. It is an affordable dish in Cambodia which adds to its popularity. Our party thought that the dish served was a bit bland but edible enough to fill the tummy.

Another variation is the Stir Fried Soft Noodle with prawns. Again, an ‘ok’ dish according to our party but not memorable or super tasty.  

Another dish ordered was Crispy Pork Intestine with Garlic Fried Rice, known as Kuy Teav Sach Ko in Cambodia. The way to prepare the intestines is that they are seasoned and fried until crispy, often served with sauce or rice. Our dish came with tomato and cucumber, and the same soup as the crispy chicken. In Cambodia, using pork intestines is a standard resourceful cooking practice. All parts of the animal are used in order to not waste resources. Those in our party that taste this find it quite delicious – crispy and savoury. Another of our party’s dishes is Crispy chicken with Fried Rice which is very similar to this dish but with chicken. 

The most appreciated part of our Cambodian lunch, at least according to our members in the 11-18 age group, are the drinks. Our party enjoys hot milk tea, fresh orange juice with condensed milk and ice, ice coffee with condensed milk and red lemon tea. For the older generation, these options are a bit too sweet, so we indulge in the warm jasmine tea offered with the food. 

And finally, as Cambodian cuisine does not cater particularly well for vegetarians, I choose to have a Cambodian Pad Thai. While not as traditional as in Thailand, it is still a very popular dish in Cambodia with some distinctive local twists. While the Cambodian Pad Thai is stir-fried the same way as its Thai counterpart, it has a slightly different flavour. It is less sweet and more savoury which is said to cater to the Cambodian palate. My palate is not sharp enough to detect a difference between the Cambodian and Thai pad thai, and the dish is passable and definitely edible but not memorable.

The dark shadow of a genocide 

The Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire (802 – 1431) was one of the most powerful in South East Asia. With amazing architecture and probably the world’s first health care system (including 105 hospitals), it was also a society where women enjoyed certain rights and freedoms (although they were married young). King Suryavarman built the mighty Angkor Wat and Jayavarman VII the impressive Buddhist temple Bayon. The Khmer Empire slowly disintegrated during the centuries that followed and the majestic temples were swallowed up by the jungle. In 1863, Cambodia became part of French Indochina as a French protectorate. Japan invaded in WW2 and in 1953 the country became independent.

But its troubles were far from over and something terrible was to come. The King at the time of independence was the relatively popular  Norodom Sihanouk who opposed the US bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. He was ousted in a coup and a US-backed ruler Lon Nol opened the opportunity for the US to bomb rural Cambodia (as part of its war in Vietnam), which has been referred to as the largest bombing campaign in history. The relentless bombing of rural villages (causing approximately 150,000 deaths) encouraged rural peasants to join the communist Khmer Rouge  during the Cambodian Civil War (1968-1975). When the Khmer Rouge won the war they established a state of terror under the leadership of one of the most ruthless dictators in history, Pol Pot. Pol Pot, a European educated Marxist, wanted to create an agrarian society without any Western influences or religions. The result was a genocide of approximately 25% of all Cambodians (70-80% of all working age men) through forced labour, starvation, torture, organised killings and executions. Around two million people perished during the four years – first any educated people from doctors to artists, and then the killing continued, basically ‘just because’. 

The young Virtual Nomads are shocked to hear that. It is not taught at school.  

Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1975 and stayed for over ten years, until 1992. Pol Pot hid in the jungle and was the UN-recognised leader, even if the world knew what had happened during his regime. The Khmer Rouge came to an end sometime in the late 1990s, and the UN withdrew its mission to govern Cambodia (1992-1993) in 1993. In 1997, Hun Sen led a coup and became one of the longest ‘serving’ heads of states in power (as Prime Minister from 1985) until 2003. His regime was accused of human rights violations, persecution of political opponents and doing very little to limit the rampant sex trafficking that affects many rural women and children. The current Prime Minister is Hun Manet, Hun Sen’s son. This was quite easy as his father banned opposition parties in 2018, making Cambodia a one-party state. 

Putting women last 

Cambodia is a country that has traditionally had very clear and restricted gender roles. Part of this tradition is the Chbab Srey morale law for women, which has generated debate in recent years. It is an unwritten law, a tradition that is passed from mothers to daughters. The word ‘chbab’ refers to ‘code’ and ‘srey’ means ‘female’. The code dictates how women should behave and conduct themselves, especially towards their husbands and male family members. Obedience, modesty, submission, humility and honour (virginity) are the virtues of feminine conduct that enforce traditional roles where women are seen inferior to men and their responsibility is essentially towards the family. For example, an old Cambodian tradition is that male members of the family are served the meal first. 

Four books from Cambodia: children of the genocide 

Never Fall Down (Patricia McCormick, 2012)

The first book for Cambodia is one I read in 2016 but, as it is a deeply moving book about astonishing resilience, I want to mention it here. Never Fall Down is written by Patricia McCormick and is the life story of Arn Chorn-Pond. For the book, Patricia interviewed Arn but also met his family members and other survivors from the time. The book describes how Arn survived the killing of his artist family, the starvation and forced labour camps, watching the killings while playing the flute, becoming a child soldier, escaping to Thailand by himself and finding a new life in the US that was far from easy. After difficult times, he became a human rights activist who won many awards and travelled the world with celebrities including Bruce Springsteen and Sting. He is the founder of the Children of War organisation and several other organisations. He has won many awards but his true calling is revitalising the arts and culture of Cambodia. He returned to Cambodia to do this. 

I have had the privilege to meet Arn a few times and he is an impressive, compassionate human. His story is deeply moving and inspiring, and I highly recommend this book. 

First they killed my father: A daughter of Cambodia (Loung Ung, 2000)

My next book is probably one of the most famous books regarding the Cambodian genocide, First they killed my father: A daughter of Cambodia by Loung Ung. Made even more famous by the movie directed by Angeline Jolie (which I watched after reading the book), it is another story of the Cambodian genocide from a child’s perspective. It is a highly celebrated book as it was one of the first to bring attention to the terror practiced by the Khmer Rouge. It is a personal story and, from what I have understood from some critics (including Cambodian scholars), it should not be taken as a historical account but rather as a personal story of one family and the atrocities they went through. I decide to read it from this perspective – as a story rather than an accurate autobiography. 

Loung was five at the time so relying on memory alone would be insufficient. She does acknowledge that she has received assistance from her surviving family members, especially her brother. However, it would not be fair to underestimate the impact of trauma of this magnitude on a child. She was the sixth child of a high-ranking government official who fled the capital in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took over the country. Her childhood is then transformed from a privileged life into one of starvation, terror, forced labour, famine and constant surveillance, with a complete lack of personal freedom. It is a highly impactful book and whether or not its details are completely accurate, it still gives a full picture of the period and a personal crossroads. For aforementioned reasons, it does not hit me as strongly as Arn’s book but that does not detract from it. There are a few insignificant details that bothered me. One is the title that refers to her father, which diminishes recognition of the family member who was the first to perish. The relates to the father himself who is described as superhuman more than a man with human qualities. 

In the Shadow of the Banyan Tree (Vaddey Ratner, 2013)

Another famous book about living under the Khmer Rouge regime is In the Shadow of the Banyan Tree. Even though Vaddey is a survivor of the genocide, she was five at the time and does not rely on the accuracy of her memories. Therefore, she decided to write it as fiction but the book is based on her own experience as a descendant of a royal family line in Cambodia. The tone of the book is more poetic than Luong’s. It is skilfully written and includes similar events to the other books and movies I’ve encountered at this VN stop. While it is beautifully narrated, the rhythm of the book is slightly uneven. The beginning has a slow, poetic rhythm and a lot of time is dedicated to storytelling ‒ conversations between a daughter and a father and descriptions of spirituality and tradition. The latter part of the book feels rushed with time going faster almost as if the narrator was tired of telling the story and wanted it to end. While it is an accomplished and beautifully written book, it is the least compelling of the three for me. 

Lucky Child: a Daughter of Cambodia reunites with the sister she left behind (Loung Ung, 2005)

I was considering reading another childhood memoir of life under the Khmer Rouge ‒ When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge (Chanrithy Him, 2000) ‒ but I also want to read something about life right after the regime ended. What happened to the survivors, how was life rebuilt from zero? During the stop in Burundi, I found a book that described life after the war, so I try to find one about the period after the Khmer Rouge regime. I end up choosing another memoir by Luong (First they killed my father) ‒ Lucky Child: a Daughter of Cambodia reunites with the sister she left behind ‒ about her and her sister’s life after 1980. It is a story of two completely different lives and alternates between the two sisters telling their story. While Luong’s story of her new life in the U.S. is undoubtedly interesting, I find her sister Chou’s story more compelling. Chous is the sister who was left behind, the sister who did not have the same opportunities, the sister who never complains and is grateful for what she has. She is the sister who lives through poverty and Khmer Rouge raids, who experienced an arranged marriage and was separated from her siblings. Hers is the story that shines through in this book, conveying what it was like to be left behind and stay in Cambodia after some of her siblings left. 

The Cambodian Film Festival

Cambodia does not have an extensive movie industry but after talking to knowledgeable people, I find out that there are quite a few movies and documentaries to watch. As with many other countries, it is incredibly hard to choose what to watch so I/we end up watching eight films; five on the Khmer Rouge era and three with more contemporary settings. 

The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé, 1984)

The Killing Fields is a British production and was an instant global hit when released. It is still on several ‘best films’ lists. It is still probably the most famous movie made about Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. I have seen it years ago but I return to watch it again. The movie is based on the real-life experience of an American and a Cambodian journalist, Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran. They stay behind when the Khmer Rouge takes over with one of them being able to leave the country while the other is condemned to a labour camp. The movie won numerous awards around the world and opened the world’s eyes to the genocide of around 25% of the Cambodian population. The term ‘killing fields’ originates from Dith Pran. After four years of terror he was reunited with his family and with Sydney. He worked as a photojournalist for the New York Times until his death in 2008.  

The Cambodian lead chosen for the movie Haing S. Ngor was a non-professional actor who himself had lived through four years of terror at work camps. His astonishing, honest portrayal in the movie rightfully brought him many awards, including an Oscar for best supporting actor. Haing, an obstetrician by training, was unable to help his pregnant wife when they were in a Khmer Rouge labour camp in order not to expose them both. This wife then died in childbirth. Haing would find several ways to honour his wife through his work, despite being unable to return to his profession in the US. He was murdered in 1996 in what the authorities say was a botched robbery, but there are some who suggest the murder was politically charged. 

S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (Rithy Panh, 2003)

Thi is a documentary by a Cambodian documentary director Rithy Panh whose whole family perished during the four years of the Khmer Rouge regime. It is an extraordinary documentary about human cruelty. It is almost mandatory viewing but with a warning that it is good to take breaks in between. There is no word to describe how chilling and devastating it is. It is focused on Tuol Sleng, a high school that was converted into an extermination prison, S21. Over 20,000 people were imprisoned there and only seven survived. This documentary brings together two of the survivors with their former captors who re-enact some of the duties that they had while working there, sometimes very bluntly describing the atrocities they committed. It is not a documentary about reconciliation, forgiveness or even remorse. 

The guards knew that everyone who enter the gate was condemned to die but was kept alive for torture and mindless interrogation. One guard remembers a young woman he interrogated for days (and had feelings for, which was prohibited). When she did not confess anything for four or five days, he asked his superiors for some help. When he finally got her to speak, he gave her three targets (to say whom she worked for): the CIA, KGB and the Vietnamese Enemy. The woman chose the CIA. 

The guards re-enact the events with astonishing stoicism. Most of them joined the Khmer Rouge as teenagers after the US bombings. They see themselves as victims of an indoctrination machine. Atrocities are stated as facts, without emotion except in rare cases. For example when someone says he is embarrassed for killing children or raping their mothers. It is an effective documentary without voiceover narration or history lessons. There aer no morality tales. The stories from both sides speak the truth. It is powerful, devastating, chilling, desolating, and heartbreaking. The documentary is available on Youtube. [August 2024]

Even if Virtual Nomad is not about individual travel experiences, I feel it is important to mention that the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is one of the most impactful and harrowing places I (and JK) have ever visited. There are no words to describe the experience.

The Missing Picture (Rithy Panh, 2003)

“They had been instructed not to touch the enemy. I was the enemy. I was thirteen.”

The Missing Picture Another of Rithy Panh’s documentaries, the Missing Picture (2003) won a top award in Cannes (in the Un Certain Regard category) and was nominated for several awards (including the Oscar for Best Foreign Film). It is a personal story of Rithy Panh and his experience of loss. The documentary is astonishing, deep and moving storytelling that combines real documentary footage from the Khmer Rouge era with clay figurines that bring the story to life in an outstandingly effective way. The clay figurines are used to recreate an intimate and personal approach to the story, and come to life to reflect the famine, suffering, mass atrocities, loss and unbearable human suffering. The clay figurines stand in for the ‘missing picture’ – the absence and destruction of film footage and evidence from the Khmer Rouge regime and brutal rule. It is also a story of a stolen childhood and overwhelming evidence of loss. Rithy’s voiceover is devastating in its emotional depth. It conveys the loss of humanity and the loss of loved ones. It is an incredibly powerful film that is equally or more compelling than his other documentary. 

Enemies of the people (2009)

The documentary Enemies of the people (2009) by Thet Sambath and Rob Lemkin is an exceptional, outstanding and chilling portrayal of Khmer Rouge killers. Thet is a Cambodian journalist who lost his parents and his whole family during the Khmer Rouge era. He spent ten years together with a former top Khmer Rouge official and lower ranking people (ordered to kill) in order to understand why so many people needed to be killed. He managed to get access to the ‘Number 2 Brother’ – the ideologist and Pol Pot’s closest man, Nuon Chea, before his arrest, and spent ten years interviewing him. He also spent time with several peasants who killed hundreds if not thousands of people in Southwestern Cambodia. The result is honest and raw, exceptional journalism. The journalist is an absent father who spends his savings and time travelling to meet these people to finally find peace. The interviews with the Khmer Rouge officials are few but astonishing. One of them says that for what he has done, he will never be reborn as a human again in another life. 

First they killed my father (Angelina Jolie, 2017)

First they killed my father by Angelina Jolie (yes, the famous one) is a dramatisation of Loung Ung’s book that I have read for this stop. It is not a stellar cinematographic achievement but it is good enough. Rhythmically uneven, with sometimes an overuse of long symbolic shots, it is saved by the latter part of the movie and the cinematographic presence of its young star. It was, of course, easy for me to follow as I had read the book and the movie is fairly faithful to it. It would have benefitted from a tighter pace and stronger editing. It has stunning cinematography and beautiful landscapes. In places, it presents a bit more like poetry than bering a truly effective movie. After all the other documentaries from Cambodia, it does not convey the same raw injustice and feels a bit more like a bad dream. I would not call it a bad movie, it is beautifully shot and works in some parts really well – but I would not call it an excellent movie either. 

Cambodia: Virginity Trade (Matthew Watson, 2010)

For more contemporary themes, the documentary Cambodia: Virginity Trade is difficult viewing. It looks into the importance of (female) virginity in Cambodian culture and the human trafficking around it. The documentary contains interviews of young girls, politicians and NGOs, but also men who buy ‘the virginity’ of underage girls. The buyers include westerners but the largest market is Cambodian men who believe that having sex with a virgin girl will bring them good health, luck and keep them safe from AIDS. “Many people say I look young. I think I stay young because I have sex with young virgins,” says one buyer. Poverty and archaic cultural norms drive girls to prostitution, and they are not safe even from their own mothers who sell their daughters’ virginity to highest bidder. After that, the future looks bleak for the girls (as they are no longer desirable for the marriage market) and many end up in sex work. The documentary states that 32% of the sex workers in Phnom Penh are raped daily.  

It is an effective documentary. Some of the criticism it has received is the exploitative approach to the girls themselves and the sensationalist nature. There is always a concern about the privacy of the interviewed people, especially if they are victims of human trafficking. There are several other documentaries on the subject including Cambodia’s Daughters (2017), The Cambodian Room (2016, produced by the Global Fund for Women) and Cambodia’s Hidden Sex trade (2012). In 2007, Rithy Panh made a documentary Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers about prostitution in Cambodia. None of these other documentaries specifically deal with the virginity trade which is a prevalent aspect of Cambodian culture. An old Khmer proverb “men are like gold but woman are like cloth” refers to the cultural norm which implies that gold stays strong and shiny even if tarnished and bent but if a cloth gets ‘dirty’, it will never be clean. The virginity trade exposes especially young rural girls, as young as 12 or 13, to exploitation. Cambodia has laws against human trafficking but enforcement is weak and police corruption rampant – not to mention the harm caused by the female moral conduct law, Chbab Srey. 

The last reel (Sotho Kulikar, 2014)

Sotho is a seasoned producer and has worked on several foreign films filmed in Cambodia. The Last Reel is her first movie as a director. The movie is about memory, forgiveness and the magic of cinema. A rebellious young woman finds her way into an abandoned cinema and discovers a movie filmed before the Khmer Rouge destroyed the Cambodian film industry. She finds connections to her own life and to the secrets of people around her. She wants to break free from narrow gender roles. This is seen through several references such as the Khmer proverb of men being like gold and women like cloth and the Chbab Srey that a mother gives to her rebelling daughter. 

The movie itself is surprisingly interesting, and dedicated to the fallen stars and staff of Khmer cinema. While I was disappointed with the moral resolution for one of the characters (the girl’s father), in general the story was engaging and carries well. 

Jailbreak (Jimmy Henderson, 2017)

Jailbreak is a Cambodian action movie. It is a high-paced action movie with many choreographed fighting scenes. The movie achieved exceptional success in Cambodia. Most of the movie happens in a prison and a lot of the action is between three police officers who are protecting their key witness against an angry prison mob, while trying to save their own lives in the process. There is not much character development but the fight scenes are energetic and showcase ancient Cambodian martial arts – Bokator (derived from the words ‘bo’ – to pound, and ‘ator’ – a lion, generating the meaning ‘pounding a lion’).  Bokator, also known as Kun L’Bokator, is one of the oldest fighting systems in the world and recognised as UNESCO intangible heritage. Some parts of Bokator resemble dance, which in the movie gives it a highly choreographed feel. The plot itself is not very well developed and basically provides a setting for extended action scenes. 

Cambodian Living Arts 

Arn Chord-Pond founded Cambodian Living Arts in 1998. When he returned to Cambodia to try to find friends and family, he discovered that most of Cambodia’s artists had been killed and the remaining were living in poverty. He wanted to revitalise Cambodian cultural traditions and its arts scene. It is a wonderful, vibrant, interesting organisation that carries out very important work. More at https://www.cambodianlivingarts.org

Next stop: Cameroon

Thank you JK for proofreading

Bouvet Island

As we reach the end of the countries-that-begin-with-B for Virtual Nomad, we have time for one more B stop, the Bonus B. We decide to go for something that sounds exotic and one-of-a-kind. Bouvet Island comes to mind.

But–!

Bouvet Island is the world’s most remote island. It is in the middle of the South Sea (proofreading note: found in the region of Atlantic ocean beneath the equator), and claimed by Norway as Bouvetøya (despite being nearly 13000 km away). No one lives on this volcanic, sub antarctic region , and there are no signs that there has ever been permanent human settlement. Therefore, there is no film industry, nor literature, nor typical food. We (my son A (10) and myself) watch a documentary on Bouvet, and agree that we would not like to be stranded there.

