Synopsis "The other side of the ocean (in English)"
Aaron kadima Lukanu Lwa Nzambi, or simply Aaron Kadima, a student of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Federal University of Pará, who presents us with his first book the other side of the Atlantic, is Congolese born on December, 15th, 1987, in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, metropolis with over 7.5 million inhabitants. He lived in a turbulent country, ravaged by civil wars. He was 9 years old when the first civil war began after their emancipation. Later, many others happened. Aaron even boy saw and lived moments of blood, weeping and despair while the power passed from the hands of the leader Patrice Lumumba (assassinated on 17 January 1961), to the kasavubu, then to Moïse Tshombe, after that to Mobutu and finally Laurent-Désiré Kabila. During the period of the cold war, the Congo situated in a strategic area of the African continent has been the scene of fratricidal encouraged by the major military powers. Che Guevara, one of the great masters of the Cuban Revolution fought alongside the rebellion Simba in eastern Congo, but not succeeding he returned to America where he was killed in Bolivia. Aaron was studying at the University of Kinshasa when he ran for a scholarship program (PECG, Undergraduate Students Agreement).Then, after an eventful trip he arrived at the other side of the ocean on February, 23rd, 2012 and 4 days later in Belém. There Aaron began a new experience living as a foreigner in unknown and distant homeland of others. He experienced in the city of Santa Maria de Belém -Vaunted by its inhabitants, affable and cozy- discrimination, prejudice, racism, inside and outside the University. A stranger in language, in color, in the cookery and religion, he brought the contradictions of a patriarchal society and matridescendente, where animism and Christianity coexist and mingle under the sword threatening the interests of international corporations, that there as here impoverish us. In this stepmother Belém he and Mexicans, Cape Verdeans, Jamaicans, Angolans are recognized children of one Africa disregarding the innumerable differences. Approached as exotic, countless times was obliged to answer: Africa is not a country is a continent. In these six years Brazil, he was violated in Praça da República, threatened in the buses, mistreated at ER. We should read the other side of the ocean as if we were looking in the mirror. But Aaron, now almost Brazilian, has the courage and hopes that both on this side of the sea ocean as the other lives beautiful children. And we hope that in a short time we could be reading Back to Kinshasa.
