MY BOOK

SELECTED EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK

Although by no means mandatory, selected excerpts serve the publishing world ahead of a book’s release much like a trailer does for cinema, television, and the broader audiovisual landscape. Author and publisher TIÉTI Roch d’Assomption is pleased to share with you below, as an exclusive preview on this multilingual platform Saigloin-Africa, choice excerpts from his bilingual work “Let’s Astound the World!” (“Étonnons le Monde !”).

Page IV 
Dedication

To God, who created me and before whom I stand in profound awe.

To My Mother and to My Father.

To all my loved ones, as well as to all those whose prayers, blessings, positive thoughts, and multifaceted support have never failed me.

To you, my African sister, and to you, my African brother, who say no to despair: keep a cool head and keep moving forward.

To all the peoples struggling across Africa for independence, sovereignty, and to say no to domination, submission, and exploitation.

To all citizens of the world who demonstrate true, unfeigned goodness toward Africa and its people.

Page V 
Epigraph

When, within our human community, we have helped define the actions each of us must take for the common good, who is to blame if we fail to do our part as expected and agreed?

What we ourselves, Daughters and Sons of Africa, fail to do and/or are unwilling to do for OUR CONTINENT, no one else will come from elsewhere to do in our place.

Page 1 to 4
Introduction

In 2008, while still serving in Tehran (the Iranian capital), I made use of my two-month statutory leave in Côte d’Ivoire to undertake an exploratory mission to Dubai, the Philippines, Thailand, and Iran.

This month-long journey was backed by Dr. Simone Éhivet Gbagbo, First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, who funded it with the approval of the Presidency of the Republic. The objective was to observe how these countries utilize coconut palms, pineapples, banana trees, and cassava—their fruits, leaves, trunks, and roots—given that these exact same plants grow in our own country.

For eleven years—not eleven hours, eleven days, eleven weeks, or eleven months, but eleven long years, from 2011 to 2022—I lived in the United Arab Emirates: first in Ajman, then in Dubai, that city of dreams, a metropolis and economic hub of endless possibilities.

No longer holding any official post, living alone, far from my loved ones and from all the social constraints inherent to living in one’s home country, I had time. Plenty of time to continue exploring the universe opened up to me by my three political mentors mentioned earlier. I used this time to follow world events, conduct research, and train myself in internet fundamentals such as HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, and PHP—the various languages commonly used in web development.

Acquiring a solid foundational knowledge of these tools was essential to effectively conduct my activities as an international consultant in business and innovative strategies, a field to which I had decided to fully commit. The internet was becoming an invaluable medium to raise and project far across the globe the challenges facing Africa regarding its development and that of its daughters and sons—who are either deliberately rendered invisible or, far too often, misaligned before world opinion.

My first practical introductory internet courses—which included funded training trips to Burkina Faso and Namibia for workshops—were offered to me by the Embassy of the United States of America in Côte d’Ivoire.

From those early steps into the realities of the virtual space, I gradually discovered the power and multiplicity of possible applications. This led me to realize that we, African women and African men, were not doing enough to promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or the “2030 Agenda”).

Yet, these goals were agreed upon by state leaders worldwide under the auspices of the UN, with our governments in Africa committing to translate their practical application into our national development plans.

Even though the internet is precisely the tool that enables this, African communities were doing very little when it came to mobilizing funds to solve a multitude of problems where either our States could not intervene or public authorities were not doing enough.

It was unbearable for me to watch us miss out on what constitutes, in countries outside Africa, enormous opportunities for community funding mobilization.

Moreover, generally speaking in Africa, traditional audiovisual media, print, and online press had ceased discussing the SDGs, even while the topic remained a daily feature on Japanese (NHK) and German (DW) television networks, whose French and English broadcasts I diligently watched until 2022.

I therefore decided to leverage the access to a broad range of sources afforded by the internet to write this book.

Page 6 to 7
Your dignity, our hope

Here begins a long—a very long—letter addressed to African women and African men, individually and collectively. To those Africans who rightly hold a boundless LOVE for their continent, who are proud to be African and claim it wherever they are, in Africa or elsewhere in the world, yet suffer deep in their souls to see how our continent, in the concert of nations, slowly sinks into the depths of mediocrity, and who are fiercely determined to help it pull through. To all these worthy African women and African men—both those considered part of the masses, who are so vital, and the elites, all the true elites in Africa.

You read correctly: “elite.” To avoid any misunderstanding regarding the word “elite” in this message intended for you, it must be understood here solely through the following two simple definitions found in the Le Robert dictionary when searching for the term on the internet via Google:

• elite, noun

  The group of the most remarkable individuals (within a group or community).

  The elites: individuals who, by virtue of their worth, occupy the foremost rank.