Bouvet is most famous for a double flash that an American satellite registered in 1979. It is understood that the double flash was related to an undeclared nuclear test carried out by Israel and South Africa. 

Because our stop in Bouvet does not result in any culinary, literary, musical or other artistic experience (but regardless is very informative, yes), we cook some fish (the most probable island food) and decide to move on with the Virtual Nomad trip. We will soon enter a new, exciting list of countries, starting with the letter C. 

Next stop: Cambodia 

Proofreading by beautiful child L (17). Thank you ever so much. You are fantastic, wonderful, gorgeous, intelligent…

Burundi is a small country in Eastern Africa – it takes a considerable amount of time for some of the Virtual Nomads to place it. When the adult Nomads hear the words: the Hutu and the Tutsi, there is a moment of silence. For the younger Burundi sounds exotic, and maybe something they would have never heard of if it wasn’t for Virtual Nomad. 

In 2023, the GDP of Burundi was 3.1 billion which, in economic terms, makes the tiny Burundi the second poorest country in the world (still the same situation in September 2024). According to the United Nations Human Development Report 2023-24, (which takes into account more measures than just the GDP; including life expectancy,  years of schooling, Human Development Index values; effects of climate change), Burundi is the world’s 7^th poorest country. Hammered by a long civil war (1993-2005), Burundi continues to face significant socio-economic challenges. 

But first, as always – food.

No abundance of meat – the Burundi night

The participating Virtual Nomads are presented with city and/or place pseudonyms. The cities selected are random and have nothing to do with the origins of the people themselves.

The Burundi night is again a big Virtual Nomad stop. We have fifteen Virtual Nomads around the table. Present are quite a few of core Virtual Nomads: my partner Johannesburg Karelia, my daughter Lisboa (17) and her boyfriend Nicosia (very recently turned 18!), my stepchild Fez Karelia (15) and Virtual Nomad’s Special Advisor Chicago Hannover (who has been to around 140 countries and counting). My son Amsterdam (11) is away travelling in faraway places and will miss Burundi this time. Also in attendance are seasoned Virtual nomads Acapulco Kilimanjaro, Dakar Kilimanjaro and their two adult children Milano Kilimanjaro and Amman Kilimanjaro. And then we have five newbies to the group: my old friend Langkawi Capri-Colombo and her daughter Sofia Capri-Colombo (who was my daughter Lisboa’s first friend in Australia after immigrating from Europe) as well as my good friend Seoul Antilles and her husband and son (15), the Jakartas. It is a really crowded and lovely night of good food, reconnection, lively music and conversation. The main topics, apart from Burundi and its recent history, seem to be high school gossip (for the high schoolers), work (for adults), the alarming ibis (also called bin chicken) invasion in Northern Sydney and of course – the food tasting.

My partner Johannesburg Karelia prepares the main dish, considered by some the national food, called Boko Boko Harees – a very simple dish with grain and chicken, and very little else. Consumption of meat is limitedt, so there are not too many other meat dishes in the Burundian cuisine. Approximately 80% of the Burundian population rely on subsistence agriculture which has led to significant food insecurity, more than in many other Sub-Saharan countries. Many Burundian dishes are vegetarian which makes Boko Boko Harees a dish served on special occasions. It originates from the Middle East and it is said that hundreds of years ago Arab settlers brought the dish with them. Boko Boko Harees is almost porridge- like and gets its yellow colour and flavour from turmeric. Johannesburg’s Boko Boko Harees is well received with present Virtual Nomads calling it simple but delicious. 

My brave friend Langkawi Capri-Colombo who participates in her very first Virtual Nomad night, brings ‘Ugali’ . Although we usually give easy recipes to the newbies, this was not the case this time. Luckily Langkawi is a very skilled cook and her Ugali has a wonderful texture, albeit a quite bland taste. It is similar to some other foods we have previously prepared for Virtual Nomad, such as Angolan ‘Funje’  and Botswanan ‘Pap’. It is a side-dish more than a main one and its bland taste is meant to accompany more substantial dishes which of course at times is difficult as Burundi has food shortage at times. Ugali is also considered a national dish, and it is basically a porridge made of cassava flour. 

I prepare a dish called Maharagwe – it is a vegetarian stew made of beans, potatoes and other vegetables. It is a popular dish in Burundi but also in other East African countries, especially neighbouring Tanzania. As meat is scarce, beans provide an alternative source of protein. Maharagwe is typically made from red kidney beans so I follow that. The receipt I am following uses potato, tomato, garlic,spices, and a little bit of coconut milk. Maharagwe is said to be a family meal which is often prepared together as a communal practice. To be fair, it is not the most exciting dish, so while the nutritional value is well recognised, the taste itself is not very thrilling. 

My other dish for the night is Isombe which is richer in taste than Maharagwe, and the secret to its success is peanut butter that brings body and substance to the otherwise rather bland dish. Isombe includes cassava leaves which are a common ingredient in Burundi due to nutritional value and easy availability. But in Sydney, I do not have access to cassava so I use spinach instead which, of course, is not the same but nutritional anyway. In Burundi, it is considered to be a dish reflecting the agricultural practices and most times is not consumed on its own but with side dishes such as Ugali, beans, plantains and meat, if available. The Isombe I prepared included spinach, eggplant, cabbage, tomatoes, coriander, spices and peanut butter. While Isombe is quite a simple dish, it was the clear favourite of the Burundi dishes with its creamy taste.

A divided country

What is known of the early history of Burundi is that it was first inhabited by the Twa people, who were Pygmy Peoples. Burundi was later populated first by the Hutu (around the year 1000) and the Tutsi (around the 16^th century) who then became the ruling class. In the 17^th century, the Kingdom of Burundi emerged with a Mwami (king) as the ruler. The bones of the hierarchical class structure included Tutsi on the top, Hutu beneath them and Twa as the lowest class. 

In 1890, Burundi together with Rwanda was claimed by Germany and became part of German East Africa. After World War I, the League of Nations played political monopoly and Burundi/Rwanda was transferred to Belgian control. Both Germany and Belgium favoured the Tutsi undermining the majoritarian Hutu population – which is said to be one of the seeds of tensions between the Tutsis and the Hutus. 

Independence was gained from Belgium in 1962 (and Burundi and Rwanda officially separated). Initially a monarchy, the coup led by Michel Cicombero transitioned Burundi into a republic country in 1966. But political instability, and conflicts between the Hutu and Tutsi never went away, and Burundi went through several periods of ethnic tensions and violence. The 1972 Tutsi-led genocide killed between 80,000 and 120,000 people (and resulted in mass immigration to neighbouring countries). A one party system followed which again favoured the Tutsi. A devastating, long civil war between Hutu and Tutsi from 1993 to 2005 – starting with a Hutu-led killing of Tutsis, resulting in over 300,000 deaths. When peace was finally achieved, Burundi’s population  still faced untrusting co-living, poor infrastructure, food insecurity – and its effects are still felt today. Burundi is also one of the countries with most displaced refugees (12^th in the world in 2022), struggles with rapid population growth, inflation, corruption, sanitation problems, prevalence of HIV, limited access to water, lack of broad electricity cover, human rights violations, and persecution of human rights activists, opposition members and LGBT people.  

Books from Burundi: the cycle of violence 

Petit pays (Gaël Faye, 1982)

Petit pays (Small country) by Gaël Faye is based on Gaël’s own experience (although not strictly autobiographical). He was born in 1982 in Burundi to a Rwandan mother and French father. In 1995, during the Burundian Civil War (1993-2005), his family relocated to France. Apart from writing, Gaël is a songwriter and hip hop musician. His art is inspired by his Burundian childhood and Rwandan and French background, and his books and music often deal with issues related to cultural heritage, identity and displacement. In 2018, he received the Victoires de la Musique Award (for his music). 

When Petit Pays/Small country was published in France, it became a bestseller and won many awards. It is an astonishing book that shows how conflicts build up slowly, in how the first signs are seen in the trivial and mundane,  signs becoming more visible over time. 

It is of course not the first book written about a conflict from a child’s perspective (there are many) – but where other books can fall short, Petit pays  is really effective in its delivery. What begins as a sun-filled childhood as a privileged ‘white kid’ in Bujumbura (the economic capital of Burundi), with besties occasionally stealing neighbourhood mangoes and eating them in an abandoned combi, slowly moves into a demonstration of the corruptive and insane mindset of ethnic conflict. Story-wise, the writing is fantastic. At times, particularly in the beginning, I found that the story lingers in small, daily details, appearing to be a bit too descriptive – however, this is deliberate. The book describes life as we know it: moments that come and go, but then that lightness and hidden solace of banal life fades away as the conflict grows closer – and the quotidien, the ‘ordinary’ as we know it is gone forever. The narrative also tells about how for the privileged, the conflict does not really materialise until war is on their doorstep. The main character Gaby is really well written, struggling to make sense of the situation, struggling to stay neutral, struggling with the separation of his parents, struggling with the loss of innocence and childhood, simply embedded with complex, 3-dimensional struggle. When the year changes to 1993 near to start of the book, the reader of course knows what is coming but for Gaby it takes time. The civil war in Burundi, but also the genocide next door as he has family there, touch upon his life greatly. I read it and I wept. 

“For the most part, Mamie’s neighbours were Rwandars who had left their country to escape carnage, massacres, wars, pogroms, purges, destruction, fires, tsetse flies, pillaging, apartheid, rapes, murders, settling of scores and I don’t know what else. Like Maman and her family, they fled those problems only to encounter new ones in Burundi – poverty, exclusions, quotas, xenophobia, rejection, being made into scapegoats, depressions, homesickness and nostalgia. The problems of refugees.” 

“This poisonous lava, the thick flow of blood, was ready to rise to the surface once more.  We did it know if yet, but the hour of inferno had come, and the night was about to unleash its cackle of hyenas and wild dogs.” 

Weep Not, Refugee (Marie-Thèrése Toyi, 2012)

My second book from Burundi is by Marie-Thèrése Toyi, a Burundian academic and lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Burundi. She has also been a member of the Pan-African Parliament. She has written several novels, Weep Not, Refugee being the most famous one. It is a tough, tough book. It is about the life of the unwanted, the despised; refugees in camps living in brutal, inhumane conditions.

“A loud voice calls: “Start again. No architect should be discouraged by earthquakes shattering his work into pieces. Man passes earthquakes. Hunger, disease, orphanhood and widowhood, all that must be surmounted. Wipe out your tears. Weep not, refugee, architect of your tomorrow. Stand up and start again!’”

A teenage girl loses her whole family while escaping the horrors of the civil war in Burundi. She is raped by her mother’s murderer, then rejected by other refugees, who hated her father. She gives birth to a boy, the narrator of the story, who describes growing up in a circle of poverty, violence, discrimination and hunger – and the social, financial and political insecurity and limitations of the life of a refugee. The boy, Wache Wacheke Watachoka (his name means ‘Let them laugh, they will eventually get tired and keep quiet’), goes through several different challenges and hardships in life. His tale is a homage to survival in precarious situations; the cruel lesson that even if skilled and clever, your life is unwanted and worthless in the hands of natives of the host country, to the point of sometimes being hunted. It is a touching, descriptive and raw depiction of the life of a refugee. And, of course, clearly visible in Marie-Thèrése’s words is the small, underlying reason for it all, the ethnic conflict between people whose noses were different shapes. 

“There are lessons we learn from life. Their own life had never introduced them to a refugee experience. What would they understand if they had never had experience of being sick without any hope of treatment, being hungry with no hope of food, sleeping under rain, being refused in school and in a job for which you were highly qualified, simply because you are a refugee?” 

Baho! (Roland Rugero, 2012)

My last book for Burundi is Baho! by Roland Rugero. It is the first Burundian book translated into English – a book about the lingering fear, mistrust and miscommunication after a long war. In the story, a young mute man tries to find a way to a toilet from a young woman in rural Burundi. His gestures are understood to suggest rape – which launches a chain of unfortunate events. The young man becomes a target for post-war frustration and mass hysteria. The ethnic dichotomy is not an issue in this particular story, but rather the widespread cultural hangover from the monstrosities of war. The chapters are short and usually start with a proverb in Kirundi. As the narrative is based on oral communication in Burundi, the book becomes simultaneously interesting and fragmented. The story is told from various points of view from a rich variety of characters. It is an interesting read of a universal topic (false accusation of sexual violence) with a local flavour: Burundian storytelling, Kirundi proverbs, rural setting in an imaginary town in Burundian countryside and the obvious references to recent history. 

Filmmaking from Burundi 

Gito l’Ingrat (Leoncé Ngabo, 1991)

Burundian audio-visual production did not truly launch until 1984 with the introduction of Burundian TV. The first full length feature film, Gito l’Ingrat (Gito, the ungrateful) by Leoncé Ngabo, was not produced until 1991.  Gito l’Ingrat went on to gain moderate international attention and festival success. The director founded the International Festival of Cinema and Broadcasting in Burundi (FESTICAB), which in turn was instrumental in the formation of the East African Film Network in 2014. The movie itself follows a story of a prodigal son who returns from France to Burundi with big plans and self-imposed arrogance, as he feels superior to his country’s people and expects big things to happen. As expected, life (featuring a love triangle) gives him a lesson in humility. While there are many interesting elements, from the subtle reflection on colonialism and the returning to one’s roots, the story itself is quite typical with the usual arc of protagonist self-realisation. It is a light-hearted film, and nothing really elevates it above average. Unfortunately, it does not help my enjoyment that it is difficult to root for Gito, the main character, and his expected descent is not even a fully satisfying one. However, being the first feature film from Burundi has its merit and the end credits reveal broad support from different Burundian ministerial departments to UNESCO, which of course makes the film a pioneer. 

Petit Pays (Éric Barbier, 2020)

Petit Pays (2020), written and directed by Éric Barbier, is based on Gaël’s book that I have read for the Burundi stop, mentioned earlier. As I knew the film version existed, I decided to read the book first, and am delighted that it is a very faithful adaptation and achieves justice to the narrative. It successfully brings Gaby’s story to life through gorgeous landscape and scenography. It achieves the sense of the loss of paradise and growing tension, first subtle and then explosive, and heartbreaking. It is a wonderful film as an extension to the book, with the right rhythm and space. It masterfully gives faces to the characters in the book, and to some of the devastating stories. The actors chosen for their roles are perfect – especially Isabelle Kabano playing Gaby’s mother. Fabien Lemercier (of CineEuropa) said about the movie: 

“A respectful approach to his [Gaël’s] literary model makes Small Country a vehicle both endearing and educational, a good example of great History clarified by the small one, and a sensitive (and widely accessible) perception of tragic events of which it is important to keep as many traces as possible in order to teach the depths of abysses and the virtues of resilience to those who didn’t know them.”

The Burundi Film Center, launched in 2007 with a small volunteer filmmaker group, that on their website says that it “promotes arts, culture, innovation and technology while facilitating the development and promotion of the industry”. The volunteers started to train young people (15-25) on film history, theory and production. The Center’s mission is to support Burundian film making through training, production, collaboration and promotion (domestic and international markets). The objective is to support a community of filmmakers that make ‘uniquely Burundian stories’ but also introduce contemporary media and professional journalism in the country. 

On their website, the Center showcases eleven short films that have been made with the support of the Burundi Film Center. While clearly still developing in film making, the short films tackle hard and pressing issues from refugees to sexual violence, HIV, cost of health services, unemployment, prostitution, single parenthood. Even if the difficult concerns in the stories are often narratively resolved in almost miraculous ways, they are still raising awareness of important social problems. In the absence of feature films, these shorts offer a very interesting window documenting life in post-war Burundi. The shorts are nearly twenty years old, most from 2007 and the most recent from 2010 – which makes them filmed only a few years after the end of the conflict. Probably the most emotional for me is The Return of Old Kabura, telling of a 82-year-old man who fled Burundi after his wife and children were killed, and then returning after 38 years. 

Home Free (Christopher Redmond and Jessie Thomson, 2009)

Produced by the Burundi Film Center, this documentary is written and directed by Canadian Christopher Redmond and Jessie Thomson. After 1972, more than 350,000 fled the violence and genocide in Burundi to neighbouring Tanzania. In 2007, the governments of Burundi and Tanzania decided to find a lasting solution to the Burundian refugee situation. The documentary follows three families with very different life decisions: one decides to return to Burundi after more than three decades, one decides to apply for Tanzanian citizenship, and one immigrates to Canada. The documentary reveals that 20% of the refugees (45,000 people) in Tanzania wished to return to Burundi – many without any means to do so, or even a place to go. 

Next stop: Bonus B

Thank you Lisboa for the proof reading

My daughter Lisboa (17) stands in front of the world map in the kitchen – it is her turn to find the country where we are stopping in. She assumes correctly that it is in Africa but it takes a while to find it within the 54 African countries. But there it is, right above Benin, where we have already stopped. In economic terms, it is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, with over 40% of the population living below the poverty line and with growing insecurity, violence and internal displacement. Named Burkina Faso in 1984 by President Thomas Sankara, the words come from two different languages spoken in the country (Mooré and Dioula) to form a mix which can be translated as the ‘Land of Incorruptible People’. Burkina Faso also has a capital with the grooviest of names, Ouagadougou. 

But first as ways: Food.

Moderate flavours

The participating Virtual Nomads are presented with city and/or place pseudonyms. The cities selected are random and have nothing to do with the origins of the people themselves.

As a couple of future Virtual Nomad nights are going to be big ones, our intention was to hold a small Virtual Nomad night, which we achieved. Consisting of only five core members, we had a lovely night of interesting food and good conversation. I was almost entirely responsible for the preparation of the menu which certainly tested my mastercheffing skills but I can happily say that in the end my Burkinabé food is edible (Not outstanding but definitely not food poisoning-inducing!). My daughter Lisboa (17) and her boyfriend Nicosia (very soon to be 18) were in charge of the dessert and they did a beautiful job.

Riz Gras is considered the national food of Burkina Faso. The name of the dish has French influence, with ‘Riz Gras’ meaning Fat Rice. As Burkina Faso is a resource deficient country, the cuisine is not rich in ingredients and this dish is very easy to prepare. As the name indicates, it has a good portion of rice, prepared in generous amounts of oil. The recipe I was following basically had rice, tomatoes, garlic, onions, tomato paste and beef. It is a dish that is also found in other parts of West Africa, especially in Senegal (where its variation is called Benachin) and Mali where it is called Zaamè. We ate something similar for the Benin entry: jollof rice. The dish carries some spices, but is generally mild. It was well received by the meat eaters and probably the favourite out of the four main dishes. However, it was clearly less enthusiastically consumed than the Bulgarian cuisine dishes and considered simple, good food without much fanfare. 

I also prepared Babenda, another rice dish. It usually includes locust beans but because they are not available in Sydney, I substitute them with salted black beans that I find at the Asian Market. Apart from beans, Babenda has greens (kale or spinach, I used spinach as it is less bitter), roasted peanuts and chilli. It is often combined with fish but I opted for a version without and the result is quite delicious. Again, it does not have a strong flavour but the combination of salted beans, peanuts and spinach is quite lovely for the palate regardless. It does feel like a side dish more than a main and luckily preserves well so that we can enjoy it throughout the week.  

