QWhen a charismatic figurehead like Kalala Omotunde leaves, far too soon, it provokes deep existential questions in all of us. And quite logically, too, upheavals, choices, decision-making, strong acts. Omotunde, in principle, was made to last. He had certainly not become an institution (better than that he had created some), but he was an agitator of ideas, the force of the Spirit in action. There was something heroic about both his walk and his posture.
Attention! I will not fall into the trap of hagiography, the description of the life of a “Saint”. He certainly wouldn't have liked that. Let's do a little flashback instead, it will be easier. In 2005-2006, with a friend from the professional world, we went completely crazy, it must be said, when we discovered the website “africamaat.com”. When I say “crazy”, trust me, you really have to take this qualifier literally. Articles son the presence of Blacks in French chivalry (Le Connétable Du Guesclin), on the creation of Sema Tawy in 3200 BC by King Narmer, on the process of Semitization in ancient Egypt, on the various inventions made by Afro-descendants such as Lewis Latimer (the carbon filament of the electric lamp) or Raoul Georges Nicolo (the Pal/Secam system for receiving several channels on the same television), africamaat.com had everything to satisfy our desire for “black grandeur”. We had however been spoon-fed by Jules Ferry's school and Papa's television and despite everything a new window of access to knowledge was opening, breaking the ban with this frenzied Eurocentrism that had been instilled too long against our will. We were virtual dear frizzy heads just waiting to be re-educated. We were very receptive to popular science and historical articles by René Louis Parfait Étile and our brother, who was not yet called Nioussérê Kalala Omotunde, but who we then knew as Jean-Philippe Omotunde.