Excepting the “false elites,” self-proclaimed as such while carrying negative, harmful values that do not advance society in any way.

The elite—the elites spoken of here—are found at all levels, across diverse fields, and can be appreciated in various ways.

You, the elite; you, these elites—you are found within .

families, at local, regional, national, civil, military, rural,
urban, agricultural, intellectual, moral, political, religious, sports, cultural, working-class, male, female, youth, and adult levels, in public or private administration, among workers and the unemployed, on social networks, and across the internet…

My letter is addressed to each of you, elite and elites, as well as to everyone who identifies with you, listens to you, and follows you; to those women and men who carry within them the unspoken dream of a better future for Africa; to those women and men ready to engage in any action that uplifts Africa; to those African women and African men for whom, because no sacrifice for Africa is too great, stand ready day and night to do whatever it takes to move our continent forward.

My letter is therefore equally intended for each of you: valiant daughters and valiant sons, worthy children of Africa, illustrious anonymous figures or well-known personalities—all of you living in Africa or beyond its borders who have a LOVE FOR AFRICA bound to your hearts and souls; you who are deeply saddened but in no way resigned, sickened but in no way discouraged; you who are outraged and revolted to see what our continent is becoming as time, years, and decades pass; you, women and men of Africa, who remain so proud to be African and who carry within you this powerful dream, this profound desire to help lift Africa out of the plight in which our continent finds itself.

Page 15
The Internet: a major asset, but …

This is the place—and it is by no means a passing footnote—to emphasize and underscore a golden rule I have learned regarding this fabulous tool that is the internet: “When something is true, it may be on the internet, but just because something is on the internet does not mean it is true.” Which implies that just because something is not on the internet, or because you have not yet seen it on the internet, does not mean it is false.

At a time when fake news, the wildest rumors, and the most ingenious video and photo manipulations constitute a scourge thriving through the internet—as seen during the 2016 US presidential campaign and the 2017 French presidential campaign, two electoral races marked by verbal violence, vulgarity, and twists that left a lasting impact, and whose major televised highlights I closely followed—it is vital that African women and African men be fully aware of this danger.

We must remain acutely aware that we will never have an excuse for failing to verify the information we receive and spread simply because it reached us via the internet or social media.

This holds especially true when information is sensitive and where we might contribute to spreading “fake news” that can carry devastating consequences—including on lives and destinies that can be irreparably shattered by the malice, malevolence, and criminal irresponsibility of those who create them

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Page 16 to 21
Mobilization, commitment, action

My letter comes to share with you what I have discovered: namely, what other peoples—who were not born with six or seven fingers on each hand as a distinguishing feature from us, nor do they grow horns—have managed to accomplish and continue to achieve every day when facing challenges identical to ours. These are remedies, techniques, and methods that absolutely nothing prevents us from adopting and realizing ourselves, right here in Africa.

My letter comes to share my vision and optimism for Africa; it comes to offer you ideas for decisions, firm commitments, and actions whose results are guaranteed in advance.

For, as noted just a few lines above, these are either things that other peoples have accomplished or are accomplishing daily, or simple, concrete ideas that are neither utopian nor the product of any extraordinary genius.

Implementing these ideas requires no extraordinary audacity either. It was simply a matter of thinking of them and proposing that we turn to these same techniques, remedies, and methods that work elsewhere—relying on ourselves as African women and African men. Without waiting for anyone to validate this or that idea, and without waiting for anyone from the outside to tell us that we, too, can do it.

My letter comes to tell you that we would be wrong to remain stuck in reciting litanies of hardship and grievances against our brothers—those who, whether as certain leaders of our countries or their followers, have made themselves accomplices and continue to act as lackeys for those who seek only to dominate Africa, doing everything in their power to install their puppets in office.

These men, true vassals who thrive in the posture of those comfortable only with bent spines, say nothing, hear nothing, and do not even dare to stand tall, look up, and see what lies before them, whether in the distance or in the sky. Those who refuse to reflect, and then to act.

Naturally, while foreign powers blithely pillage Africa through various channels and mechanisms, their puppets embezzle a significant portion of the scarce resources their countries manage to generate. This money flows abroad to be stashed in various accounts or squandered on overpriced luxury goods—watches, jewelry, clothing, shoes, dresses, handbags, suits, and luxury cars—with real estate acquired outside Africa completing the list

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Page 25 to 29
And yet, ants and termites speak to us

The other element that should inspire us, and which underpins this deep conviction that we are capable of a resurgence, of gathering, of mobilization—yes, that we are capable of astounding the world—does not come to us from other peoples. This practical lesson lies right at our feet; we see its demonstration in our forests and savannas. It comes to us—if we simply observe—from what ANTS and TERMITES achieve in nature.

What lessons these tiny creatures teach us! SOLIDARITY and GENEROSITY.

