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5 August 2023

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Mambilla Plateau
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This book is translate by Simona Casaccia Africa seen through the eyes and experience of a young novice, called to the challenge of an international assignment and job. The protagonist will be confronted with a totally unknown world, amidst all kinds of vicissitudes and the often surreal environment of a wild Africa of the 1970s. An experience that will lead him to have the world at his feet, but with a part of his heart always attached to his homeland. The novel is inspired by the true story of a migrant in the land of Africa, where the hard, difficult and adventurous experience will be the testing ground to express all his desire to emerge, to participate in something big and important and to travel in search of his fulfilment.
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1Headlights ripped through the darkness of the night that had just fallen.The cab, as usual, was speeding along the slip road to Fiumicino airport.He had just left the city of Rome. Imperial Rome, Rom

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2Margaret, once I opened the door, had immediately called me, "Giorgio, the cab for you has arrived."In one corner of the entrance hall were stacked, one on top of the other, the five suitcases full o

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3Just around the corner from Via Vittorio Veneto, the cab had turned onto a wide avenue. It was Via Bissolati, the street of the airlines. There, almost all of them, had an office with winking storefr

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4"Which route do you prefer to take, Mr. Sandri?" the taxi driver asked me politely. "Would you like me to show you some of the city, the Garbatella, the Eur, before leaving Rome?" he continued, waiti

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5Shrouded in darkness and absorbed in my thoughts, I could see my past as a young teenager in the small town of Veneto scrolling before me like a movie.The period of my youth and studies was spent amo

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6It seemed at that point the road was downhill. Everything matched perfectly.It was too good to be true.Engineer Tramontini was intimately happy to be able to help his protégé, whose technical gifts a

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7I left at nine o'clock on a Sunday evening. It was the middle of April.Accompanied by friends and Federica, I set off to the dock without a tear. I was serene and not at all worried.As if I were leav

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8Nature had been kind to me.I was considered a good-looking, well-built, athletic, and nice guy. I had dark hair, brown eyes, and a natural tan that came with my dowry: my mother was of Spanish descen

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9As the days passed eventually the problem became apparent. There had to be something going wrong, of course.The entry visa was not coming.They were waiting for him from the government of Nigeria. In

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10I would return home to my village only every fortnight to spend a short weekend there and then leave for Rome on the usual night train. At 7:30 I would arrive on time at Termini Station and an hour

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11And summer passed as well, a hot and sunny summer that melted the tar on the paved roads and among the sampietrini of Rome.Despite insistence and urging, the visa was slow to arrive.He could thus se

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12"Mr. Sandri--Mr. Sandri, we have arrived," the driver's voice aroused me.Absorbed in my thoughts, going over in my mind the events of those last months, I had not realized the length of the journey

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13Sitting in my seat, I kept thinking. I couldn't sleep so anxious and worried.Everything was foreign to me; everything was new to me. I had often heard about emigration.Although I didn't feel like an

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14A large red sun, not yet fully off the horizon, camped in front of the Land Rover heading from Kano to Maiduguri.That fireball was not only big, it was immense, covering the entire view of the surro

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15That big red morning sun had meanwhile risen and its dazzling yellow spread across the savannah.The heat was advancing and there was no air conditioning in the Land Rover. Only the wide-open window

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16Late in the afternoon of that same day, the Land Rover arrived at Gembu base camp, located on a hilltop about three kilometers east of the same town.Gembu was the largest and most populated center o

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17"Welcome, Giorgio," was the first affable and friendly greeting addressed to me by site surveyor Luciano Breda."We've been waiting for you for a long time," he continued, calling me "tu," as if to m

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18When I woke up, light was already streaming through my bedroom window.It was a new day, a new life, a new era.The rainy season was over and the dry season was about to begin, with the sun reigning s

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19"Giorgio," Luciano Breda called me. "We have the first job to do right away. I've been waiting a long time for you just for this."I had arrived two days ago at the camp. Having made the necessary in

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20Clothing and costumes in Africa not only serve to cover the body, but also meet other needs: to convey one's identity, ethnic and tribal affiliation, social status, and faith.Traditional African clo

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21Carlo, the agronomist, and Gian, the veterinarian, teamed up together. Their work consisted of surveying cattle herds, assessing them for diseases, taking blood samples for brucellosis tests, and su

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22The room was saturated with cigarette smoke. The bottle of whiskey was almost finished, and we, the bachelors and grooms of the Mambilla team, were playing poker at Gianni Ricci's house.For some tim

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23For some time Carlo De Filippi and I had decided to pop over to Yaoundé, the nearby capital of Cameroon, taking two or three days off.Through the local police in Gembu, we had managed to get an entr

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24Although in the Plateau we lived in a hypothetical oasis of tranquility, Nigeria was anything but a tranquil state.In the years prior to my arrival, the great diaspora had occurred with the Biafra f

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25"Bature, bature," the children shouted as they ran scared back to their huts. To them, bature was the white man.Incidents in which, during our explorations of the territory, we came in contact with

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26The aqueduct work had taken months, so much so that the rainy season had passed and a new dry season was returning.As the work was completed, the workforce needed to maintain the camp and research a