Ragout d’igname is basically a stew prepared with yam. I cannot find yam so I use sweet potato instead with full knowledge that it is not a great substitute. Mine became a bit soupier than intended so we eat it as a first dish. The basic idea of the dish is to cook yam in tomato sauce until the water evaporates and the sauce thickens. Beef and other meats are optional so I decide to make the dish vegetarian. Ragout d’igname is basically a yam dish – interestingly, there is a belief in Western Africa that a woman that eats yam is likely to have twins. My version is very different from what I expect the real dish to be like- the taste of sweet potato makes the whole dish slightly bland.

Mafé is basically a peanut sauce. It is the national dish of Mali – so we will probably visit this dish again when Virtual Nomad stops there – but also very popular in Burkina Faso. In Burkina Faso, Poulet Mafé (chicken mafé) is very popular – chicken is cooked in a peanut butter sauce and served with rice. I decided to use fake chicken (“vegetarian chicken”) which of course did not taste the way it was supposed to. I enjoyed it but other non-vegetarian Virtual Nomads did not so next time, maybe when we get to Mali, I will prepare it with real chicken. 

The cherry on top was a delicious dessert. Lisboa (17) and her boyfriend Nicosia (17) were in charge of preparing Dégué – a drink made of yogurt and grains. The traditional recipe includes pearl millet but Lisboa and Nicosia use couscous instead which is also a popular choice for this recipe and not at all a faux pas. Very heavy on the dairy side; it has yoghurt, sour cream, condensed milk, vanilla milk. The result is delicious, fresh and milky – they did a great job!

The Land of Incorruptible People

Once upon a time, the plains of Burkina Faso were inhabited by different nations such as the Bobo, the Lobi, the Dioula and the Gurunsi. They still live in Burkina Faso alongside over 60 other ethnic groups, although the largest is the Mossi people who arrived in the region around the 15^th century. The Mossi established several kingdoms including Tenkodogo, Yatenga, Zandoma, and Ouagadougou (still the name of the capital), and resisted different threats and enemies for centuries. When France decided that, for some reason, a large part of Western Africa belonged to it, Burkina Faso became a French colony from 1895 to 1960.  Colonialism rarely brings ease and blessings to the native population – leading to resistance, for example the Volta-Bani War (1915 – 1917), one of the most significant rebellions against a colonial government (even in the scale of the whole of Africa).  Named Upper Volta in 1919, the name stuck until 1984. Upper Volta/Burkina Faso became independent in 1960.

The first years of the country were turbulent with different dictators overthrowing each other, until Thomas Sankara became Prime Minister, and then President. His short four years of rule have been considered one of the most progressive times in the history of Burkina Faso – he implemented vaccination programs for the whole country, expanded women’s rights (including the prohibition of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy), improved infrastructure, encouraged domestic agriculture, reduced foreign debt; implemented nationwide and changed the name of the country to draw distance from the colonial past. He has been called the Che Guevara of Africa (note from L the proofreader – a major figure of the Cuban revolution – good to do Virtual Nomad to learn these things for the first time!), for his Marxist ideologies but also that despite his significant social programs, his government prosecuted (and executed) political opponents. Nevertheless, he is a national hero and the spirit of his legacy has inspired resistance and resilience in times of hardship. Che was then killed in a coup by a close friend and former ally Blaise Compaoré who did very little to make things better during his long regime (1987 -2014) and most progress was quickly lost pushing Burkina Faso back to being one of the poorest in the world. He left the country in 2014, due to an uprising caused by his failed attempt to alter the constitution to give him even more power. He was found guilty of Thomas Sankara’s murder in 2022. Burkina Faso is currently under another military rule and several political rights are restricted. In addition, the country has been experiencing Jihadist insurgency since 2015 and 10% of the population are internally displaced. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, in 2024 this is the world’s most neglected displacement crisis. In 2024, Burkina Faso, with its military ruled neighbours Niger and Mali, left the African Union and ECOWAS, Economic Community of Western Africa and formed their own coalition.   

More than 70 languages are spoken in the country. French was the official language until January 2024 when a ratified Constitutional Amendment defined French as a ‘working language’ together with English. More than half of the population speak Mooré. The economy is agriculture-based, with cotton as the main crop. The major resource for agriculture are the three rivers running into Ghana: Mouhoun (Black Volta), Nazinon (Red Volta) and Nakanbé (White Volta). According to the United Nations’ Human Development Index, Burkina Faso is the world’s 9^th poorest country in the world with continuing insecurity and threat of violence, political unrest, climate change and limited natural resources. 

Books from Burkina: aspirations of a better life  

So Distant From My Life (Monique Ilboudo, 2018)

Monique Ilboudo is Burkina Faso’s first female novelist. She has managed to break into the international market – to the extent that even my local library has one of her books. She works at the Faculty of Law at the University of Ouagadougou and has published several novels. My first book for Burkina Faso is her 2018 novel So Distant From My Life (translated by Yarri Kamara). It is a rather brief book but packs a lot in its mere 127 pages. It is narrated by Jeanphi, a young Burkinabé man obsessed with the idea of immigrating. He is a lazy and failing student with a studious sister and after a few attempts, his life changes when he meets a wealthy French man. 

“The word expatriation intrigued me, especially as a few pages later in the same newspaper, another article lamented ‘the tragedy of illegal immigration”… Why are some people expatriates, while other migrate, emigrate or immigrate? Reading the various definitions just confused me further. The words had almost the same meaning. Expatriation means you migrate to another country. When you leave, you emigrate, ad when you arrive, you immigrate.”

Overall, it is a confusing book. It tries hard to go in several different directions without really reaching anything solid. The first part of the book is a fascinating read and well narrated, with a captivating story and narrative that carries well. However,  the book then becomes confusing, with a few characters that enter and leave without any explanation or depth. It is a book of several great ideas that have been mostly left half-finished. One theme is migration and there are interesting developments and concerns, including the motivations and actions of the main character, but they do not really go anywhere concrete. The  Another is the criticism of the NGO-isation (and the well-meaning white saviours) but again there is so much room to go deeper. Then one theme is the sexual orientation (or sort of) of some of the characters, but again the development is artificial and thin. This is a book of a lot of intent despite little delivery, and leaves me wishing the author had given more time and dedication to build a rounder, more substantial body for everything she wants to discuss – be that colonialism, racism, corruption, tradition, religion, sexual orientation, family relationships, NGOs, international organisations, enraging whites and ‘development workers’ who present themselves as experts on Africa. In the end, it’s a pity because it could have been a great look at the country and in the end it just didn’t have enough structure. 

In spite of trying too much in this book, I still believe Monique is a very skilled writer so I try to get a hold of another book of hers, her awarded debut Le Mal de Peau, that is centered around a similar story to one of the movies I watched for the Bosnia and Herzegovina entry – the relationship between a mother and a daughter, born from a rape by a repressor. Unfortunately I am unable to find the book. 

Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman (Malidoma Some, 1994)

I decide to read another highly rated Burkinabé book, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman by Malidoma Some, a traditional healer and shaman with three Master’s degrees and two PhDs (one from Sorbonne). It is an autobiographical story of Malidoma’s path from being taken from his native village aged 4 and then subjected to religious indoctrination and cruel treatment at a French speaking Catholic boarding school where he forgot his native language. In the boarding school he witnessed all kinds of horrors, ranging from sexual abuse to beatings, all while yearning to return home. Years later, he returned to the village of his childhood where he started his true spiritual journey by first going through a month-long initiation ceremony, described in detail – the dreams, hallucinations, mystical journeys and encounters with the spiritual world. In the end he finds himself in the crossroads between two worlds, where the natural and the magical/supernatural blend together. Finally, he sees his role as a bridge builder between the spiritual, ritual, supernatural world and modern life. His name means “he who is friends with strangers.”

To be honest, I am not the best audience for spiritual self-help books, so again I cannot give the best review of this book. It is certainly interesting as a life story, but the spiritual side is unfortunately, personally just not compelling. But there are people that really love this book, and it has its unique value and is probably a wonderful introduction to the importance of spiritual rituals, connecting with ancestors and searching for one’s purpose. I read it as a life story and an interesting description of West African/Burkinabé traditions, but I understand that to a different reader it can be a very fulfilling spiritual experience as well.  

The Burkina Faso Movie Festival 

Burkina Faso is one of the countries producing the most feature films in Africa. It has an active film industry and a number of interesting, quality films. FESPACO – the Pan African Film and Television Festival, is a biennial event held in Ouagadougou. It is the largest Film Festival in Africa and the largest event in the world dedicated to African filmmaking. All this makes Burkina Faso one the core industries of African filmmaking.  

So. Time to decide what to watch from the country’s broad film offer. When a country has a strong film industry, we try to watch around ten of the top films. Deciding involves looking at different ‘best of’ lists regarding the essential Burkinabé films. 

The Guardian list (2020) of the 20 best African films includes two films from Burkina Faso – Yaaba (1989 – spot 12) and Borders (2017 – spot 20).  The website of Purely Africa (which celebrates African culture and diversity) has several ‘best film’ lists by African reviewers which include both Yaaba and Borders in high spots, as well as movies such as Buud Yam (1997) and Tilaï (1993). Other lists also include Bravo Burkina (2023) that gained momentum at the Sundance festival. The Cine Escapist list of the 54 best African movies (one from each country) mentions Yaaba (spot 50) for Burkina Faso. The Filmroot list includes Wallay (2017), Sankofa (1993) and The Crossing (2022). As a homage to the Burkinabé film industry, our intention is to watch all of these, but as most of the versions we get a hold of only have subtitles in French, I end up watching most of them by myself. 

I/we managed to see (in order of watching): Yaaba (1989), Samba Traoré (1993), Tilaï (1990), Buud Yam (1997), Sankofa (1993), Wallay (2017), Bravo Burkina (2023)  – and we also include Sira (2023) that JK and I have recently seen at the Sydney Film Festival. To my great disappointment, I am not able to find a copy of Borders or The Crossing and I will have to place them on the watch list for a future occasion. I am especially sad about not being able to watch Borders, so if I get an opportunity to watch it in the future, this section will be updated. 

Yaaba (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1989)

My first film Yaaba is often referred to as one of the best films from Francophone Africa. It is written and directed by Idrissa Ouedraogo who is also the director of Samba Traoré and Tilaï. Idrissa was a renowned director, considered the great Burkinabé master of filmmaking whose movies, both short and feature, often focus around the balance between tradition and modernity in rural and urban Burkina Faso. 

Shot in location in Idrissa’s home village, Yaaba is a story of a boy who has lost his mother and befriends an older woman who the other village members call a sorceress, avoiding her. The boy calls her ‘Yaaba’ (grandmother) and finds a place of acceptance with her. It is a film of long shots and a simple, slow-pacing story. It is a story exploring prejudices, the weight of beliefs and traditions, unreasonable irrational adults and savvy children. It is interesting for its landscape, language and description of lifestyle, however is long, slow-paced and throughout the narrative, nothing much happens. According to the director, the movie is based on an African oral story that he heard in his childhood. Yaaba forms part of the second generation of African film that found inspiration in African oral traditions with universal elements – mixing the pan-African storytelling that honours its African roots while introducing elements that could make the films commercially viable. 

Samba Traoré (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1993)

Samba Traoré, again by Idrissa Ouedraogo, is a very different movie from Yaaba. It won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival and has a more prominent style closer Western storytelling than the slower-paced Yaaba. After a botched robbery in the city, one of the robbers escapes to his village with the money. He tries to live a normal life but his past haunts him. The story is basically a morality tale of guilt. It has a more dynamic rhythm and storytelling than Yaaba which makes it easier to watch. The landscape again is fascinating– a mix of urban and rural environments. The scenography is visually very pleasing, and the leads Mariam Kaba and Bakary Sangaré look good together. It is an interesting story built around the idea that one should take responsibility for one’s actions or the past will not only hurt you but also the people around you. 

Tilaï (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1990)

Another movie by Idrissa is Tilaï, winning the Jury Prize in Cannes in 1990. It is a story following family pride, loyalty and betrayal on various levels. The story focuses on Saga who returns to his rural village home only to find that his fiancé Nogma has been married to his father. Saga’s mother (his father’s first wife) is still alive and sidelined by the young bride. Nogma does not love her old husband and rekindles the flame with Saga who quits the family much to the father’s discontent. Nothing stays secret and Saga’s soft and conciliatory brother finds himself in a difficult position between his father and brother, and is required to take action to restore the family pride. Tradition weighs heavily on the village and ‘tilaï’ (law) needs to be followed, leading to communal loss. This is my favourite of the three films by Idrissa, being more complex, nuanced and multilayered than the other two. When Saga’s young sister asks her mom to explain life to her because she does not understand why Nogma has married an old man and not the man she loves, her mother angrily brushes her off and says:” Nogma will love her husband just like I do mine. That is how life goes.” When she asks Saga’s brother to help Nogma, he simply says;” We can’t do anything. It is her destiny.”. Throughout, the film shows similar simple sentences that pack so much meaning in a life of no choice which will lead to devastation and loss. 

Buud Yam (Gaston Gaboré, 1997)

When Buud Yam (was released in Burkina Faso, it became the most successful Burkinabé movie by that date. Strongly embedded in oral tradition, it is a story of a young man in search for his roots. It is a sequel to Wend Kuuni (1993) by the same director. I decide not to watch the first movie and only the second, as the number of Burkinabé movies is already piling up, but I understand that the first movie is about the origins of the main character, Wend Kuuni. The second movie is about prejudices, identity, remembrance and redemption. When his adopted sister falls ill, Wend Kuuni is accused of bringing back luck to the family and is forced to flee and find a healer who can heal his sister. It is a common storyline of a hero’s journey with a slow paced African storytelling and a subtle criticism of superstition and discrimination. Visually pleasing, the movie offers beautiful landscapes as Wend Kuuni travels through different landscapes and meets different people along his journey. 

Sankofa (Haile Gerima, 1995)

Sankofa is a co-production between Burkina Faso, Ghana, US and Ethiopia. It is directed by a US-based Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima, and is his most famous movie. More than a Burkina Faso-movie as such, it is a Pan-African tale of the brutality of slavery. The word ‘sankofa’ comes from the Akan language, spoken mainly in Ghana and is interpreted to mean gaining wisdom from the past. The movie itself is said to encourage people of African Diaspora to not forget their roots. In the movie a young model called Mona is on a photoshoot in Ghana when a spirit of Sankofa (depicted as a bird in the movie) transports her to the past to live the life of one of her ancestors, a slave called Shola on a plantation in the Southern United States. 

There are very few movies about slavery by African-born directors and that makes Sankofa particularly remarkable. It shows the brutality of slavery, and presents the diversity (of origin) of slaves who all came from different places and nations and were thrown together into a merciless existence embedded with the longing for freedom and motherland. While it is harrowing and effective in its depiction of ruthless plantation owners and callous priests, it would have been an even better movie without a distracting and somehow unnecessary subplot of a mixed-raced son of a slave Joe and his inner turmoil which I find poorly represented. There are moments of emotional effectiveness, poetic undertones especially related to music and stories connecting to the motherland but there are several weaknesses that take away from a film that could have been very powerful and valuable. But this said, even in its unevenness, Sankofa is an important movie and unique in its portrayal of the enslaved as rootless individuals thrown into an inhuman reality – a painful embarrassment to the human race, as any forms of slavery have been and continue to be. 

Wallay (Berni Goldblatt, 2017)

Wallay is another movie in the African cinematographic tradition that looks into the balance and conflict between tradition and modernity. The movie follows a teenage boy Ady living in France who is sent to rural Burkina Faso to live with his uncle Amadou. It is a classic coming-of-age movie that offers very few surprises. As expected, at first a reluctant and modern technology-driven teen, Ady finds a place of love and acceptance in the homeland of his father. There is a cultural tradition tension with Ady’s uncle who is expecting Ady to do something that would make him more ‘culturally acceptable’. Shot with love and tenderness towards the tradition and motherland, it is a tale of finding roots and identity, personal growth, family relation and intergenerational relations. 

Bravo Burkina (Walé Oyéjidé, 2023)

Bravo Burkinais a melancholic tale of immigration and the space between the past and the present that most immigrants know well. When the past is no longer yours and the present will never be yours, immigrants are often stuck ‘in between’ time and place, belonging and alienation, and not fully being rooted anywhere. Walé Oyéjidé is a filmmaker, but also writer and designer with his own design brand. He describes his brand Ikiré Jones as “fashion to celebrate the perspectives of marginalized people”. Walé was the costume designer for Black Panther which explains a lot of the visuals of this film. Bravo Burkina is quite experimental and made in collaboration with asylum seekers and traditional weevers. As said, it is a dream-like experiment – a man travels through time to Burkina Faso of his childhood to live and feel what he has left behind and lost. Despite definitely being beautiful and a visual feast the story itself unfortunately does not really take off. 

Sira (Apolline Traoré, 2017)

One movie that I really wanted to see is Borders by Apolline Traoré (2017) which follows the journey of four women on a bus through different borders in Western Africa, and the stories these women have. But despite not being able to get a hold of a copy of that movie, fortunately there is another movie from Apolline that I have been able to see.  During the Sydney Film Festival 2023, JK and I headed to see Sira (2023); Apolline’s latest movie. It won the Berlinale Panorama Audience Award. Sira is a young woman who survives an Islamic terrorist kidnapping in the desert just before her wedding. She is left in the desert to die, proceeding to seek revenge in a badass way. Apolline said in an interview that she started writing the story after hearing about a massacre in Burkina Faso that claimed more than 160 lives in one village. She wanted to film the movie in Burkina Faso, but due to the security issues could not, and filmed it in Mauritania instead. The movie is filmed in Fula and the mission for Apolline was to show the current situation in Burkina Faso while underlining the courage and sacrifice of women in this situation. An interesting fact is that when Apolline returned to live in Burkina Faso in 2005, she started working with Idrissa (the director of the first three movies I saw for this entry).

The movie itself could be described as an action film in the desert. There is a fair bit of graphic violence, from sexual violation to massacre. Both JK and I appreciated seeing it because it was not what we expected to see, however we also shook our heads a bit at the not believable parts of revenge and general bad-assing. But we do understand that Sira is an action movie, and action movies are universally exaggerated in their hero’s capabilities, so why would not this one be as well. At the same time there is something quite remarkable in this movie – it is in the end a very bold manifestation against the violence suffered by civilians. Therefore there is something satisfying in the way the one woman army goes after the baddies even if it does not always happen in real life. 

Vibrant Art Scene

Just like the strong film industry, Burkina Faso also has a vibrant art and music scene. There are several really interesting artists in different disciplines. We have chosen to look at the art of Adjaratou Ouedraogo, a Togo-born artist currently living in Burkina Faso. Her art is vibrant, colourful and simple. She works with different mediums; painting, drawing,sculpture and even animated film. It has been said to reflect the child that she once was, who survived a traumatic event of abuse at the age of 8. Many of her artworks deal with the themes of childhood and family, mixed with the notion of hope. She has held exhibitions around the world: one of her recent solo exhibitions was called Resilience.  

Photo credit: https://www.lagalerie38.com/en/expositions/ode-to-union-by-adjaratou-ouedraogo/ 

Next stop: Burundi

Thank you Lisboa for the proof reading

We now have a map on the kitchen wall to colour all the countries that Virtual Nomad has stopped in. At this stage, Amsterdam (11) already knows all the countries and capitals in the world and even the older kids Lisboa (17), L’s boyfriend Nicosia (18) and a visiting friend Krakow Dolomites (15) have some kind of idea of where Bulgaria lies. In short, A can name the neighbouring countries and the capital while the older teens can say that it is “somewhere in Europe”.

