Alexandre wants to know more about his friend Mariama’s African origins. Mariama tells him about the rainy season, the savannah, and the long and terrible history. . .

She explains that her father’s great-grandfather’s father was a spirit and that he had seen everything: the arrival of the white men from over the horizon, the columns of human beings reduced to the status of slaves, the departures in ships. The ancestor with magical powers then gave his eyes to a bird to follow his people and bear witness.

Alongside Zaü’s pastel illustrations, as in the entire Histoire d’histoire collection, the story is illustrated by etchings of the period, up until the abolition of slavery in 1848 and the traces that remain today. Documents easily adaptable for a foreign-language edition.

Hardcover 36 pages picture book, 19 x 26 cm