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27That morning I went to work in my office thoughtful and waiting for news from Lawrence.I found Jimmy on top of the drawing table chewing on a Staedtler eraser. I don't know how many he'd already tak

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28The next day we were walking inside a dense forest that bordered and enclosed the course of the Donga to the west, toward the tumultuous descent into the escarpment.We had left the camp early in the

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29In the course of an anonymous November in 1977 I returned to Italy for a month's layover, certainly not a vacation. For a few weeks in the Plateau the dry season had returned. No more rain for anoth

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30At the end of November, I left home on the Venice- Rome flight.A driver picked me up at Fiumicino airport with instructions to take me directly to the company's offices on Via Vittorio Veneto.I arri

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31Arriving in Kano, I had to face three grueling days of travel in the Land Rover because we were forced to pass through Maiduguri to retrieve more supplies for the Plateau, which were added to the su

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32Luciano greeted me with a strong handshake and vigorous hug upon my return to Gembu camp."Gio," as he now amicably called me,"As soon as you unload your luggage and take a shower come to my office r

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33To control and monitor the many projects that had been initiated and especially the many more to be undertaken, the Nigerian government had sent one of its officials to Gembu: Alhaji Mohamed Kwabena

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34Back at base camp, everything was buzzing.Charles, the Bolognese moustache, as a good agronomist, continued his scouting campaign throughout the Plateau to survey the crops in place, those that were

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35By 7:30 Lawrence was already at the camp.We were having breakfast, which was, as always, excellent and hearty and fruit-based. Each of us would then leave for the various exploratory missions requir

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36The rainy season made life harder for us. A period that lasted six months, give or take a day.At our latitude, a few degrees north of the equator, in the Northern Hemisphere, day and night were almo

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37And the time came when the English, or rather an Englishman and a Scotsman (they cared about the difference), also with their respective wives, arrived at the camp."Gio, come let me introduce you to

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38Well aware of our capabilities, which had already been demonstrated in the construction of the Gembu Town Water Supply aqueduct, the Nigerian government had also entrusted Pladeco with the design an

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39We had the breath of the Nigerian government on our necks.Alhaji Mohamed pressed us every day to know the progress of open construction sites.Within a few months we had set up several teams of worke

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40The British liked "parties," the parties that were very status symbol in Africa. Occasions when they would gather, perhaps on a Saturday night or Sunday lunchtime, to spend a day of carefree merrime

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41It was just after two o'clock in the afternoon on Monday, May 8, 1978, when I landed at Fiumicino Airport.I was just back from the grueling two-day journey from Gembu to Kano in the middle of the sc

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42Upon landing at Fiumicino, I caught a glimpse of a sign with my name on it and immediately headed in that direction."Mr. Sandri?" the taxi driver asked. "Yes, that's me," I replied."His plane was te

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43The next morning, we went by cab to the engineering office of Pascotti & C on Via dei Polacchi, a side street of Via delle Botteghe Oscure. Just beyond was Piazza Margara and then the important Piaz

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44"What's going on?" asked Luciano Breda, who had immediately come out of the office summoned by the noise of the car that had driven me back to base camp."Gio, as soon as you get settled, come to the

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45The next morning Luciano and I, together with Gianni Ricci, as the person in charge of monitoring local indigenous peoples' activities, reached our government interlocutor Alhaji Mohamed, and then a

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46Bricks. How to get the huge number of bricks we needed?For our construction sites we urgently needed cement, sand, wooden boards and bricks, lots of bricks. All materials that were practically unava

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47We put together a very respectable task force.We began by opening roads for the dam, for the sawmill plant, for the new livestock farm and, last but not least, to access Ardo Gore's Tea Factory area

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48It had been a heavy and tiring day that had seen me go from the Tea Factory site to the sawmill, to the livestock farm area in Nvar. The next day I had a long drive north past Ngoroje to the Mayo Nd

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49Crystel's young body and sensuality concealed an incredible determination. Facing the experience of teaching in Africa, in a Nigeria that had much that was negative about it, without any comforts an

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50At the camp we were all terrified and in disbelief.The voices that had just arrived were of devastating severity, unthinkable only a short time before. Horrifying. We had naively counted on the quie

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51She was waiting for me. She had heard the car coming."I felt so lonely and so scared," Crystel told me still with terror etched in her eyes and movements as she held me tightly. Her mouth immediatel

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52Gian and Charles had left early that day for the usual agronomic and livestock surveys in the various villages in the area. When they had left the camp, the sun had recently risen and heralded a new

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53That evening, before dinner, after Madeddu returned, who had been treated at Gembu Hospital, we all gathered in the mess hall, wives included."Guys," Luciano apostrophized us as always familiarly, "

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54"No place, master," Thomas told me. "No place on the Kano-Rome flight," he repeated. "How is there no room? But if we are four cats here in the airport," I answered him."International flight office

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55It was there.Stopped on the maneuvering area of Heathrow Airport, near the departure terminal, nose down and pointing toward the runway. I saw it crisply in all its splendid length as we flew past i

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56During those early days, I tried to fill the gap caused by the long absence.I saw again the places of my childhood, my people, tasted again the colors and flavors of the country.Family, friends, rel

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