The Participating Virtual Nomads are presented with city and/or place pseudonyms. The cities selected are random and have nothing to do with the origins of the people themselves.

But first, as always, food. We are proud of our very successful Bulgarian night. 

Mysterious delicious Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Night reunites eight Virtual Nomads for a long and lovely meal. As Sydney is moving towards the deepest heart of the winter, rich Bulgarian food is well received and appreciated. We indulge in six different dishes and dessert while listening to Bulgarian traditional music, especially the track that was world famous – Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares – The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices. 

I have been asked to remove the initials referring to people because some readers find it confusing. Our Bulgarian night consists of not only myself but my partner Johannesburg Karelia and most of our combined children my daughter Lisboa (17) and son Amsterdam (11) and also Lisboa’s boyfriend Nicosia (17). My stepchild Fez Karelia (15) is away for the Bulgarian night. Chicago Hannover is the Special Adviser of the Virtual Nomad. She has visited more than 140 countries and participates in Virtual Nomad nights in between her travels. Tonight we also enjoy the company of two other seasoned Virtual Nomads, very dear friends, who live nearby, Kyoto Dolomites and her son Kraków Dolemites (15).

The main dish is Guvech, a meat casserole with vegetables. It is originally a Turkish dish but popular in South Bulgaria, and the South Bulgarian recipe is the one that I follow. It is a slow cooked dish so it takes me several hours to prepare. It also needs constant love in the form of checking the temperature. I do not have a clay dish big enough so I need to use glass, but for the rest of it, I follow the recipe religiously, give it a lot of time and love. It involves chopping, preparing, mixing, and checking the temperature. The dish has diced beef and several vegetables including okra, eggplant, potato, tomato, broccoli and capsicum, but also fresh spices such as mint and parsley. As a vegetarian, I do not eat it myself but it is very well received – a perfect winter dish for a cold night in Sydney, accompanied by some Bulgarian salads. 

The most common Bulgarian salad is Shopska salad, which comes up in any search for traditional Bulgarian food. “It has all the best vegetables,” says Lisboa (17), who finds it delicious. It is a fresh salad with positive vibes. It has tomatoes, cucumbers, red and green capsicums, spring onions, olives, chopped parsley, olive oil, vinegar and some feta cheese on top. Some sources claim that the name ‘Shopska’ was first mentioned in a Bulgarian cookbook in 1940 and it is said to come from the Sopski or Shopluk region in Western Bulgaria. Some other sources say that it was developed by Bulgantourist as a response to Greek salad. Supposedly it should have the colours of the Bulgarian flag and was heavily promoted by Peter Doychev, who was the leader of Bulgarian Tourism. The origin has been disputed by Serbia as Shopluk is a region that is divided by Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia. In 2014, it was the most recognisable Bulgarian dish in Bulgaria and is considered Bulgaria’s national dish.

With guvech and Shopska, we also eat banitsa, which is a typical Bulgarian breakfast food. It is super simple to make with filo pastry. Basically it is feta cheese, butter, some yoghurt and eggs. Filo in layers and filling between each layer. My banitsa has a slightly unorthodox shape, but it did not take away any of its culinary charm. It is an incredibly easy and quick recipe, but simultaneously very tasty. The whole banitsa vanished in the course of the dinner, even taking into account that one of the Virtual Nomads present, Kyoto Dolemites is gluten free. So seven Virtual Nomads hid the big banitsa in their tummies in record time. 

Another side dish is feta-filled peppers, or capsicums as we call them. As dictated by the recipe, I have deliberately chosen small capsicums both red and yellow. While heating them in the oven, I am a bit worried that they might turn out very dry, so I pour on generous amounts of olive oil, which the capsicums seem to like. They are a splendid side dish and, together with stuffed vine leaves, add wonderful favour to the dinner.

The final part of the menu is the Snezhanka salad. It contains cucumber (with most of the water having been squeezed away), garlic, fresh dill, salt and yogurt. It is very refreshing.

As a dessert, we have baklava that is mostly eaten by Lisboa (17) and Amsterdam (10). It mysteriously disappears, which must be that old Bulgarian magic. 

Mysterious Thracians and one of the oldest states in Europe 

Bulgaria has been at the crossroads of several cultures for a long time. It was inhabited by the Varna people who then gave way to the mystic Thracians. They were skilful warriors, loved wine and music and had a deep impact on European cultural development. Most of the Greek and Roman gods and mythology are believed to be influenced by Thracian beliefs and rituals. King Teres 1 united the land but had to give it up to the Macedonians. Thracians survived many conquests from Persians and Macedonians to Greeks, Romans, Slavs and Byzantines. After different events (many of them not nice and friendly) Thracia became part of the Roman Empire. A famous Thracian was called Spartacus – a gladiator and a slave leader who rebelled against Roman rule. 

The name Bulgaria comes from a Turkish tribe, the Bulgars, who invaded the region in the 7^th century. This makes Bulgaria one of the oldest states in Europe. The first King of Bulgaria was a guy called Khan Asparuh (681-701). There were several wars and the country was united through Christianity (under Boris I 852-889). A fun fact is that the Cyrillic alphabet was born in Bulgaria during its peak in power. Then came Ottoman rule of the region that lasted for over 500 years (1396 – 1906).  Independence was declared in 1908 but the unrest was far from over. An alliance with Germany in both world wars caused problems with the neighbours. In 1946, Bulgaria became part of the Soviet-led Eastern block of states and a socialist state. Repression was widespread under Georgi Dimitrov (1946-1949) and Todor Zhivkov (1954-1989). His slightly odd daughter, Lyudmila Zhivkova, strongly supported Bulgarian art and heritage as the head of culture in the country, embracing weird, esoteric beliefs and projects. In 1989, Bulgaria adopted parliamentary democracy but it took a long time to generate economic growth or improve the living standards of ordinary Bulgarians. Reports by Freedom House and other organisations have reported a decrease in civil and political freedoms since 2009, and a deterioration of democratic governance. 

Bulgaria does not have the greatest track record with minorities. It has the highest proportion of Romani people in Europe, with an estimated 4-6% of the population. These are some of the poorest and least educated people, not only in Bulgaria, but in Europe. The Romani face discrimination, poverty and racism and, in 2016, only 23% of the Romani population in Bulgaria was employed, with 60% living in poverty. While the Romani live throughout Bulgaria, the biggest populations are in Faculteta in Sofia and Stolipinovo in Plovdiv.  

Another other minority community that has been living in Bulgaria for centuries is the ethnic Turks. Bulgaria has a large population of native Muslims and, due the falling birth rate of Christian Bulgarians in the 1980s, the state was worried about the growth rates of the Muslim population. In 1986, the ‘Revival process’ introduced assimilation techniques including changing Turkish names into Christian names. In May 1989, the country saw peaceful demonstrations by the Turkish minority, which were quickly repressed by police forces. By October 1989 around 350,000 Bulgarian Turks were forced to leave Bulgaria. 

Reading Bulgaria: the Samodivi and all the real people that are fictional 

I have a great Bulgarian friend, LV, who lives in Canada and I absolutely trust to provide Bulgarian recommendations. As occurs with other friends for previous entries, it is very hard for her to decide what to recommend, so she elects not to. But, as I have previously, I find my way around by finding people, almost without asking, who have heard or learned about Virtual Nomad and are eager to help. I find out that contemporary Bulgarian literature has two superstars; Georgi Gospodinov and Kapka Kassabova. I’m informed that Under the Yoke: A Romance of Bulgarian Liberty by Ivan Vazov is a Bulgarian classic and a must read at Bulgarian schools, but I can’t get a hold of a translation so I decide to read one book by each of the other two.  

Time Shelter (Georgi Gosponidov, 2020)

My first Bulgarian book for Virtual Nomad is by the Bulgarian sensation, Georgi Gospodinov. His book, Time Shelter (2020, translated in 2022), received rave reviews and was called an instant classic / masterpiece. The translation won the International Booker Prize in 2023 – the first Bulgarian to do so. It sounds very promising. 

The central plot is about a psychiatrist, Gaustine, who treats people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. He creates a clinic with floors dedicated to different decades for patients to live their past. The detailed floors include artefacts and even daily news from the assigned decades. A man living in 1973 is obsessed with John Lennon, and comes in every day to read the news. When he arrives in 1979 (on the 70s floor), he has a premonition that the singer will be shot and wants to warn the FBI and the police about it. There are many more stories like that, of people lost in time and space. But then healthy people start to come to the clinic, wanting to escape, and finally entire nations start to think what are the best decades for them. 

“According to Gaustine, for us the past is the past, and even if we step into it, we know that the exit to the present is open, we can come back with ease. For those who have lost their memories, this door has slammed shut once and for all. For them, the present is a foreign country, while the past is their homeland.”

More than about memory, it is a book about nostalgia. What once was or what could have been but never was. It is about creating a past that is based on what we once lived or invented in our minds. The start of the book is promising: “All real persons in this novel are fictional, only the fictional are real”. The fear that our memory and present will abandon us, and every name of a high school class member that you can’t remember, will take you closer to losing your own core and essence. 

“Memory holds you, freezes you within the fixed outlines of a single, solitary person whom you cannot leave. Oblivion comes to liberate you. Features lose their sharpness and definitiveness, vagueness blurs the shape. If I don’t clearly remember who exactly I am, I could be anyone, even myself, even myself as a child.”

It is by all means a brilliant, poignant, clever and thoroughly researched book. It has moments of absolute brilliance. It is very dense, and made to be admired. It has many nuances and is meticulous in its subtle political analysis of Europe of 2020 and the continent’s past. It is spot on in some things, creative in others and very heavy in most of its content. It is an absolutely admirable book, worthy of awards and fanfare. I applaud it but find it hard to love. It is a cerebral, cynical and intelligent book that in the end did not move me emotionally. 

Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe (Kapka Kassabova, 2017)

My next book is the other highly regarded Bulgarian contemporary author, Kapka Kassabova. I decide to read her book Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe (2017). It is super interesting and I end up loving it more than Georgi’s Time Shelter. In fact, I end up loving it a lot. It is a captivating, fascinating and a really well written travel book. Kapka is an author who left Bulgaria in her teens to live in New Zealand and Scotland, first with her scientist family and then as an author. In this book she returns to the border region between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey – the region of her childhood summers where dark and mystical things took place. The dark things refer to the stories of people trying to cross the borders for a better life. Firstly Eastern Europeans (mostly from Eastern Germany as it was rumoured to be an easier crossing point than the Berlin Wall) during the Cold War, many of whom lost their lives in the depths of the forest by the Greek border. The past haunts those who were asked to shoot people on sight. Today the refugees are mainly Syrians escaping the horrors of war, while trying to find a better future. The mystical refers to the history older than the soviet terror – the Thracian beliefs and old tombs, spirits and inexplicable phenomena. 

Kapka travels through the region in the three countries and talks to different people with amazing life stories – border guards, smugglers, refugees, ethnic Turks, forest rangers – all kinds of people with stories to tell. She travels through villages, ruins and mystic forests. I find myself tracking the places she mentions on a map. I have no way of knowing what is true and what is a fictionalised truth but I found myself completely immersed in the book and reading every sentence, sometimes twice. The writing is superb and the storytelling is outstanding. I have seen reviews that criticise some parts of the book as non-authentic but no one seems to ever be a prophet in their own land. Sometimes reviews are unfair, particularly when they state something like “this is not my experience of the region and I for sure know so much better.” My understanding is that the author has combined elements from different people to create some of the characters in the book in order to protect the original source. It is not a documentary and should not be read like that. Maybe I am just the right audience for it as I absolutely loved it.  

Mystical Emona (Ronesa Aveela, 2014)

My last Bulgarian book is Mystical Emona by Ronesa Aveela – a pseudonym for two authors. I am tempted to read it due to the description that it stems from the Thracian and Bulgarian mythology – the stories of the Samodivi (nymphs), dragons and other legends that I have already learned a bit about from Kapka’s book. The magical realm of ancient Bulgaria is such an interesting dimension that I want to stay there just a little bit longer. 

While I am reading, I realise that I might not be the best audience for it. For the engaged audience it would probably be perfect. First of all, it is very long and long books are hard to keep together. Secondly, it is a romance story with mystical and fantasy elements which is not my genre. For me, while the mythological elements are interesting as an introduction to Bulgarian folklore, the romance itself feels a bit silly. A man called Stefan loses his wife and then returns to his homeland, Bulgaria, to the enigmatic Emona region where people still believe in and live with the mystical elements of old folktales. He is in fact (and this is revealed early in its 410 pages) a reincarnation of a nymph’s lover. Then the immortal Samodivi woman travels through time and space to reunite with him, but there are obstacles on the way – not least from his (woodenly written) nemesis, Nikola, who is a childhood friend but also possibly something more sinister. For me, and I hope not to offend anyone who is a fan of the story or the genre itself, the plot is poorly written, corny and ridiculous at times. It would have benefitted from a tough editing hand. Who can read – without chuckling – sentences such as “ Kalyna walked towards him, her beauty radiating in the fading light. Lipstick the color of raspberries enhanced her full lips. A white silk dress, accessorized by a golden belt, highlighted her perfect body. He stared in silence, his own unspeakable desire reflected in her sparkling green eyes.”

What the long book offers is knowledge about Bulgarian folklore and what pushes me through the gruelling 410 pages is the new vocabulary and Thracian beliefs that I then google and learn about. Maybe the authors wanted to write a book about that and then invented a silly story of haunting dreams and a passive Stefan, lusting after the dead wife and then the nymph. The beliefs and rituals are fascinating and the authors know a lot about them, so I research some of the things mentioned in the book regarding old Bulgarian beliefs, such as: 

• Red eggs have magical powers that can protect people from illness. 
• Fire dancing is called nestinarstvo (walking on fire – rejuvenates the soul and body)
• Grapes are holy food and blackberries are evil food. 
• Om Prokopi Pchelar, golden honey day, you leave sacred bread in hives before sunrise and the honey on bread makes the bees make more honey.
• Traditional healers are called Znahars – they can see what causes the pain and then find the right herbs for everything. It’s important to emphasize that they are not witches nor shamans but traditional healers.
• Fairies and nymphs are called Samodivi and they inhabit forests. The fairies of the water are called Rusalki. The Samodivi are daughters of the mighty Goddess Bendis. 
• Midsummer is called Eniovden, during which the healers collect seventy-seven and a half herbs. The summer solstice was associated with spirits crossing from one realm to the next and healers had an important role in the sacred rituals of protection.
• Witches – someone who practices the dark arts and terrible spells to bring destruction and suffering – are called veshtitsa.

Two and a half movies, and an old documentary 

The World is Big and salvation lurks around the corner (Stephan Komandarev, 2008)

An awarded Bulgarian movie (and the only Bulgarian movie ever shortlisted for an Oscar, not that it means anything) is The World is Big and salvation lurks around the corner by Stephan Komandarev. It is a melancholic movie taking place in two timelines – early 1980s socialist Bulgaria (around the time of USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev’s death) and twenty years later. It is a co-production between Bulgaria, Germany and Hungary and tells the story of Sashko who illegally immigrates to Germany (having initially been detained in a refugee camp in Italy) with his parents in order to escape the communist repression. His grandfather, who travels to Germany to reconnect with Sashko, has lost his memory due to a serious accident. Based on the autobiographical book by Ilija Trojanow, the story is told in flashbacks that connect the two stories – the struggles of Sashko’s family to reach Germany and beyond and who will carry the weight of the deceit and the iron fist of the regime. Both storylines underline the experiences of the powerless, the alienated and the discriminated. There is a poignant moment in the movie when a well-spoken immigrant speaks to an Italian detention centre police officer on behalf of the detained. “We are escaping a dictatorship and just want a better life. We are not criminals” he says. The movie is also about the game backgammon – the game that builds the connection between the grandfather and his grandson.

Eastern Plays (Kamen Kalev, 2009)

Eastern Plays by Kamen Kalev is one of the few Bulgarian movies selected to be screened at Cannes. It is a tough movie, both the film itself and its backstory. Situated in post-Cold War Bulgaria, it examines the growing intolerance and racism, the ideological and social hangover after the collapse of the soviet system, and the drifting emptiness of young people when ‘freedom’ did not bring the amazing tomorrow they eagerly awaited. The main actor, Christo Christov, plays himself in the movie (a recovering drug addict) and the apartment used in the film was his actual apartment. He does not come across initially as a likable character. It hurts to say so as the actor died of an overdose before filming was complete. The story itself centers around two brothers – Christo and his younger brother Georgi, who is increasingly attracted to neo-Nazi ideology. Through Georgi’s violent involvement with the skinhead gangs, Christo comes across a beautiful Turkish girl who challenges his bleak and lightless vision of life. 

It is a debut from the director and it shows. It is both raw and honest, and messy and incomplete at the same time. The storyline is sometimes painfully messy, as if the movie cannot really decide what it wants to be. The characters, even if the story is based on the real persona of Christo (and he was a childhood friend of Kamen who inspired the story), are in the end, less important than the Bulgaria that Kamen wants to portray. People feel lost and betrayed by a corrupt government, with the gap between generations widening. Everyone struggles to find ways to escape the mundane existence of unfulfilled promises and find meaning in addictions, ideologies, mass media consumption, emotional dependence, and so on. 

Blind Vaysha (Georgi Gospodinov, 2016)

Blind Vaysha is an eight minute animated short film that, yes, was nominated for an Oscar. It is about Vaysha whose left eye only sees the past while her right eye only sees the future. She is unable to see the present. The story is by Georgi Gospodinov, the writer of two of the books I have read for this Virtual Nomad stop (and the skeleton of the plotline is mentioned in his book, Time Shelter). Directed by Theodore Ushev, it is visually interesting and with great music. It’s an interesting story that becomes a bit preachy towards the end of its short duration, as an informed viewer already knows what it is about. 

Welcome Nowhere (Kate Ryan, 2012)

Welcome Nowhere is a 2012 documentary about a large Romani community living in a ghetto of boxcars in Sofia under inhuman conditions. The houses of the community were demolished in 2001 to make way for a large supermarket, forcing them to live in boxcars without sanitation or running water. Ten years later, they were still there. The documentary is about a specific community (which then received government housing, albeit too late for some) but also about the attitudes towards Roma people in Bulgaria (and the rest of Europe). It is such an interesting documentary that it prompts us to look at the current situation. There are 12 million Romani people in Europe. While Bulgaria may have the densest Romani population, there are Romani in several European countries still facing open bigotry and discrimination. According to recent European Parliament statistics (2022), 80% of Romani people in Europe live below the poverty line. In 2019, Krasimir Karakachanov, Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security, Minister of Defence and President of the IMRO-Bulgarian National movement party, proposed a Roma Integration Strategy. The Strategy includes, for example, policies to control the number of births for Romani women and free abortions for Romani women. Another proposal of the strategy was to re-establish “labour-education schools” which existed during the communist regime and were basically prisons for minors. The National Strategy 2021 – 2030 for Equality, Inclusion and Participation of the Roma fortunately looks quite different.

Mystery of Bulgarian voices and the end of the World

In 1987, the album Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares introduced Bulgarian female choral music to the world. The album received widespread international acclaim and several contemporary music artists, such as Paul Simon and David Byrne, collaborated and promoted it. The different Bulgarian regions have distinct vocal practices. A common traditional singing technique is closing the vocal folds while keeping the throat open, which then produces a particular sound.  

