Conflict in the Pool Department

Republic of the Congo · 2002–2003

“The keepers of the atlas wrote this one down so the fire would not forget it.”

The civil war had ended on paper, but in the forests of the Pool the Ninja militia of Pastor Ntumi had never read the paper. In 2002 the old fight with Sassou's government rekindled along the railway to the coast.

Jelikan · Ìtàn · A story is told at night

Sit by the fire.
The griot remembers.

244 tellings from the African Conflict Atlas, every one carried in the griot's own voice — empires and uprisings, taxes and stools, gold roads and broken promises. Told the way a griot tells them: by voice, by lesson, by question.

“A story, a story!”

32 fires burn through the year →

Choose a thread

What shall the fire hear tonight?

Tonight

All time

1200 CEToday

— and the circle answers: “Let it come, let it go.”

Sit by the fire.The griot remembers.

What shall the fire hear tonight?

Sit by the fire.
The griot remembers.