About the book

The Depth of My Soul is my first book and it was published on January the 9th 2009. The idea behind the title ethnology is my depth to cover general circumstances that happen in our daily live. In the book, I also cover issues we sometimes have problems expressing our opinions about like wars, genocides, dictatorships, abuse, corruption, torture, bullying, state coups, politics, freedom, justice, peace etc.  It is my passion to write for you who are interested in poetry. My goal for this book is to focus on things we deal with in our respective societies, both good and bad. I am also going to write about certain events of the past because history is not just about the past. It also affects us now, in one way or the other: Abuse, climate change, bullying, discrimination, corruption, oppression, dictatorship, wars, poverty and other problems. In order for me to deal with such issues, I have chosen to express myself through poetry.

Poetry is a powerful weapon because it helps us to deal with difficult issues in the way that goes beyond logic. In this book, I externalize my thoughts about things that matter in our world yesterday and today. I don’t just want to write a book for the pleasure of writing.     

Abuse 

I know how it’s like at a personal level how it’s like being abused and I have dealt with different forms of humiliation and bullying. Abuse is evil and abusers are cowards because they always choose to prey on those who have nothing to do with their situations, instead of dealing with their problems in ways that are productive. When you face abuse, it hurts and it also affects your self-esteem. Your personality gets shaped as well. If you aren’t around people who lift you up, you can end up making decisions that can be destructive for yourself by turning to drugs, alcohol etc. You can also be addicted to different things that my do you more harm than good.

Abuse has several forms and it goes beyond our private homes, i.e. rape, torture etc. It also manifests itself in several other forms, like when genocides occur, there were war crimes involved and victims face torture, abuse and killings. Their dignity and innocence are stolen from them and perpetrators of genocides have no interest in valuing their fellow human beings. Genocides occur for racial, cultural, tribal, national, social and especially for religious reasons. There are perpetrators of genocides who have never recognized their war crimes and crimes against humanity: 

Russia has never recognized its genocides against the Circassians and the Cossacks. Turkey has never recognized its genocides against the Armenians, the Assyrians and the Kurds. The Sudan is still killing its own people in Darfur. This may sound offensive for some people, but it does not make it less true. Some of our politicians in the West don’t seem to care about the importance of justice because they put their personal interests above saving lives.  

Freedom and justice  

I come originally from a country which is run by a dictator. Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville or the Congo had a democratically elected president, Pascal Lissouba from 1992-1997. But in 1997, there was a sate coup and the person who was behind that coup d’état was Dennis Sassous- Nguesso who was the president of the country from 1979 to 1991. 

Sassous Nguesso is a dictator with a Marxist ideology. He overthrew Pascal Lissouba with the support of Angolan troops, some French politicians and multinational companies like Elf Aquitaine(Total.SA), Chevron and Agip. My father was a diplomat under the former president, Pascal Lissouba and when Sassou Nguesso took power by force, his goal was to torture and kill diplomats who were working for the former president, include my father, but we lucky, while in South Africa. We left for Denmark and thanks to the UN.

This is a big problem with most African countries and we keep on blaming colonialism for our problems, while we ourselves contribute to the destruction of our countries. We try to create this false identity of Pan Africanism and the African Union has never succeeded in promoting democracy, human rights, development for African nations. I question its existence a lot and in my mind it is really a corrupted organization, just like most of African leaders are corrupted. In my opinion, we Africans have ourselves to blame for the failures of our countries. We blame colonialism, but we are asking them for foreign aid. No one can disrespect you, without you allowing it to happen. We have to change our way of thinking.

We allow both the West and China to disrespect us. I am not saying that the both the West, the Middle East  and China haven’t contributed to negative things on the continent because they did and they still do,  but 90% of the negative circumstances we face in Africa are contributed by ourselves. The world does not need excuses. It needs results.   

Around the world 

 Around the world, religion has become a powerful force around the world and lunatics are trying to do everything to impose their religion in politics. Some are trying to go the extra mile by stealing, killing and destroying in the name of god. In my opinion, religion is the root of all evil and 90% of wars occurring around the world happen for religious reasons. Religious zealots kill each other for the sake of promoting the right god to the world. In the Depth of My Soul, I have written a poem about the danger of religious fundamentalism and the hypocrisy religion promotes in our daily lives. Religion discriminates against women, homosexuals, minorities and it has a childish view of reality. The other problem with religion is the arrogance and the ignorance of clergy.

They say one thing and do another. And their world view is far from our daily realities. There are also problems of dictatorships and corruption in other parts of the world like in Burma, China, Russia and other countries. Human rights and several forms of abuse and torture are ignored.  I was inspired by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour who’s also my favorite CNN anchor. I hope to meet her some day. Christiane Amanpour has hosted two documentaries:”Scream Bloody Murder” and “The God’s Warriors”. Those documentaries have been the source of the knowledge that I have today about most of the books that I have published, especially the Depth of My Soul. That’s where I have discovered the importance of freedom, justice and peace. In my opinion, if you have been a victim of abuse, rape, wars, racism, tribalism, persecution etc. you need to make a decision to seek justice because without it, you will never get peace and without peace, you can never get healed. The same goes for nations and territories which have been victims of genocides, war crimes, hateful ideologies etc. It’s your responsibility to fight for justice so that you can be free and whole again. Don’t expect god to bring you justice because he does not exist and he’s a manmade fictional character. I personally realized a couple of decades later, after being a victim of sexual and emotional abuse. 

That’s why I focus on the fight for freedom, justice and peace and hope for our countries, especially in the situation where we are dealing with the financial crisis because hope is the engine of optimism. Freedom is important because in our Western societies, we enjoy so much freedom and we still need to support those who do have freedom because if we don’t help those who don’t have any freedom, then we’re giving dictators wings to fly. When they fly, they oppress their people and find ways to corrupt some multinational companies so that things can go their way. In order to fight religious fundamentalism, we have do discover why people become religious fanatics and we have to fight for separation between politics and religion. When you mix politics and religion, there are more problems. I have written poems about people like, Kevin Rud, Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Miriam Makeba because they are icons of justice.   

Conclusion 

 I conclude that the description of the Depth of My Soul by saying that I cover almost everything in this book, where use poetry as a powerful language tool to express my emotions about general circumstances. I do it because I am a social critic, but also someone who likes being involved in social issues. Before I was an author, I was a citizen and I still am. Writing is for me an opportunity to contribute positively to society and inspire those who want change for themselves, others and their communities. Like a French priest who said ”Politicians  are cold beasts who only look after their interests”.

It is our responsibility to remind them of their promises and give them a wake up call. If they don’t live up to their promises, it’s our job to get them out of government building and replace them with others. Diplomacy is good, no doubt, but do something that works. Engaging with those who don’t like freedom is not just our job in the West, it’s a two ways’ work. You can’t engage with someone who’s wasting your time, especially when you can use your time to do something far more different and beneficial.

They have to know that it’s their responsibility to treat their own citizens with dignity, else they’ll face sanctions. Living in peace is a decision, not a feeling, but peace comes with a price and the determination to face the past, deal with the consequences and learn from it so that we all can move forward and give ourselves and the next generation a new beginning. I-Proclaim has been my publisher from this year and I am grateful to them for giving me an opportunity to be a published author. 

The Depth of My Soul is neither found on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. It’s only found at I-Proclaim’s website, www.i-proclaimbookstore.com. There are thousands of copies still available until now.