To finish the Bulgarian stop on a high note, I will mention Baba Vanga, the late psychic Bulgarian who allegedly predicted the events of September 11^th 2001, and other things. Vanga also predicted that the world will end in 5079 but the apocalypse will start in 2025 (although, according to some reports, she said that this would happen in 2023).  

Thank you JK for your generous proof reading

Next stop: Burkina Faso

We have placed a map on the kitchen wall and colour the countries Virtual Nomad has stopped in. Quite easy to find our next stop. The tiny Brunei Darussalam is situated on the island of Borneo, surrounded by Malaysia and facing the South China Sea. It has a bit more than 455,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom live in the capital, Bendar Seri Begawan.  

But as always. Food first. 

A substitute kitchen 

The Brunei kitchen is influenced by Malaysian and Indonesian culinary traditions. You cannot find pure Brunei food in Sydney so the next best thing is to find a Malay/Indonesian restaurant that serves dishes that are popular in Brunei. We decide to go to the Berempah Fusion Restaurant in Crows Nest. The Brunei night results in an ok but not outstanding dinner for the ten Virtual Nomads in our party. The food is fine but not spectacular. The restaurant is full, despite it being a Tuesday night in winter. 

As is the case in surrounding countries, beef panang is popular in Brunei so it’s high on our list to order. Panang is a curry that is mild and rich in flavour. Usually it contains peanuts, spices but less chili than, for example, a red curry would. Beef panang usually has the beef sliced thin and cooked in curry, peanuts and coconut milk. I hear from fellow Virtual Nomads that this particular beef panang is ok but not amazing. Apart from beef panang, we also order a variety of other dishes, the quality of which varies from good to passable.  

I get a vegan beef parang which is a bit underwhelming. 

A (10) wants his favourite – fried rice with prawn which is also very popular in Brunei. 

Brunei history

Brunei Darussalam is an absolute constitutional monarchy ruled by the Sultan, with the state religion being Islam. Brunei is said to have been founded by Awang Alak Betatar and named Barunai in the 14^th century. From 1368 to 1888, Brunei was at its peak as an empire, spreading around the island of Borneo and several other territories (e.g. some islands of the Philippines). It gradually lost territory from the 17^th century. During this time there were reasonably good relationships with some overseas colonialists (eg. Portugal) and not so good with others (a war with Spain in 1578). There was also conflict within the country itself (the Brunei Civil War 1660-73, a long war resulting from the loss of the Sultan’s son in a cock fight). Brunei became a

British protectorate in 1888 and stayed one until 1984. In World War II, Brunei suffered terribly at the hands of the Japanese until it was liberated by the Australian 9^th battalion. Brunei gained self-governance in 1959 and independence in 1984. The Sultan of Brunei, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who introduced Sharia law into the national legislation, is one of the richest people in the world, thanks to large oil and gas reserves. He is the world’s longest-serving head of state and one of the few absolute monarchs in the world. His wealth is estimated to be around $30 billion and he has one of the largest car collections in the world. In 2013, he introduced Sharia law (intended to be effective from 2019) which included the death penalty by stoning for same-sex marriage and adultery. Due to international pressure, in 2019 he announced that he would not apply the law. He has had three wives. His first wife is his first cousin (they are still married) and the third is a TV presenter, 33 years his junior. He divorced his second and third wife. 

The Brunei book

For the Brunei stop, I decide to read The Fisherman King (2020) by Kathrina Mohd Daud. Kathrina is an Assistant Professor of English at the Brunei Darussalam University. She studies Muslim representation in popular romance and has co-founded an all-female theatre group – Salted Egg Theatre. The Fisherman Kind is her debut and was shortlisted for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize (2020).   

The novel is a mixture of folklore, fantasy, old mysticism and modern romance, anchored in the folk tales of Brunei. The story is situated in the largest water village in the world – Kampong Ayer (which literally means Water Village). Currently home to more than 9000 people, it is the largest settlement on stilts in the world. In the book, water plays an important role as the main character (who is not very likable) is a young fisherman called Lisan. He returns home after eight years of unexplained absence to find his wife remarried. He is obsessed by the mystery of his roots and origins that may or may not indicate that he is something more special than ‘just’ a normal fisherman. The response to everything lies beneath the water, in the depths of the sea. The story unfolds over two different timelines – present day Lisan and the past with a forbidden love story between royal siblings. There is a central theme of birthrights, bloodlines and the superiority of the royalty, which for me is a foreign concept. There is also the sense of identity and the incapacity of people to see the value of real things, until it’s too late. There are also snake gods, spirits and haunted treasures. It reads a bit like mythology with unlikable characters. 

Movies: Martial arts ‘a la Brunei 

Not many movies have been produced in Brunei. The most notable are a 1968 production Gema Dari Menara, a 2013 comedy Ada Apa Dengan Rina and a 2014 youth martial arts movie Yasmine. As the 1968 movie is not available, we watch the other two.

Yasmine (Siti Kamaluddin, 2014)

Yasmine from 2014 is the first film from Brunei directed by a woman. Siti Kamaluddin is a Bruneian director, musician and filmmaker. She has directed several TV commercials and four films, including Mentari, which features stories from six different directors from ASEAN countries to celebrate International Women’s Day. Yasmine is her first movie and is clearly targeting a young audience as it’s about a high-schooler wanting to become a master in a martial art called Silat. It follows a typical teenage drama format: the ambition of a smart but not a popular girl; a parent who is not understanding but who comes around; the weight of the tradition in contrast with modern aspirations; being goofy and hanging out with goofy friends; two goofy and equally unpopular best friends and some friendship issues; a cute boy; a stunning but cold nemesis; a retired and hesitant but endlessly wise mentor; and a skill that the main character has a passion for (Silat in this case). There are the themes of dedication, focus, mental strength and some spirituality, as is often the case in martial arts movies. It is cute but not memorable, but a great watch for the Brunei landscape with interesting details. 

Ada Apa Dengan (Harlif Haji Mohamad and
Farid Azlan Ghani, 2013)

Ada Apa Dengan from 2013 is notable for using a Brunei Malay dialect throughout the film – a dialect used by most Bruneians daily. It is a comedy about relationships and finding your true love. Hakim is 30 and feeling the pressure to find a significant other. He has a friend with a theory of how to find the perfect partner, and Hakim decides to follow that advice. The result is a story that was a great success in Brunei and some other ASEAN countries. It is a light-hearted comedy with uneven acting levels, and interesting primarily for the description of the urban lifestyle and working life in modern Brunei. It feels a bit clumsy and forced at times and most probably contains several cultural jokes that we do not get. It was overwhelmingly popular in Brunei and many critics called it hilarious. That just means that the joke’s on us for not understanding all the comedic details. 

Next stop: Bulgaria 

Now, how do we approach a country that is so enormous and as diverse as Brazil?

How can Virtual Nomads pay homage to the different climates, cultures, demographics and complex history of Brazil? What a task. We know we will fail to portray the full picture of Brazil’s cultural richness, diversity and varying geographical landscapes. First of all, Brazil has 26 states that are bigger than most countries – all of which are very unique and distinguishable from one another. But for a single night we will pretend Brazil can be experienced through an evening of delicious food. And music – that amazing gift of music that Brazil has given to the world. 

I want to apologise to our Brazilian friends for simplifying the Brazilian stop by only shortly skimming over an overview not intending to cover Brazil in its entirety. Hopefully our brief adventure pays homage to the exciting, diverse force of nature that is Brazil. 

A rainy Brazilian night in Maroubra 

There are several Brazilian restaurants in Sydney in almost any price-range. We decide to ditch the high-price venues advertising fancy churrascos and rather head to a family-owned small restaurant in Maroubra. Brothers Grill Brazilian Restaurant and Steak House advertises how it serves casual Brazilian food in a rustic environment, which is exactly what we get. The Brazilian night gathers almost all core Nomads – 14 of us – for a night of quite delicious Brazilian food with great service. We share big plates of different meats and vegetables.

Brazil in a nutshell

Brazil is huge. As the 5^th largest country in the world with an estimated population of 205 million, it is so large that it is considered a ‘megadiverse’ country due to the diversity of climates, landscapes, flora and fauna – but also people and cultural influences. It includes the largest part of the mighty Amazon, yet also a long coastline. It offers enormous cultural and ethnic richness, however has also been historically plagued by high crime rates, corruption and one of the world’s most pronounced levels of wealth inequality.

Brazil is so large that it did not exist as a country or a unified region before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500. Brazil’s name is said to derive from the Portuguese word pau-brazil, meaning a red tree that was growing on the coast. The Portuguese set up large sugar plantations demanding slave labour, leading to an active slave trade from Africa. (Brazil was the last country of the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, in 1888).

Brazilian independence was declared in 1822 by Pedro I (part of the Portuguese royal family), who appointed himself Emperor. He was followed by Pedro II who spoke 14 languages and modernised Brazil, attracting large numbers of immigrants. Pedro II was overthrown and exiled to Europe. Several dictatorships followed. Getúlio Vargas did not like the fact that he lost a presidential election, so he forcibly took power in 1930. He later established the Estado Novo (New State) in 1937, marked by censorship and government brutality. His position weakened in 1945, however  he returned shortly to power in 1950 ( afterwards suffering a sad end in 1954). Some other presidents followed, but from 1964 to 1985, as did some of its neighbours, Brazil lived through an authoritarian military dictatorship, which was, of course, not great for the common people. The return of democracy catalysed some more and some less successful political leaders, as well as prolonged crises of corruption, police brutality and abuse of power of the political establishment. Currently, Brazil’s president is Lula da Silva, following Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023), a very controversial president. Lula da Silva was also president from 2003 to 2011, then followed by Dilma Rousseff. Anyone interested in learning more about her impeachment is encouraged to watch Petra Costa’s superb 2019 documentary ‘The Edge of Democracy’.

Later, when we study Brazil at home with A (10), we learn many things: 

• Brazil has won the football world cup five times –  the highest of any country. We research the recently deceased football legend, Pelé (who died in December 2022), hailed as the greatest football player of all time. Pelé’s incredible posthumous impact is such that four months after his death, and after a petition that gathered 125,000 signatories, the Michaelis Portuguese-language dictionary included the word pelé as a synonym for “unique, exceptional, incomparable”. 

“Pelé” — um adjetivo que pode ser masculino ou feminino — é descrita pelo dicionário como “que ou aquele que é fora do comum, que ou quem em virtude de sua qualidade, valor ou superioridade não pode ser igualado a nada ou a ninguém” 

· You cannot talk about Brazil without mentioning music and the Carnival –  the biggest, brightest and most colourful carnival in the universe!

· 60% of the Amazon is in Brazil. The Amazon river is the second longest river in the world, and the rainforest  is the world’s largest – home to more than 30 million people.

Four books from Brazil (or rather five but we do not count one)

The best-selling author from Brazil is Paolo Coelho. He has sold over 300 million books globally and is considered to be one of the most influential authors in the world. His books have been described as part magical realism, part New Age, often focusing on spirituality and finding one’s life purpose. I have read some of his books in the past, so I will not for my Virtual Nomad booklog. Paolo’s most famous book is The Alchemist. While I am fully aware that it has been an important book for many, it has not been influential nor significant for me. None of the core Virtual Nomads are into Coelho’s spiritual philosophy, but we know people to whom his literature and teachings has been life-changing, so it is not our place to express judgement on the value of his teachings.

O Quarto de Despejo (Carolina Maria de Jesus, 1960)

Therefore, my first Brazilian book for the Virtual Nomad stop is O Quarto de Despejo by Carolina Maria de Jesus, translated as Child of the Dark in English. I decide to read it in the original language. Carolina was a poor black woman living in one of the favelas of São Paolo, Canindé. Born in the state of Minas Gerais, she moved to São Paolo with her mother with the intention of finding a better life (the fate of her mother is not known).  Because she could read and write (not common in a favela), she started to write a diary about her life in the favela. The book was published in 1960 and is based on the actual diary of Carolina. It became an overnight sensation and a best seller. It is a rare piece of documentary literature that portrays the life of the urban poor in the 1950s/1960s in Brazil. More than sixty years after it was published (and nearly fifty years after the once-celebrated Carolina died of lung disease, forgotten and poor) it remains current for its portrayal of ever-present hunger (practically starvation), discrimination, poverty, violence, misery and devastating inequality. At the beginning of the book she says: “Life is like a book. Only at the end of it you will know its full content.”

Foto: Revista Periferias 

The language is simple and practical. Carolina only had a few years of schooling so the writing is quite straightforward, but it is a remarkably effective portrayal of life in the favela. The life she describes is full of ever-present hunger and crippling poverty. She collects paper during the night to sell and feed her three children. Her relations with her neighbours are poor. She describes how it feels to hear the baker call for everyone to buy sweet bread in the morning “because it is time for breakfast”, when most people in the favelas cannot afford breakfast. She describes the smell of the favelas – a mix of excrement and rotten clay. People try to find shoes in the garbage, that then only last for a few days as they are already rotting. She conveys what it feels like when your child vomits worms and you have no food or clothes, freezing during cold days. She is an observer of the people around her –she is not always nice,sometimes writing with a sense of superiority. She has been described as having a fiercely independent and aggressive spirit that would bring her problems, basically because she was not a grateful and ‘good’ poor for the ruling class. But she is a survivor –  a person with flaws fighting for survival in inhuman conditions, just like everyone else around her. Sometimes she portrays suicidal ideation and often curses her faith and her life. The novel describes the fights, the relationships, the conflicts, the hunger, the poverty, and the children that die in the favela. It is quite an amazing book to read as it is very grounded and real. Carolina’s notoriety lasted a very short time – even though she was able to leave the favela, the limelight faded quickly and she was forced to return to the favela, where she would die. 

“A child died here in the favela. He was two months old. If he had lived, he would have starved.”(7 October 1958) 

A full story of Carolina’s life by Robert M. Levine (1992) can be read here: https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/178_0.pdf 

It  gives a full picture of how she was treated after her diary was published –  like a “curious animal”, the document says. It is almost as devastating a read as the diary itself. 

I turn to my Brazilian friends for recommendations for my next book but no one wants to take responsibility for putting forward a book or two, over others, to represent Brazil. Brazil is huge with an incredibly rich literary tradition. Should I choose the author who is considered the greatest Brazilian writer, Machado de Assis, who I have never read before, or other big names like Jorge Amado (who I have), Clarice Lispector (who I have) or Guimarães Rosa (who I have not)? Or exciting contemporary writers such as Adriana Lisboa?

What should I do? Put names in a hat? 

Ok then. I do just that.

Machado de Assis (Dom Casmurro, 1899)

My second Brazilian book is Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, which is described as one of if not the greatest book in all Brazilian literature, and one of the greatest books ever written in the Portuguese language. Machado de Assis himself was a mestizo, an exceptional literary talent whose skill pushed through the barriers of his time and the most important writer of Brazilian realism. The novel could be described as a fictional memoir of an old, paranoid man consumed by jealousy when he starts to trust an idea built in his head: that his wife cheated on him and their only child is not his. It would be a major spoiler to say whether she did or not, but in the end it is a minor thing. The story is more about the main character, Bentinho Santiago, and his short spurts of thoughts; stream-of-consciousness reflections on his childhood, relationship with his mother, best friend, wife. The writing flows with ease and (black) humour, and it must have been quite ahead of its time at its 1899 publication. While the writing is delicious, the story itself is less compelling for me. I do understand the narrative’s inherent value, and the writing keeps me engaged in most sections, but I grow a bit tired of the story itself, particularly with Bentinho’s eccentricities. 

Torto Arado (Itamar Vieira Junior, 2018)

Torto Arado (translated to Crooked Plow in English) by Itamar Vieira Junior has won all the possible literature awards since its publication in 2018. Itamar himself was born in Salvador de Bahia, and has a PhD in African and Ethnic Studies. His doctoral thesis was about quilombos, communities originating from escaped slaves of African origin. The book is indeed magnificent, sublime, and definitely worth the hype. It is captivating and magical with a reader-trapping story that does not let go. I relish every moment. The central storyline follows two close sisters, descendants of slaves in North Eastern Brazil, still living in near-slavery conditions with very little. It is their story, but also the story of family, ancestors, generations of slaves, and the spirits, beliefs and tensions between the underprivileged and the privileged; the change and the stagnant, the silenced and the  quietly conformed, and the spaces between spiritual continuity and oblivion.  Without doubt, the story criticises and unpicks the unfathomable cruelty of slavery and the capability of humans to treat fellow humans with such disdain. It is a remarkable book that trusts the reader to see things beyond the words on the page to anticipate what will happen – building trust on the reader’s critical ability to understand the small and big nuances evoked. It achieves a fascinating balance between the magical and political realm. It is heartbreaking and satisfying, magical and real, and about rights and wrong in a mesmerising, raw, graphic and poetic way. 5/5.

Crow Blue (Adriana Lisboa, 2010)

My final Brazilian book is by another contemporary writer Adriana Lisboa, said to be one of the leading contemporary authors in Latin America. I decide to read her book Crow Blue –  a combination, I discover, of both a coming-of-age tale and a sociocultural-focused narrative of understanding one’s place in the world through one’s roots. It is an interesting book, but there always lies danger when a grownup writes in a teenager’s voice, which is precisely what happens with this book. The protagonist is a 13-year girl who loses her mother and is whisked away to live in the US with her stepfather – who happened to be a guerrilla during the dictatorship in Brazil. It does not make complete sense that she would go to live with him in the US but hey, stranger things have happened. It effectively describes the experience of an immigrant and the sense of being trapped between two worlds; this is the sphere in which the book reads the most smoothly. The story is fed from Adriana’s own experience living as an immigrant in Colorado (albeit in much more privileged circumstances than the characters in the book, which often creates a slight sense of artificiality). For me, the sentiment of the book functions better than the narrative – there are excellent moments to the story, however there are also  sections that do not carry across so well. A bit like life itself.

Brazilian film – A festival

The Brazilian movie industry is vivid and powerful, with a plethora of quality movies. I have seen a lot of Brazilian cinema so it is easy for me to pick what I think is the crème of the abundant cinematic-crop, but I also want to see something new and include a variety of cinematographic pearls. Just to get it right, I turn to my Brazilian friend LB who is a documentary film maker and seek his approval of my proposed list. 

It was supposed to be ten – but the final selection for our Brazilian film festival consists of eleven movies; some which I have seen and some that I have not. Out of the eleven movies, A (10) is only allowed to see one which is a devastating film enough for him ( below; the 7^th film of our Brazilian Film Festival). 

It is an incredibly exciting list of movies, and we start with my very favourite.

