Rediscovering Africa outside of the colonial lense

To the untrained eye, my country, Comoros can look ugly. 

For the longest time, I have loved it more for its inner beauty than the looks it has to offer. My eyes, like all eyes trained to form beauty standards by euro-normative books and screens, found it hard to value and appreciate misshapen lines, asymetry and overall ruggedness.

But Africa is not ugly, my country is not ugly. Its landscape has yet to bend to human will. Its soil stubbornly rough. But does a line need being straight to be pretty? Not to me. Not any longer. 
I defend every rock on my path right to existence. It fills me with happiness having this place on earth, a place that looks just like me, beautiful and carefree in an unconventional way. As in european beauty conventions. 

I couldn't be more thankful. 

Grace be to God and to my maman, who teaches me tirelessly everything there is to know about my special place : roots, Inya, land to a forgetful daughter who wishes she could just remember a tiny little bit of this ocean of precious unique information that no encyclopedia and no Google in the world has yet and that she casually throws my way every given day. 

I wish my mom wrote so I could share the knowledge and the love for Ikoni, Fumbouni, Ntsaweni, Diego, Ambaja and many more I forgot with you guys. 

I feel blessed. 

Marché Moroni Comores