These values stand at the exact opposite of what many of us, African women and African men, practice. We ignore Solidarity and Generosity, persisting instead in an unavowed selfishness that proves so destructive when facing the harmful effects of our clash with other cultures.

Indeed, because they stand united and generous in their efforts, ants move massive loads of food and other necessities that no single ant could ever move alone. Because they act in solidarity, ants attack and overcome prey one would never believe them capable of defeating.

And yet…

Scientists and nature observers are relentless in their 
praise for what ants accomplish and offer for us to witness and ponder. Let us quote a few of the firm convictions they forged simply by observing:

On September 10, 2014, writing for the scientific popularization magazine Sciencepost (https://sciencepost.fr/), Alexis Chavetnoir wrote: “Decidedly, ants are insects that will never cease to amaze us. We already knew that ant colonies were true societies operating with their own communication and work systems. They also shine through their physical strength, with certain species capable of lifting more than 1,000 times their own weight. But what happens when prey is too heavy to carry back to the anthill?

In Thailand, an ant colony joined forces and organized themselves to drag a giant centipede back to their lair. Forming a sort of chain to pull the creature, the insects pooled their strength—some carrying the centipede, others guiding the way—to achieve their goal. Astonishing imagery that demonstrates all the intelligence, strength, and organizational capacity of ants.” (www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxQW5X–J7A)

Page 35 to 38
The tontine

The tontine has taken on various forms and adaptations since its official creation less than four centuries ago in the Western world. Consulted sources indicate that the tontine has been, by turns, authorized then banned, tolerated, and instituted at the state level or by non-state groups of varying sizes. The tontine system has known various fortunes and adaptations, spreading across all peoples and continents.

Yet over the centuries, its primary functions—its social, economic, and financial utility, which lie at the heart of the logic that made it necessary—have led human beings to rely on it on a… global scale.

This is especially true with the rise of individualism in modern life and the difficult access to banking systems as well as formal micro-credit institutions—which, though meant to ease the complexities of traditional banks, do not always fare much better.

Offering the distinct advantage of flexibility compared to modern financial institutions, the tontine is practiced in Africa at the level of the clan, the family, or among neighbors and friends.

It is therefore exceptionally well known to African women and African men, even if the habit and intensity of its practice vary from country to country, sometimes bearing specific local names.

To be sure, the sums pooled within groups rarely exceeding ten people can sometimes be modest. However, as noted above, this by no means makes the tontine a uniquely African trick designed to conceal poverty, as certain online publications tend to imply.

Indeed, we must be categorically clear on this point: the tontine is… noble. Participating in a tontine carries no shame whatsoever. The pooled amounts can be substantial. Furthermore, the tontine is neither the exclusive domain of African women nor reserved solely for men among themselves; participating groups can easily be mixed. Certain authors point to 1952 as the year when written records first mentioned tontines in Africa, although sociologists trace its practice in certain African regions back to the mid-19th century.

Unlike in Europe and North America, where tontine experiments served as components of state-level economic and financial policy, the tontine in Africa remains within the informal sector.

That does not, however, make it an organization lacking rules or managed without rigor. Not in the slightest.

Because of its informal nature, evaluating the total amounts circulating through it remains difficult, making it impossible to state to this day the exact overall sums engaged in tontine transactions. Undeniably, however, tontines offer immense social utility in Africa and beyond.

Speaking precisely of the tontine and its undeniable social value, the tontine to acquire a home—which grows out of the concept of a tontine to purchase land—presents a vital solution to the thorn issue of massive demand for decent housing across Africa.

These tontines alone will enable individuals of modest income—whether civil servants or otherwise—who are excluded from standard real estate transactions to one day become property owners

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Page 39
The crowdfunding

As for CROWDFUNDING, an English term, it is also known in French as “financement communautaire” (community funding), “financement participatif” (participatory funding), “financement collaboratif” (collaborative funding), or “sociofinancement” (social financing). The word was coined from “crowd” and “funding” by Michael J. Sullivan, an American author of fantasy and science fiction born in 1961. He used it for the first time on August 12, 2006, with the launch of his fundavlog project.

This origin is supported by the website Word Spy (url?id=254), which indexes new terms entering common usage. Prolific best-selling Canadian author Paul McFedries created this website.

For many observers and analysts, crowdfunding today is undoubtedly a true social, financial, and economic “phenomenon.” First, it carries an undeniable impact given the sheer volume of people it mobilizes in every campaign and operation.

Second, this stems from the wide range of sectors where crowdfunding has been and continues to be deployed, as well as the multitude of problems requiring resolution for which community funding serves as an invaluable resource.

Finally, it is driven by the staggering and constantly growing sums of money it successfully mobilizes—entirely outside traditional banking and conventional financing channels