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source:
The draft of "the story of the elephants of love" was written during 2004-2005. At the time, I was sometimes reading stories to my 2-3 old boy, Sola. We were living in St Albans-Herts UK. At the back of my mind, I wanted to write something simple and universal. The inspiration came from a scene I had experienced many times and that I saw again in a particular, more universal way, that time. As a school teacher (at Marlborough school-St Albans) on duty at lunch time, students had brutally fought to be first in the queue for lunch.
And that very image of fighting to be first and get the greatest part of the available ressource without caring of others, became for me the every day small scale image, that best illustrated what I could see and hear in the newspapers or on TV, happening at a bigger scale.
From there, both sharing and collaborating became strong key assessment criteria for me to evaluate the environments I was evolving in and people I was dealing with.
Banzon:
Banzon is a village I have known in 1997 as a tourist, invited there by an American volunteer (John), working for the Peace Corps (Ref. Independent Agency of the United States Government initiated by JFK in 1961). Banzon is located at about an hour track-drive from Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso. When I arrived in that place, I was introduced to the life of the village very naturally and very kindly. I keep Banzon in my heart as a rare, rich and true experience of brotherhood beyond the borders of language and culture. I remember my long conversations with the nurse couple (Heads of the local dispensary) who hosted me. I also met one of the village school teacher, Marc. He explained to me that being the oldest of about ten brothers and sisters, he could only manage to go to the university for one year. He then had to start working to help his family. He further explained how, thanks to the extra work (on his plot of rice 10 km away) that he could do before school (from sunrise to 6 am) and after school (from 5 pm to nightfall) he could eventually buy a small motorcycle in a few years, first to reduce his travel time in order to optimize his field work time and then save enough money to return to university; a 10-year plan...
the elephants:
While I was traveling by coach from Bobo-Dioulasso to Ouagadougou, I saw from quite far a group of wild elephants (first and last time for me). The image of it, is like out of a dream in my memory as I was sleeping during the trip, just about awaken by my friends to be able to see the herd of elephants.
big somebody:
On my way back to Senegal, I crossed Bobo-Dioulasso again. I met French expats and the cousin of a friend (a laundry shop manager). His nickname was "grand quelqu'un" (big somebody)... As I was looking for a new band name for a first album release ("Les mystères de l'ouest"), I have asked "Grand quelqu'un" if I could borrow his nickname, and he agreed.
Nicolas Dubreil
lyrics
(read by Magda Bożyk) "Somewhere in the far future, in Africa, near a village called Banzon, near the Niger River, will be living in peace a large family of elephants. They will be happy together, living in harmony. But, two young brothers will regularly and badly fight against one another.
Aware of that situation, the chief of the family will convoke the assembly of the wise elephants. That evening, at the end of the meeting, the chief of the elephants will call for those two small warlike elephants. He will give them the order to immediately leave the family, to go to the jungle and to look for their heart.
Once in the jungle, the two brothers will be looking under each stone, behind each tree. But they will not find their heart. They will then ask around all the other animals: “where is our heart?”, “Where is our heart? Please, tell us !…” And all the other animals will just laugh at them. Full of despair, away from their family, they will continue their quest. They will nearly fall in dangerous ravines, they will narrowly escape drowning but still, they won’t find their heart. However, they will not fight anymore, on the contrary, they will always take care of one another, helping, advising each other...
At this point, the chief of the elephants who never let them out of his sight will call them back. He will announce to them that they can join the elephant’s family again. They had found their heart."
Written by Nicolas Dubreil
credits
from the elephants of love,
released March 18, 2018
Nicolas Dubreil (music & lyrics)
Magda Bożyk (reading)
Sebastian Kaszyca (piano)
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