City of God (Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund, 2002)

City of God is one of the most infamous Brazilian movies. According to the list of the Top100 Brazilian movies of the Brazilian Film Critics Association (Abraccine, 2016), City of God is 8^th, and the only movie filmed in the new millennium within the top 14. It is co-directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. I have a friend, MB, who works for Cinema Nosso, the NGO linked to the movie (founded by the directors and some of the actors in the movie). Apart from being famous for the movie, Cinema Nosso does amazing social work with young people in the favelas,offering lifestyle opportunities through workshops and film making. Their work can be observed and followed at https://cinemanosso.org.br/ 

After rewatching with my partner, Johannesburg Karealia (a pseudonym), I determine the movie to be just as powerful as I remember. My  daughter Lisboa (17) and her boyfriend Nicosia (soon to be 18 – oh gosh, L thinks as she proofreads her mother’s Brazil entry – she still needs to find him a gift), also watch the film, and find it truly evocative and thrilling. It is still a modern masterpiece with several interlinking layers. It is difficult to talk about all the interconnections and symbolism embedded in the narrative, alongside the impeccable storytelling, without spoiling it but everything makes sense and every detail is important. Essentially, the storyline follows boys and young men growing up around the world of crime and corruption in the Rio de Janeiro favela called Cidade de Deus (City of God). Only one of the actors (playing ‘Carrot’) is professional and the rest of the cast are people from the favelas. It is multilayered, impressive, compelling, crude and incredibly effective. Lisboa says the movie  is  impressive, heartbreaking and just brilliant: one of the movies which you cannot really articulate why they are so effective, they just are. In particular, Lisboa and Nicosia fawn over the use of the creative use and manipulation of time throughout the narrative, such as instances of zooming up on a person, promptly followed by the narrator telling the audience ‘But it’s not time to tell [the character]’s story yet’.

Central Station (Walter Salles, 1998)

Next on the list is Central Station (which is 11^th on Abraccine’s list), another of my Brazilian favourites. Central station is a road movie, with a stellar performance by Fernanda Montenegro. Compelling and emotional yet never overly sentimental, the film is a melancholic yet beautiful story about a young boy and an older woman forced to take care of him. It is a tale about human connection and family, and above all, the human heart. Directed by Walter Salles, it is a melancholic yet optimistic road movie of the warmth of the human heart.

Elite Squad (José Padilha, 2007)

My partner Johannesburg Karelia (a pseudonym, naturally) and I proceed to watch Elite Squad (– 30^th on the Abraccine list) – a critical and commercial success in Brazil, and one of the most watched movies in Brazilian history. This is a movie I have not seen before, so I am very intrigued. On the forefront, the movie tells about institutional (and individual) corruption and power. As we have seen the systematic corruption and inefficiency of the United Nations Peace Keepers in previous Virtual Nomad entries, this one follows police corruption – but also discusses more, less apparently, in order to make things not so black and white. The Rio de Janeiro favelas are so dangerous that for police forces to enter their areas, they forge agreements with the favela gangs. The elite squad BOPE, whose recruitment practices are beyond brutal and extremely humiliating, with the objective of making their ‘elite’ soldiers killing machines, is the only police force that the favela criminals are afraid of. If a favela gang member kills a BOPE member, he knows his days are numbered, because BOPE holds nothing back. 

Some criticism received is how the film apparently glorifies police brutality, but my understanding is different; I feel it does quite the opposite. While it illuminates widespread institutional police corruption (which is, without a doubt, very real), the film shows how even the ‘honest’ ones are slowly stripped of their humanity while hunting for ‘thugs’ in what they considered to be urban warfare. It is an impactful movie that, beyond its brutality and quite shocking illustrations of extreme violence (on both sides), tells of a story of lawless territory where underpaid police and gang-joining, poverty-stricken young men in favelas engage in an urban tale of survival– all born from a much larger context of desperation, poverty, corruption and violence. 

Que Horas Ela Volta? (Anna Muylaert, 2015)

The Second Mother (71st on the Abraccine list) is a movie by Anna Muylaert, the title translated to “What time she’ll be back?” in the original language. It is a movie about Val, a live-in maid of an affluent family who has left her own daughter behind in the state of Pernambuco so that she can provide her a better life. The distance has grown very big between the two, and Val is closer to the only son of the family she serves. When her daughter suddenly contacts Val,  asking to stay with her while she takes her university entrance test, tensions in  class differences begin to become more apparent. The setting is similar to the movie I watched for the Bolivia entry (Zona Sur), and reminds of the highly awarded Mexican movie from Alfonso Cuarón, Roma. The children become closest to those who love and care for them while the adults treat the servants almost like  property or as beloved pets that should always know their place. The movie is based on the director’s own experience with a nanny who left her child while caring for Anna’s child. While a bit uneven, it remains an intriguing movie with a satisfactory and uplifting, but overly ideal solution. The main actress, Regina Cáse, does an incredible job in her role as Val, a self-sacrificing and maternal middle-aged woman, who accepts her place in society as given and unchangeable. 

Carandiru (Héctor Babenco, 2003)

Carandiru ( 95^th on the Abraccine list) is a movie by Héctor Babenco about the massacre of the Carandiru Penitentiary in 1992. The Carandiru prison is famous for the death of 111 prisoners by police forces after a rebellion escalated and became unmanageable. The film is based on the book by Antônio Drauzio Varella, the author being a doctor who volunteered in Carandiru to test prisoners for AIDS. The movie, shot on location with real prisoners serving as supporting actors, intends to bring a human side to the inhuman conditions the prisoners were living in. The massacre itself is a minor part of the movie, and more emphasis is given to individual stories, community and the microcosmos the prisoners created. It is a long movie which works both in favour of (you get to know the characters well) and against (there are almost too many storylines) the narrative. The movie is to be commended for its description of the lives of the prisoners – some career criminals and some victims of circumstances – and some casualties of the biggest prison massacre in Brazil that sent shock waves around the world. Nevertheless, kudos to the movie itself for not making the details of the massacre the  centerpiece of the movie, rather presenting the prisoners as people first. 

Cabra Marcado para Morrer (Eduardo Coutinho, 1984)

High up (4^th) on Abraccine (2016) is a documentary, Cabra Marcado para Morrer, from 1984 (named in English as Twenty Years Later – the direct translation would have been Goat marked to die). The documentary intended to describe the life and death of João Pedro Teixeira, a peasant leader in the state of Paraíbo, who was killed by local landowners in 1962. The making of the documentary is a fascinating story. Starting filming in 1964, the director Eduardo Coutinho cast João’s widow and local farmers to play themselves, but filming was stalled by representatives of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Eduardo returned twenty years later to film the rest and build the documentary, and it becomes a documentary about a documentary, and much more. Eduardo films those involved (who are still left) and builds a story about people who reflect on the impact of all that happened twenty years prior, up to their present (1984). It is an important documentary in Brazil, as a thought-provoking portrait of class conflict, the struggles of peasants in Brazil as well as a deeply effective narrative of the life of those involved. 

Isla das Flores (Jorge Furtado, 1989)

Isla das Flores – Isle of Flowers (13th on the Abraccine list) by Jorge Furtado is an award-winning and very highly acclaimed short film. It tracks the life cycle of a tomato from a supermarket to the landfill of Porto Alegre where rotten food is first given to pigs and then to the poor women and children who live in the area. This is the only movie from the list that A (10) is allowed to watch. It is rated for all ages so I watch it with A (10) and L (17). 12 minutes long, it is a shocking, partly funny yet quite moving watch. It is a clever documentary of the human condition and the monetary value of human life. When we research whether the conditions in the area have changed over thirty years later (2024), unfortunately we find several articles describing that the situation remains gravely similar. 

Pixote (Héctor Babenco, 1981)

Probably the hardest watch on the whole list is Pixote (12^th on the Abraccine list), by Héctor Babenco, director of Carandiru. This movie is devastating, heartbreaking and very raw. At the beginning of the film, the director introduces the story with some statistics – 28 million children in Brazil live under the absolute poverty line – three million of them having no home nor family. The current statistics on street children in Brazil are unreliable, varying from 300,000 to seven million depending on sources and definitions of a homeless minor. There have been several policies and initiatives implemented to try to tackle the problem that derives from the core issues of poverty, violence, addiction and inequality. The movie is about all that and more – there is very little light in describing the cycle of abuse street minors face at the mercy of juvenile prison guards, gangs and pimps. It shows child prostitution, sexual abuse, violence, alienation, hunger, struggle, poverty, misery, betrayal. From the very first moments in a juvenile prison all the way to life on the streets, the film shows this self-same cycle of violence and despair.  It is a very hard watch. The acting is surprisingly good and many of the child actors (some as young as 10) came from harsh life situations themselves – the real life story of the main child actor, Fernando Ramos da Silva, is nearly as heartbreaking as the movie itself. He was shot dead by police at the age of 19. 

Bacurau (Juliano Dornelles & Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2019)

A very different movie on the list is Bacurau. It is not placed on Abraccine  as it was made after the 2016 list. I find it through a recommendation by a Brazilian friend who says: “prepare yourself for a wild ride”. And wild it is. It stars the great Sônia Braga, who should of course be more famous for her excellent acting work rather than her romances with people such as Robert Redford and Caetano Veloso. It is difficult to place what genre the movie represents because it mixes western, sci fi, horror, thriller, etc – and is very violent. It is a wild ride, not particularly enjoyable, but certainly an interesting watch. Supposedly, the movie carries an anti-colonialist message that is at times buried under the graphic and prolonged violence, and  it won the Jury Prize of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It is not a film that I would re-watch; at times I struggled with the excessive, detailed violence that becomes the centrepiece of the movie. 

The Edge of Democracy (Petra Costa, 2019)

As mentioned before, the documentary by Petra Costa (a very interesting contemporary filmmaker – her movie Elena, about her dead sister, is also a superb documentary), The Edge of Democracy, is a surprisingly intimate portrait of Presidents Lula, Dilma Rousseff and Bolsonaro, and what led to the impeachment of Dilma. The director has had unprecedented access to the political elite, and uses the documentary as a vehicle to understand the state  Brazil has found itself in. A Netflix production, the film is an excellent tool to understand what has happened in Brazil in recent years.

Bus 174 (Felipe Lacerda &
José Padilha, 2002)

Bus 174. (67^th on the Abraccine list). The final movie for the Brazilian entry is a documentary that hits close to home – and for that reason I watch it with my partner Johannesburg Karealia. As Virtual Nomad is not about individual travels or experiences, I will not go into too much detail – only to say that this document is left last for a reason. This is the director of Elite Squad’s first film, following an attack on a Rio de Janeiro bus of route 174 (in 2000), and the subsequent hostage situation lasting hours. The documentary contains real footage of the situation and interviews with people that were on both sides of the events (people on the bus, police and media outside), but also dwells deeper into the story of the assailant, a street child with tragic past and his connection to the famous massacre of homeless children sleeping in front of a church in Candelária. 

Belo has a voice of velvet

The music from Brazil would deserve an entry of its own. Brazil is the paradise of bossa nova, samba, capoeira, axe, choro, etc.. It is the home of musical giants such as Caetano Veloso, João Gilberto, Vinicius de Morais, Gilberto Gil, Xeca Baleiro, Marisa Monte, Daniela Mercury, etc. It is the wonderland of rhythm and melody. I play my great favourites to the kids, Belo Velloso and Seu Jorge. Seu Jorge is a musician and actor (he played Knock-out Ned in City of God) and Belo Velloso is the niece of Caetano Veloso. Their music is harmonic and warm, and the kids love it. Toda sexta feira is my favourite Belo Velloso song, beautiful and light, happy and warm. 

The images of the forgotten 

We finish the long, long Brazilian stop with the images of S. Salgado. Sebastião Salgado studied and worked in economics before picking up the camera. His photography often portrays and represents the life of the underprivileged, homeless and the forgotten. He has been called the superstar of modern photojournalism. .  Thousands of his photos can be found at: https://www.artnet.com/artists/sebasti%C3%A3o-salgado/ 

Next stop: Brunei Darussalam

Thank you L for all your work with proofreading

Back to Mama Africa, and this time we stop in Botswana in Southern Africa. It is a great and immensely interesting stop. Not only do we get to make and eat wonderful food with wonderful people, there is also so much to learn about Botswana. The stop includes finding out about the love story that changed the course of history which is lesser known than Edward and Wallis, however similarly changed the course of history, even if in a smaller scale. We learn about the Okavango River and delta. I read skilfully written books about alienation, racism and the AIDS epidemic by Bessie Head and Unity Dow. We also learn that Botswana has the 4^th highest prevalence of HIV in the world (down from first place in 2000), a booming economy, is home to Kalahari Desert (70% of Botswana) and has the fourth largest gross national income capital in Africa.

Seswaa, pap and good drinks

The participating Virtual Nomads are presented with city and/or place pseudonyms. The cities selected are random and have nothing to do with the origins of the people themselves.

The Botswanan night gathers eleven seasoned Virtual Nomads and two delightful newbies who travel across the city for their Virtual Nomad inauguration. Our friends Cartagena Orinoco and Marrakesh Jacksonville bring Botswanan flat bread. They have been preparing for the night by first watching a video about how Botswanan women prepare the bread and then learning some words in Setswana. (Botswana has three official languages: English, Setswana and Kalanga.) This is an impressive way to enter the Virtual Nomad community and we welcome them wholeheartedly. It is a wonderful night, as always, and we eat great food, drink some wine (we tried to get beer from Botswana but failed) and listen to upbeat, energetic Botswanan music. 

Acapulco Kilimanjaro has prepared the main dish which is Seswaa, the national dish of Botswana. It is served with Pap which is a bit like funge (see Angolan entry and my absolutely disastrous funge). Pap feels a bit like something in between porridge and very soft rice. Seswaa, I heard, is delicious and meaty J. Seswaa is made of beef (our case) or goat meat. The dish is called Seswaa in the north of Botswana and actually Ioswao in the south. It is a dish that is served in celebratory events (weddings, funerals, etc.) and basically is comprised of meat, water and salt. The dish is not supposed to be prepared with anything else and adding for example vegetables would be considered an infringement. We prepare pap to accompany the meat, and Acapulco Kilimanjaro and I manage to make it miles better than my intention with the Angolan funge.

My partner Johannesburg Karelia has prepared Botswanan chicken pies. He prepares the pastry himself, and the filling is made up of chicken, onion, chicken and spices. This is the most popular dish of the night and even A (10) manages to eat two, and would have eaten more if we let him. The pies are eaten warm, and are quite filling with all the pastry and rich ingredients.

I bring Morogo: a colourful vegetarian dish. Also known as moroho, it is a dish made with at least three different green leafy vegetables. Morogo is also the name of an African spinach, but unfortunately we do not have access to it now, so I use normal spinach instead. Morogo is a common vegetable consumed in rural communities in Botswana, and also in other Southern African countries. The dish itself consists of morogo/spinach and tomatoes steamed together with onion and oil.

I also bring Botswanan lephutsi with cinnamon that then morphs into “pumpkin stuff” as the form of our lephutsi does not really maintain the form it is supposed to have. Unlike ours, typically lephustsi would be squared pumpkin pieces quickly boiled together with cinnamon, then slightly fried with sugar. I over-boil them, so the pumpkins do not maintain their form, rather becoming a pumpkin ‘mush’. Nevertheless, the lephutsi is delicious and goes very well with the rest of the Botswana dinner.

As the icing on the Botswanan-menu cake, Fez Karelia (14) prepares Botswanan donuts that are warm, squishy and soft. Amsterdam (10) and Lisboa (17) demand more donuts than there is batter for, and so the donuts are a total success.

Seretse and Ruth – the love story of the century

Botswana translates to ‘home of the Tswana people’ (in Setswana). It was home to different Bantu hunter-gatherer tribes that carried out commerce throughout the region. The current Botswana population is estimated to be made up of 79% Tswana and 11% Kalanga people, both groups belonging to the Bantu linguistic family. The Livingstone guy (David Livingstone, the first European to cross the continent from West to East) arrived in the 1810s and convinced Chief Sechele I to convert his people into Christian faith. Known as Bechuanaland, Botswana became a protectorate of the United Kingdom – meaning namely independent and governed by a Chief, however having external affairs controlled by the United Kingdom. The Brits were very interested in the shiny rocks and other natural richnesses found there, but the Chiefs resisted, and Botswana never officially became a colony of the UK.

One of the most fascinating parts of the recent history of Botswana is the story of Chief Seretse Khama and his wife Ruth. Seretse was studying in England while his uncle was holding the vessel in Botswana for his nephew to come and claim the throne. He fell in love with a white English rose Ruth and they were married in 1948. The marriage was not favoured by anyone– not the Apartheid-policed South Africa (from where many administrative issues of Botswana were managed, and the relationship with South Africa was, of course, controlled by Britain), nor the mighty English who wanted to keep South Africa happy, and collect diamonds in Botswana, nor Ruth’s British family, nor Seretse’s uncle nor (initially) the people of Botswana who were not happy with a white queen. The lovers, happily married, returned to Botswana but Seretse was then forced to exile in England. He was first ‘sentenced’ to exile for five years but later for life by Winston Churchill, who had promised him freedom. Seretse renounced the crown, returned to Botswana with Ruth and founded the Botswana Democratic Party. When Botswana became independent in 1966, Seretse became the country’s first democratically elected president. His economic and social policy lifted Botswana from one of the poorest countries in the world to the country with the strongest economic growth in the world during 1970-80. He accomplished many social advancement milestones including founding Botswana’s first university. While still President, in 1980, Seretse died, and later his and Ruth’s son became Botswana’s fourth president. The current President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi (since 2018) represents the same political party as all the previous presidents (BDP).

The life of an immigrant and the unwanted – and the impact of the AIDS epidemic

Even if considered one of Botswana’s most prolific authors, Bessie Head was born in South Africa. Born to a white mother and black father, her mother was locked in an asylum around Bessie’s birth and was considered schizophrenic as she had been in a relationship with a black man (which was forbidden in South Africa according to the delightfully named Immorality Act). Bessie’s mother’s family rejected a ‘coloured’ child as interracial relationships were illegal, and her mother, also named Bessie, had to give up her child, only being able to leave her child her own name. Bessie, the child, was then given to white foster parents who thought she was white, but then returned the child when they realised she was not. A poor ‘coloured’ family took her in and raised her as their own. It was not until her foster father died, and she was sent to a catholic boarding school, that she heard about her origins, and her white mother. Bessie was not allowed to return to the woman she had thought was her mother and instead experienced unbelievably harsh racism and prejudice from both white and black people. While struggling with her mental health throughout her whole life, she was still able to build a career in journalism, and become considered to be one of the pioneers in black female journalism. Growing tensions (and leaving a brief marriage) forced her and her son leave South Africa for Botswana. Life in Botswana was never easy: deep in poverty, Bessie and her son were not granted nationality until fifteen years after they had arrived and Bessie had become internationally recognised for her writing. She died at the age of 48.

Bessie’s most notable works are When Rain Clouds Gather and Maru. I find an edition that includes both of these books. Both have been said to reflect Bessie’s life – When the Rain Clouds Gather is about the life of a refugee from South Africa, and Maru is about prejudice and racism.

When Rain Clouds Gather (Bessie Head, 1969)

It is delicious, superb, clever and brilliantly political writing. Reading When Rain Clouds Gather, I am sad that it did not achieve more recognition during her lifetime, and the story is still not more well-known. It is satirical, very bright and spot on in its political analysis and description of human nature. It dwells on the life of an immigrant, Makhaya, a stateless person and the political game around his status. Makhaya is a refugee from South Africa in Botswana who finds ‘refuge’ in a white European agricultural expert named Gilbert who wants to bring agricultural development, progress and prosperity to the village of Golema Mmidi but faces resistance from the more traditional forces. Makhaya has lost faith in human nature and while not completely reversed in these feelings, gradually finds new meaning in the life in the village. The story navigates political corruption, wealth disparity, forward thinking and fiercely independent, strong women. Bessie is a very skilful observer of the human condition.

Maru (Bessie Head, 1971)

I am less fond of the second book, Maru. It is again masterfully written and contains a moving description of racism, sexism and alienation, but there is something deeply disturbing about the central love story. The main character – so clearly autobiographical that it is not even camouflaged – seems to lose her voice when her manipulative love interest takes interest in her. I struggle to understand where the love comes from, and it disappointed me that this book follows that unfortunate literary (and cinematographic) tradition in which a manipulative, indifferent, coercive love interest (usually a male, not always) is somehow the epitome of great love. And he, of course, must be some kind of king/prince/billionaire – in this book he is a future chief/king. This narrative choice is unfortunate as it takes the sharpness out of her writing and diminishes the value of the storytelling.

Bessie Head has more books which I am tempted to read, especially her book about Seretse and Ruth (Serowe: Village of the Rain-Wind) but I need to move on, on the yellow brick road, and choose my third and final Botswana book. Quite clearly it has to be by Unity Dow.

Far and Beyon’ (Unity Dow, 2002)

Unity Dow is a Botswanan human rights lawyer and former judge of the Botswanan High Court, a member of parliament, and an author. She comes from a rural village with no electricity, paved roads or running water. Her parents believed in education and young Unity not only excelled in her studies but after studying in universities in Botswana, Eswatini and Scotland, Unity formed a successful career. She became internationally famous for her landmark legal case of changing the nationality law in Botswana (so that children could also have their mother’s nationality and not just father’s). She has worked in human rights projects within Botswana, but also internationally in several African countries. Her books focus on social issues including AIDS, domestic violence, child abuse and inequality.

I decide to read her first novel, Far and Beyon’, written in 2000, that focuses on the rampant AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa. It describes the different cultural and spiritual approaches to the epidemic. In 2000, globally, Botswana had the highest prevalence of HIV infected people (25% of the population aged 15-49), while in 2022, Botswana listed forth (16.8%). In 2022, the twenty countries with the highest prevalence of HIV infections were all in Africa, and even if the infection rates have decreased in most of the countries (not all), Botswana and neighbouring countries still need to constantly tackle the problem.

Far and Beyon’ is a highly effective and interesting book. The main theme is the impact that the HIV epidemic and family violence have in rural Botswana. It also deals with generational differences, as in the story, an illiterate mother Mara turns to mystics and magic to fight the enemy she thinks has killed her husband and her two sons. The remaining children – daughter Mosa and son Stan – understand that the problem is much bigger than just an evil spirit. The culturally narrow place for women, and the pressures of cultural practices and customs are explored not only through Mara, but above all in the story of Mosa who tries to find a way to balance embracing culture and tradition, while rejecting the repressive and abusive forms within her culture. Present in the narrative is also a strong thematic concern surrounding the abuse of power between those who have it and those who do not; as an example, Unity illustrates how ‘christianised’ western education, considered superior, is preached by teachers who then sexually abuse their female students, leading to an increase in the spread of AIDS.  

I would also like to read Unity’s book Saturday is for Funerals which is another book about AIDS but I cannot get a hold of it. The book describes the response of Botswana to the AIDS epidemic that was predicted to kill 85% of those that were 15 year olds in 2000. This book describes the actions taken by Botswana to prevent this.

FILM: More Seretse and Ruth, and then that Coke bottle

Into the Okavango (Neil Gelinas, 2018)

A (10) and I watch the documentary Into the Okavango that follows a 4-month expedition from Angola to Botswana along the river Okavango, to study the ecology and the effects of climate change. Labelled as a National Geographic documentary, it follows a group of modern day explorers led by an American conservation biologist (Steve Boyes), a native Okavango bushman (Tumeletso Setlabosha) and an Angolan scientist (Adjany Costa) as they travel 1,500 miles through the river and the Okavango Delta. The objective was to explore ways to conserve the Okavango delta, a World Heritage site that is home to the largest remaining population of African elephants, amongst other wildlife. The area is mainly undiscovered and the team go through different obstacles, from having to drag their boats for days across hard terrain and facing local (controlled) fires. But they manage to fulfil their mission, collect data from around 50,000 locations, contributing to biodiversity conservation. A great watch with kids.

The Gods must be crazy (Jamie Uys, 1980)

A comedy from the 1980s, the Gods must be crazy, is a coproduction between South Africa and Botswana, and it is famous for the falling object (a Coca Cola bottle) that the tribe living in a remote bushland first worships and then wants to get rid of. It is an amusing but partly uncomfortable movie. The white people are portrayed as prisoners and slaves of modern times which is at times very funny, but there is an underlining patronizing tone to the movie (something familiar to Zona Sur that was part of the Bolivia stop). It is still a story of white saviours with cute ‘little buggers’ bushpeople that are portrayed as childlike in their way of life in the bush. A (10) who watched the movie with me laughed out loud with the physical comedy parts (people falling in rivers and knocking over things when nervous) but even he was slightly confused with how the non-white characters were portrayed. “Has not aged well” was his conclusion.

A United Kingdom (Amma Asante, 2016)

A United Kingdom (tells the story of Seretse and Ruth, played by David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike. The movie stays quite faithful to the real story and is beautifully shot. There is some fine acting involved but the chemistry between the two leads does not convince enough for the movie to give justice to a couple who changed the course of history. In order for the movie to be really moving and effective, it would have required more charismatic leads, as the strong bond and all-encompassing love against all odds does not transmit from the film. This is such a shame, as it is such an important, unknown and remarkable story. Shot in both Botswana and England, the landscape is gorgeous and the lighting and scenography are outstanding. It stays quite loyal to the original story and received generally favourable reviews. While all this is probably justified, I just cannot get over the lacklustre chemistry between the leads.

Louisa’s music

There is a lot of interesting music made in Botswana – upbeat rhythmical music and interesting hip hop. We take a special liking of Louisa April. She is not a professional singer but a communications specialist who specialises in Integrative Strategy Development. She has a silky, dreamy voice that is perfect for a winter night. Another interesting artist is a neo-soul singer Mpho Sebina, who creates music with an island-beat sound.

Next stop Brazil

At this point of the Virtual Nomad journey, Amsterdam (10) already knows all the countries in the world and the capitals of most, if not all, of them. Therefore it is not a surprise that he can accurately place Bosnia and Herzegovina on the map. For the older children, Fez Karelia (14), Lisboa (17) and Lisboa’s boyfriend Nicosia (17), the name of the country rings a bell and they know that it has something to do with a conflict. For those of us who lived in Europe in the early 90s, the Bosnian War was a conflict that felt very close. 

For information, the participating Virtual Nomads are presented with city and/or place pseudonyms. The cities selected are random and have nothing to do with the origins of the people themselves.

But first, as always, food.

Delicious burek and Bosanski Lonac 

The Bosnia and Herzegovina food stop is a lunch that gathers 12 Virtual Nomads. There are a few Balkan restaurants in Sydney but we want to enjoy the takeaway burek from the Burek Guy in Dee Why and we have a couple of great recipes. So cooking it is!

My partner Johannesburg Karelia collects a beef and a cheese and spinach burek from the Burek Guy in Dee Why. In our previous stop in Albania, some of us tried burek from the Balkan Cafe, which was very good, but for most of the Virtual Nomads this is their first burek. It’s very crispy, very yummy and quite heavy, being made of thin flaky pastry with different fillings. Burek is commonly served in Albania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia. It is well received ‒ oily but delicious and very filling.

For the meat eaters, we have bosanski lonac (stew) – a popular dish of Bosnian traditional cuisine, also referred to as the Bosnian national dish. Traditionally it was made in a ceramic pot in a pit in the ground, but Acapulco Kilimanjaro prepares it with a slow cooker. The dish includes different types of meat and many different vegetables. The ‘lonac’ part of the name refers to the type of ceramic pot used to cook it in. Apparently men in the mines would gather ingredients on their way to work and then put all of them in a clay pot (meat, vegetables, herbs) to cook while they worked. Once the demanding and dangerous work was finished, they had a delicious, slow-cooked dinner waiting for them. 

We accompany the stew and burek with stuffed vegetables and a Bosnian salad. The vegetables – capsicum (pepper or paprika), zucchini and onion – are filled with rice, Bosnian sauce and a meat substitute (that turns out to be very yummy). It is a very easy dish for me to prepare. It takes some time for the vegetables to soften in the oven before the filling is added. After that it is a quick process back to the oven and then to the plates of Virtual Nomads. The lunch is sealed with a delicious raspberry liqueur.

Conflict and more conflict

The early history of Bosnia and Herzegovina shows that the tensions between different communities have existed for centuries. Bosnia and Herzegovina were once part of the Roman Empire (Dalmatia) but the roots of modern Bosnian are from the 6^th and 7^th  century when the Slavic tribes arrived and tensions arose between different communities. The two main tribes were the Croats and the Serbs, and they spent a lot of time fighting. The Ottomans came in 1383 and slowly the area converted into Islam. Ottomans were in the region for a few centuries and once their power diminished, the Croats and the Serbs were fighting for power again. Austria annexed Bosnia to its empire and the eruption of the First World War was sparked in June 2014 when an angry Serbian extremist shot the heir to the Austrian empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo.  

Yugoslavia was a country that existed between 1918 and 1992 and was constituted of the six (socialist) republics of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. The coexistence was not always easy. For example, during the Second World War the different ethnicities recommenced killing each other. After the war, Yugoslavia was united under the rule of Josep Tito, who ruled the People’s Republic of Yugoslavia until his death in 1980. Then the artificial unity started to crumble again. 

Bosnia and Herzegovina were part of the former Yugoslavia and once it disintegrated, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared national sovereignty on 15 October 1991. A referendum was held on 29 February 1992 favouring independence and the country was formally recognised by the European Community and the United Nations. Bosnian Serbs had boycotted the vote as they felt a closer relationship with the Serbian part of ex-Yugoslavia. After the referendum, Serbian forces surrounded Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This was followed by a four-year-long siege (1992-1995) that resulted in over 10,000 deaths, many of them children. The siege of Sarajevo not only resulted in devastating loss of human life but also the destruction of most of the cultural and religious buildings in the city.  

The Bosnian War (1992-1996) claimed more than 100,000 lives and 20,000 – 50,000 women were raped as part of the strategy of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Millions of people left the region as refugees and horrific events took place, the most famous being the massacre of Srebrenica that saw over 8,000 Muslim men and boys murdered. The war ended on 1 November 1995 with the signing of the Dayton Agreement. 

Three books on war and terror

Many of the translated contemporary books from Bosnia and Herzegovina are about the war and, as one translator explains, unfortunately conflict and atrocities seem to be a phenomenon that raises interest in an otherwise relatively unknown region. The international literature from Bosnia and Herzegovina had been carried by a few authors, including Ivo Andric. His book The Bridge on the Drina has been described as an iconic book from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and delivered him a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1961. Despite being born in Bosnia and having Croatian heritage, Ivo self-identified as a Serb and therefore this book will need to wait until the Virtual Nomad stops in Serbia, which will be in the distant future (because Virtual Nomads like to take their time to enjoy every stop).

Therefore, I turn to literature from authors that identify themselves as being from the region. 

Zlata’s Diary (Zlata Filipović, 1993)

“Mimmy, I am afraid of WAR” 

My first book is Zlata’s Diary by Zlata Filipović. Known as the ‘Anne Frank of Bosnia’, it is a diary of an ordinary teenager of an educated, affluent family going through the siege in Sarajevo. What starts as a normal, and quite boring, description of friendship issues and pop stars gradually escalates to the horrors of war ‒ friends dying, ever present hunger and cold, a mother who is losing her mind. It is not a particularly fine piece of writing, but the context itself pushes through like a freight train and makes it a harrowing read. It also shows the solidarity people feel in horrendous conditions – neighbours sharing the contents of the parcels they get from abroad, teachers teaching students even if they need to reach the students by running to their homes under sniper fire, birthday celebrations and people going to great lengths to find bird food for Zlata’s pet. And there is some dark humour as well, including the name Zlata’s family and friends give to ‘their own’ sniper. But above all, it is a description of the atrocities of war through the eyes of a child. 

“Some people compare me with Anne Frank. That frightens me, Mimmy. I don’t want to suffer her fate.”

Goodbye Sarajevo (Atka Reid, 2011)

I then move to another book about Sarajevo, Goodbye Sarajevo, which is based on another true story of the Sarajevo siege. It is the story of two sisters. One travels to Croatia as a refugee and the other stays in Sarajevo to take care of younger siblings (of a family of 10 siblings). Written by sisters (as fictionalised versions of themselves), the story jumps from one sister to another. One (Hana) describes the sense of emptiness that permeates the refugee’s life ‒ uncertainty and the awkwardness of depending on others’ mercy for survival. The other (Atka) tells of the horrors of war and the siege ‒ death, hunger and destruction. The writing, again, is not highly skilled with much time spent on details and unnecessary descriptions, but there is a lot of heart in the story. Reading it is to understand what living in the inhumane conditions of war can feel like, but also what refugees go through when they leave their homes, penniless, rootless and hopeless. It is a human story that grows on the reader. It is based on the diaries that both sisters kept during their time apart. Hana describes her life as a refugee with two of her sisters, mainly in Zagreb, and their struggle to have enough money to buy food and for Hana to go to school. Atka works as a translator in Sarajevo, first for a local radio station and then for international journalists. Her days are filled with horror, loss, and destruction but also hope. Both sisters, and their family, meet people of generosity and good will. In the end, it is an incredible, touching human story of survival, love and unity. 

Sarajevo Blues (Semezdin Mehmedinović, 1992)

The third book takes me, again, to Sarajevo. The book of poetry, Sarajevo Blues, by Semezdin Mehmedinović has been described as the best book about the Sarajevo siege.  Before the war Mehmedinović was part of the cultural and alternative rock scene in Sarajevo. He was an editor of an anti-communist publication and when the war started, stayed in Sarajevo where he remained until the end of the siege. The book is a deep exposition of the existence in Sarajevo through poems and micro stories. It is skilfully translated by translator Ammiel Alcalay, who offers an extremely insightful introduction. The book itself is harrowing ‒ nearly ethereal in its poetry and nuanced writing. It is superbly written and also nauseating in its description of the war. Semezdin’s narrative is delivered with knife-sharp text. He is cogent and detailed in his political analysis and his poetic symphony of the end of the world in Sarajevo. It is forensic and brilliant, but very different from the previous book I read that brought forth hope and love in the middle of a living hell. This book offers very little light but is an impressive read.

Movies from Bosnia and Herzegovina 

There are outstanding movies made about the Bosnian War. No Man’s Land is a movie that I saw many years ago and it still holds its place on my top movies list. Then, for the Virtual Nomad, JK and I watched Quo Vadis, Aida and boy, does this movie leave you breathless. It is a devastating masterpiece. Almost still and without explicit violence, it is still brutal.  

Quo Vadis, Aida (Jasmila Žbanić, 2020)

Quo Vadis, Aida, written and directed by Jasmila Žbanić has been called a movie “so harrowing that you forget to breathe”. It is a movie based on true events ‒ the Srebrenica massacre, through the eyes of one family. After three and a half years of war, the Bosnians from Srebrenica were placed under insufficient UN protection in a ‘safe zone’. The Dutch division of the UN Peacekeepers, the Dutchbat, negotiated with the Serbs that the Bosnians would be transferred into a “safe place”, resulting in a massacre of nearly 8,000 boys and men under the UN watch. The main character works as a translator for the UN and comes to the terrible understanding that something horrendous is going to happen while the world is watching. She desperately runs against the clock trying to protect her husband and two boys. There is very little actual violence in the movie but the suspense is real, and it crawls under the skin. It is a masterful movie and absolutely so harrowing that you do indeed forget to breathe. It’s difficult to watch and difficult to look away. The lead actress, Jasna Đuričić, delivers a performance for the ages ‒ one of the best ever in an absolutely agonizing, heart-wrenching and heartbreaking story. It is a story powerful beyond words, incredibly impactful and truly deserving of its 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. After the movie, we just sat quietly for a long time.  

I try to find another highly regarded movie from Jasmila Žbanić, Men don’t cry (2017), about a group of middle-aged men from the three ethnic groups that used to fight each other. The men attend a therapy retreat in the mountains. But sadly I am unable to locate it and am forced to place it on the watch list. 

Grbavica (Jasmila Žbanić, 2006)

(Instead, I watch Grbavica, which was the first of Jasmila’s movies that brought her international attention. The movie won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2006. The movie carries the name of one of the most devastated neighbourhoods in Sarajevo where systematic rape was used as a weapon of war.  During the war, an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 women and girls were raped. The vast majority of the rapes were done by Serbs but other men raped ‘enemy’ women as well. The movie looks into the systematic rape as a generational trauma. Esma’s teenage daughter does not know anything about her father except the claim that he was a war hero. There are no official documents of him and Sara confronts her mother about her origins. Slowly the painful trough is revealed as Esma reveals her daughter’s origins. Again, not an easy watch. It is testimony to fact that trauma never leaves us, but where there is hope there is also space for some healing. 

No Man’s Land (Tanis Tanovic, 2001)

Another movie about the Bosnian war that I have seen before but the age-appropriate others have not, is No Man’s Land. It is really hard to find but I finally manage to buy it from a fellow cinephile in Melbourne for $9,99. I make JK and the age-appropriate teens (L, 17 and NA, nearly 18) watch it. It is as good as I remember it to be. Two soldiers, a Bosniac and a Chetnic (Serb) are stranded in No Man’s Land, between the lines. Hostile and suspicious of the other, they find some common ground, even if they still have reservations. It is another movie that highlights the uselessness of the United Nations in a conflict. It has a brilliant, albeit shocking, end. It won several very deserved awards but more than that, it is a poignant, brilliant, satirical and genius, With Quo Vadis, Aida it belongs to the list of movies everyone should see.

The Whistleblower (Larysa Kondracki, 2010)

The Whistleblower is not a Bosnian movie but takes place in Bosnia. It is based on the true story of an American police officer, Kathryn Bolkovac, who is investigating human rights abuses in Sarajevo after the war. What she found was a sex trafficking ring that was being covered up by the UN – well, not just covered up but maintained and supported by some UN officials and employees of the international security company she worked for. She found a network of corruption and slavery, and the UN again failing to protect those it is supposed to protect. 

Kathryn was subsequently fired after taking the case to her superiors. She then gave the story to the press and it led to international exposure, but also lamentable downplaying by the UN of the issues raised. No criminal charges were laid and the same security firm still works with the US government on peacekeeping missions around the world. 

It is a shocking story, based on real events with a small amount of artistic licence. The film itself received mixed reviews and was criticised for the violence it portrays. However, when compared to many other action movies, the violence is shocking because it is ‘real’. One should not turn away from the movie because of it. 

The story is devastating, and still true to this day in many parts of the world. When Kathryn asks who are the clients of the Bosnian mafia that exploit the trafficked girls from Eastern Europe, a Bosnian police officer says to her: “Half of our men are dead, who do you think are their clients?”.  “They are just war whores” says a top UN official to Madeleine Reese, referring to the ‘collateral damage’ women suffer in a war. “They are not prostitutes, they are slaves” says an elderly Bosnian woman who runs a shelter for the girls.  

And in the aftermath, the UN worked hard to downplay the events and brush them under the carpet. No real justice was ever achieved. 

Welcome to Sarajevo (Michael Winterbottom, 1997)

Another movie about the Bosnian war ‒ particularly the Siege of Sarajevo ‒ is a UK-US movie, Welcome to Sarajevo (1997). It is based on the real-life character of Michael Nicholson, a ‘conflict-junkie’ journalist who covered 18 conflicts in his forty year career. In the movie Nicholson is smuggling an orphaned child out of Bosnia for a better future. It has an international cast and therefore, of course, the view point is more of witnessing the war than living it. It portrays skilfully the challenges and risks journalists go through while reporting from conflict zones, and the heartbreaking position of not being to help when help is needed. 

Circus Colombia (Danis Tanović, 2010)

It is also good to include a movie from Herzegovina, so I watch Circus Colombia by Danis Tanović ‒ the director of No Man’s Land. The story takes place in the early 90s when the war is a few days away. The characters in the film hear things about a looming conflict. On the radio there is news of fighting in other parts of ex-Yugoslavia, but the people do not quite believe it yet. “We have always lived together” someone says, and brushes off the rumours until the cracks in the mirror of reality start to grow bigger. In the story a man who has lived abroad comes back to his home town with his new young girlfriend. The past haunts him while people around him are slowly being introduced to the new reality of post-Yugoslavia.

Even if quite melodramatic, the movie is interesting in that it shows how the country was still struggling with coming into the terms with its past while bracing for an imminent future in which neighbours and childhood friends turn against each other. The viewer knows more about what is coming than the people in the film do. 

The actress who plays the (old) wife in the movie also featured in an American series, Lost, and her actual life story is like a movie itself. Croatian but married to a Serb, Mira Furlan was part of the Croatian National Theatre and was blacklisted as she chose to continue to act in Belgrade, Serbia. Mira and her husband left right before the war and lived in the US where she died in 2021 of West Nile Fever that she got from an infected mosquito.  

Romeo and Juliet

One of the stories I remember well from the Bosnian War is the story of the Sarajevo Romeo and Juliet. Sweethearts since high school, Bosnian Muslim Admira Ismić and Christian Serb Boško Brkić, both in their mid-20s, decided to flee Sarajevo during the siege in order to build a life together. After several days of trying, all parties assured them they would be safe when they departed the city. But when they approached the bridge to cross the river Miljacka, a sniper from one of the sides (it has never been determined who) shot them both. Boško died immediately but Admira lived for another fifteen minutes after being shot, crawled next to her slain partner and embraced him while dying. Their bodies laid together eight days before they were collected at night and later buried together.   

(Photo Balkan Insight )

Next stop: Botswana

Bolivia – the altitude. Anyone who does not cope well with altitude sickness knows how tricky it can be to land in La Paz. Bolivia has two capitals: Sucre (constitutional capital) and La Paz (administrative capital). It’s officially called the Plurinational State of Bolivia. La Paz is the highest capital in the world (3,640 m) but its airport is even higher, situated in the city of El Alto (literally meaning ‘the Heights’) at 4,062m. Bolivia is a landlocked country with mainly mestizo population (nearly 70%), 37 official languages and many stories about Pacha Mama.

But first, as always. Food. 

Capinota and pies

There is a small Bolivian family business Capinota in the suburb of Lurnea, in Western Sydney. Capinota is so popular that clients are advised to order two weeks prior, which I have done and my order is waiting for me when my partner Johannesburg Karelia (his Virtual Nomad pseudonym and no, he has never been to South Africa) and I drive to pick up the food for our Bolivian night. We are served by the owner, José, who is delightful and friendly. He tells us that Capinota used to be a restaurant but closed its doors in 2019 as the take away business really took off and, with the number of clients, there was no need to maintain the restaurant itself. We have a lovely conversation about Virtual Nomad, Bolivian food and Bolivian culture with José and a Bolivian client who came to collect his order. José tells us that, for food, Cochabamba is the place to go in Bolivia. He explains what the different foods are and how to eat them. We are very happy to support a small local business and also happy to hear how successful it has become. For the quality of food and the service, Capitanota gets a 10/10 rating from us. 

The planned Bolivian night takes an unexpected turn when two of our friends, newbies to the Virtual Nomad universe, sadly cancel at the last minute. This leaves a smaller group of us but we are still seven to enjoy the Bolivian delicatessen. 

The Capinota food selection includes traditional pies. Our selection included salteñas, quichadimis, empanadas, puka capas, cheese balls and traditional drinks: api and mocochinchi. 

Capinota describes salteñas as “one of the most popular national appetizers dishes in Bolivia specially on Sundays. Salteñas it is a sweet pastry, and it is filled with a sweet and spicy broth made with aji amarillo (yellow pepper) and the filling has chicken, beef, potatoes, veggies, a slice of hard boiled egg and olive, it makes you feel heating a bowl of soup inside a pie”. 

As for salteñas, we get both spicy and non spicy. All are very well received. Quichamidis are everyone’s favourite. They are filled with homemade cheese that José and his family prepare and it has a unique, rich flavour that melts in the mouth. It is, of course, unfair to say that quichamidis are the favourite because the rest of the pies are also immensely delicious. Empanadas are filled with cheese and very rich and filling. Puka capas are traditional pies from Cochabamba that Capinota describes as “spicy, cheese, onions, Quilquiña and locoto-filled round empanadas often served as party appetizers”. The least favourite award goes to the cheese balls – they are yummy enough but do not match the richness and exotic flavours of the rest of the food. 

Before the Inca Empire ruled the lands of the highlands of Bolivia and surrounds, the human sacrificing Tiwanaku lived on the altiplano of Bolivia. Pachacuti was the Inca leader who conquered Bolivia and forced Quechua to be the administrative language over Aymara (both spoken in Bolivia today). Then of course, the conquistadors arrived and the region felt the savaged rule of Francisco Pizarro – one the most savage among the extremely savage conquistadors. The conditions the First Nations people were subjected to were horrible and inhuman. History remembers great leaders of Indigenous rebellions such as Tumac Amaru who was captured and executed by the Spanish at the age of 27. When Spanish rule started to crack (as the Spaniard had other fronts open), Bolivian cities were among the first to fight against them. Bolivia derives its name from Simón Bolivar (1783-1830). Bolivia became independent in 1825. Poor leadership gradually led to conflict with its neighbours and to losing about half of its land. Ceding territory in the west to Chile in 1904 led to Bolivia being cut off from the sea – a loss that is still felt today. 

The 20^th century political history of Bolivia is interesting and would deserve an extensive entry of its own. In a nutshell, Bolivia experienced an unstable political climate going back and forth between military and civilian governments. One famous incident was the death of the revolutionary leader, Che Quevara, at the hands of the CIA and the Bolivian armed forces. The CIA backed the 1971 military coup of Hugo Banzer that led to a violent dictatorship until 1978. That was not the last of Mr Hugo as he returned in 1997 as the democratically elected President of Bolivia. Several changes of government in the latter part of the 20^th century fuelled instability. In 2006, Evo Morales was elected as the first Indigenous president and he held the presidency until 2019. During Morales’ first term, Bolivia famously broke free from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, eradicated illiteracy and introduced the notion of plurinationalism that includes the requirement of civil servants to speak at least one Indigenous language. Bolivia also has a Ministry of Cultures as opposed to one dominant culture. Morales has been described as both an inspirational leader with a strong social agenda as well as a controversial character with a questionable taste for underage women. The current president is Luis Arce who was one of the longest serving ministers of the Morales government. 

Four BOOKS from Bolivia

As for the books from Bolivia, I turn to a Bolivian friend NC who recommends three authors. I decide to read one book from each, and then I cheat and read another book from one of them. Again these books might not have a translation, so I proceed to read them in the original language. 

Descuentros (Edmundo Paz Soldán, 1994)

Edmundo Paz Soldán is one of the most well known current Bolivian authors. He is professor of Latin American literature at Cornell and is described as having unusual narrative intelligence. That description prompts me to read two books from him. The first one, Desencuentros (1994) is a compilation of Edmundo’s first two books (Las máscaras de la nada, 1990 and Desapariciones, 1994). It is a collection of short stories, or one could say, very short stories – better call them micro-stories. More than stories, they are thoughts or moments in time. Most of them are very astute and ingenious. Some, of course, less so, mainly due simply to the amount of material. It is a fascinating and easily consumed narrative journey, full of funny, hilarious, bizarre and sharp moments, and intriguing characters. A librarian who loves the books so much that they invent excuses not to lend them (“the mayor needs this one”); the man who has found the perfect woman with whom to have a perfect love and therefore he leaves her; the man who returns home to find a costume party where he knows no one, joins the party and never learns who the people are; the man who enjoys his wife’s silence so much he fails to notice that she left him four years ago; the man who needs to work several jobs to maintain his family so he has not been able to talk to them in seven years – it’s a long parade of different characters. In the end it is highly entertaining, cleverly constructed fast literature / narrative that does not leave a lasting impression but entertains with sharp imagery and time-saving storytelling for the TikTok-times. 

Norte (Edmundo Paz Soldán, 2006)

The next book from Edmundo is called Norte. This one has a traditional narrative. While the previous book I read from Edmundo is light, entertaining and easily consumable, this book is much darker and shockingly violent. The way Edmundo writes is crude and sublime, and even though I do not fully enjoy the book itself, I am grateful to NC for introducing this writer to me. That’s one of the beauties of the Virtual Nomad journey: discovering authors I would not otherwise have known. This book is not situated in Bolivia but in the ‘North’ and interlinks the stories of three different people – two of them based in real-life: a serial killer, a schizophrenic artist and a young waitress (in fact, only one of them has Bolivian roots). The fact that Edmundo is a literature academic shows in the book. There are elements of modern literature snobbishness and not-so-subtle slaps to the academy. The writing is better than the story itself. It is skilfully written but shockingly violent, indulging in shocking details and then quite mundane and empty in other parts. One of the stories – the serial killer – is clearly the centerpiece of the story while the reason for the inclusion of the other stories is not quite clear. Disturbingly it is based on a real person (I will not disclose who) and the detailed description of extreme violence is disturbing to the point that it becomes nauseating and brings the story down. 

The book forms part of a Latin American literary movement – McOndo – with a focus on the effect of globalisation and modern reality (as counterpart to “Macondo”, the magical realism represented by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the literary icon from Colombia). Overall, I enjoy Edmundo’s style of writing but the book itself I did not appreciate so much.  

Periférica Boulevard (Adolfo Cárdenas, 2005)

I move from Edmundo to Adolfo Cárdenas. My friend NC has recommended I read his book Periférica Boulevard (Periferic Boulevard). Runner up for the National Literature Prize in 2005, this book is situated in the urban environment of fast-talking, drug-fuelled underground clubs and urban misfits. It is a book that reads like a movie. The dialogue is a mixture of Spanish and urban slang with Indigenous words and the story moves as a dialogue that is somewhat confusing regarding who is doing the talking at times. The story unfolds as a sort of detective story of the murder of an underground heavyweight (“the King”) and the hunt for his presumed killer (“the Wolf”). The book contains graffiti illustrations and the book is a bit like graffiti itself – bold and colourful, and quite frankly probably difficult if not impossible to translate into another language as the core of the book is the urban dialogue that is highly localised. Some of the idioms are foreign to me but overall it’s quite easy and engaging to follow the delicious explosion of urban jargon and the fast-paced symphony for the marginalised and the outcasts.  

Ruta Obligada (Gaby Vallejo, 2008)

My final book comes from the recently deceased Gaby Vallejo, who is considered one of the most influential Bolivian authors. Her most famous book is El Hijo de la Opa (translated as the Son of a Maid, 1977) but, despite many attempts, I cannot get hold of it. I decide to read another highly rated book of hers, Ruta Obligada from 2008. It becomes my favourite book of the Virtual Nomad stop in Bolivia. The central piece of the story, divided in three parts, is the relationship between two women – Marcela and Martha Julia – but other characters also are introduced: an abused orphan Tomasa who goes through unimaginable hell and the unlucky in love Fabrizio. It is a tale of desire and death in Cochabamba. La ruta (the route) refers to a specific route that, instead of a journey, becomes a destiny. It is also about other routes, the routes of life and desire, abuse and poverty, violence and hopelessness, misery and female suffering. The author herself says “confirmation of the humility of the body, an obligatory route / of the fragility of the flesh, an obligatory route / of the uselessness of the bones, an obligatory route / soon loneliness sets in”. 

Six films from Bolivia

Bolivia has a surprisingly active movie industry with several recommended films. In order to choose from the interesting selection on offer, we opt for the same methodology used for the stop in Belgium. We ask Bolivian friends for their favourite movies and then compare those recommendations with the critics’ choices of the movies to watch from Bolivia. It’s not that we value the critics’ choices more than those of friends – quite the contrary. Both usually have common entries. The top recommendations for Bolivia include movies such as Zona Sur (Southern District 2011); Nación Clandestina (Secret Nation, 1989); Jonás y la ballena rosa (Jonas and the pink whale, 1994); Cuestión de fe (Question of Faith, 1995); el Cementerio de los Elefantes (Cemetery of the elephants, 2008); Quién mató a la llamita blanca (Who killed the white llama, 2007); Los Andes no creen en dios (The Andes do not believe in god, 2007);  Dependencia sexual (Sexual dependency, 2003); Dark skull; Soren; Cocaleto; Winay; Viejo calavera; Visa American; and El minero del diablo. We can’t watch them all so decide to watch the first six.

Zona Sur (Juan Carlos Valdivia, 2011)

Zona Sur (Southern District, 2011) by Juan Carlos Valdivia is one of the most commercially successful Bolivian movies. It is a mature, intriguing story of a wealthy white family and their Indigenous servant staff on the verge of societal change. The name refers to the affluent southern part of the capital La Paz, the district of the rich and powerful. The family is headed by a matriarch who is seemingly friendly and inclusive of the Indigenous servants but has them following her around, including to the toilet, and handing her a glass of water when she is brushing her teeth. This, despite the fact she has not paid them in six months. Nevertheless, the Indigenous staff are treated as part of the family, always with a loving, condescending superiority that demonstrates the divide between race and class – the root of the profound inequality. The uninterested, entitled offspring of the matriarch include a sex-crazy teenage boy, a politically awakening lesbian daughter and a small boy who finds a more affectionate environment with the servants than his busy mother. The camera moves around, making long, 360 degree shots, which is interesting but at times nauseating. In the end the societal change portrayed is effective but subtle – not a world changing revolution but a description of the growing economic power of the discriminated, and how that change still comes to some more than to others. 

Jonás y la ballena rosada (Carlos Valdivia, 1994)

Another movie by Juan Carlos Valdivia is his debut Jonás y la ballena rosada (Jonah and the pink whale, 1994). Filmed in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, it is not a particularly good movie. Melodramatic and ridiculous at times with a modest intent of social commentary (workers’ rights, hyperinflation and the growing power of drug carters), it is plagued by bad acting and a hollow story of lust. The plot follows a sexually repressed school teacher with a frigid wife who falls for his wife’s sexually liberated, rebellious and obnoxious sister. When the school teacher loses his job due to his father-in-law’s political connections, he becomes a photographer and, not surprisingly, starts taking nude photos of his sister-in-law. The camera follows and fetishises the sister-in-law who seemingly has little to do in the movie other than be a pretty sex object. The history of cinema is full of these stories: a common man becomes obsessed with an erratic younger woman. A couple of sex scenes take advantage of the objectification of her body and then someone dies. 

El Cementerio de los elefantes (Tonchy Antezana, 2008)

El Cementerio de los elefantes is a sad and heavy movie about a life-long alcoholic in the outskirts of La Paz (El Alto). The name – the Cemetery of the elephants – refers to the old African fable, a mythical place where elephants wander to die. The protagonist ends up in a ‘Cemetery of the elephants’ to die from alcohol. These are places where cheap alcohol is sold but there is not much more – no furniture, no security and many people fall asleep and never wake up. The movie is narrated by the internal voice of the main character while he remembers his misfortunes, broken dreams and other events of his life. The background of the movie is the underworld of El Alto and La Paz – insecurity, addiction, domestic abuse, prostitution, poverty and violence. Filmed in a mere fifteen days and with a budget of US$30, it helped raise awareness of the existence of ‘cemeteries of elephants’ and shed light to the rampant problem of alcoholism in Bolivia.

Nación Clandestina (Jorge Sanjinés, 1989)

Nación Clandestina (The Secret Nation) is a movie about identity and redemption, or more precisely about a journey to embrace an identity and to pay for one’s sins. After being absent for years, an Aymara Indigenous man returns to his community from which he was expelled after a serious betrayal. He has lived in the city where he has been a victim of discrimination and racism. He returns home to perform an ancient dance that will result in his death and hopefully pardon him for his wrongdoings. It has a similar structure to that of The Cemetery of the Elephants. The story is told in flashbacks while the main character prepares to die. The name refers to the ‘society within society’ – the Indigenous culture living underneath or parallel to a westernised culture, trying to survive in times of political turbulence and violence. The actors are mainly amateur Aymara actors and the dialogue is mostly in Aymara.  It is the most powerful movie I have seen so far from Bolivia, which does not mean it is easy to watch. It is a highly political, impactful movie that is slow paced. The director is known for his films denouncing the discrimination experienced by the Indigenous population of Bolivia. The movie does not excuse the behaviour of Sebastián (the main character). He is shown to be a man of questionable conduct, as evidenced by his interactions with his wife. In the end, the movie is much bigger than an individual story of growth and self-acceptance. It is about marginalisation, repression and the conservation of culture. 

Danzanti, the dance that Sebastián, the main character, performs is a real Aymara dance and the name refers to ‘Great Lord Dancer’. It is said to be performed to the death, either to boost fertility or to allow someone who has let their community down to pay for their sins. 

Cuestión de fe (Marco Loayza, 1995)

Cuestión de fe (Question of Faith) is a highly awarded debut film from Marco Loayza. It is a well-loved road movie in Bolivia about three fellows transporting a human sized Virgin Mary to a faraway village. Two of them know each other and the third one becomes their truck-stealing chauffeur. The three friends drive through different Bolivian villages having experiences ranging from cock fighting to a wedding, meeting different people along the way. It is easy to understand why this has been a popular movie in Bolivia. It is a movie that many other countries also have – a road movie based around friends travelling through the countryside, reflecting the cultural idiosyncrasy of a place and talking to the audience of that particular region. It features three not particularly smart men that things happen to, each with a distinct personal journey. It might not be the most appealing movie to me personally but I can see its cultural significance and its portrayal of ‘deep’ Bolivia is interesting. 

Quién mató a la llamita blanca? (Rodrigo Bellott, 2006)

The final film of the Bolivian Movie Festival is Quién mató a la llamita blanca? (Who killed the white llama) by Rodrigo Bellott. It is a tragicomedy and a wild satire. It has been called both “a celebration and a parody of Bolivian customs, countryside and culture”. It is fast-paced, smart in its delivery, sharp in its parody and overall, hilarious. Visually creative and clever, the screen is alive with its unusual and highly creative storytelling. The characters are well defined caricatures and the movie carries itself extremely well. It has a darker undertone which is not underlined but visible throughout the movie. Above all, the movie is about poverty, discrimination, political corruption, racism and drug trafficking. It is my overall favourite of our Bolivian film festival. 

Music from Bolivia

Popular Bolivian music has strong roots in the Indigenous cultures of the region. The most popular artists include Zulma Yugar, Gonzalo Hermoso González, Panchi Maldonado, Luzmila Carpio, Betty Veizaga, folkloric Kala Marca, Claudia Arce (more standard Latin American music) and the bluesy Sibah. As for modern musicians, the rich list of Bolivian contemporary musicians include Bonny Lovy, Los Kjarkas, Elias Ayaviri and Adely. 

Next stop: Bosnia and Herzegovina