An Interview with Werewere Liking by Christine Cynn, "If I Had a Hundred Arms, I Would Do Many Things"
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Clip 13

EACH DAY I DO WHAT I CAN DO

Each day I do what I can do. I mean, everything I want to do, each day, I try to do it. With or without the means, I try to do it. However, if I had more money, I would definitely set up a big academy throughout Africa and I would popularize the traditional educational methods that I possess, that I have inherited, and I would try to popularize them for all the youths who are in the streets to give them back responsibility over their lives and to enable them to use their intelligence and their strength, at least, for their own benefit, more harmoniously. I think that what our youth need the most is training of their inner selves, and I don't think that the others are willing to undertake this education, which could potentially lead us to grow more cautious in relations and to prioritize ourselves first and foremost, which would, undoubtedly, lower others' interests, because we are in a civilization in which only cash interest has value. Right?

Clip 14

So, it's essential to preserve all that Africa has accumulated, even more so since Africa, it is said, is the cradle of humanity. I know that the fate of a cradle is to be relegated to the very depths of an attic, sometimes to be thrown out. But sometimes, the old cradle can be used for rebirth, to welcome other babies again. And humanity, I believe, needs rebirth today because the civilization in which we live, despite what some might say, is in full decline. And who is going to restore this civilization? Africa is. Today, the weakest link is going to come to strengthen, to stave off the crippling of humanity. So what is the problem? It seems logical to me. And it's astonishing to me that, often, people can't understand.

Clip 15

ON A CERTAIN FEMINISM:

Definitely, women are crucial. I still tell women: "Beware of the business of feminism. This is a trap designed to compel us to do a lot of demonstrations." But here, some things are said to be like music for the heart and cannot be demonstrated. Our fundamental role, as women, in the future of humanity does need to be demonstrated. We have only to do what we can. Those who can do science, let them do it. Let everyone be free to get into whatever they can but, really, in serenity, with no animosity because we have nothing to prove to anyone. It's enough for us to do and most importantly, not forget that we are here so that life may be beautiful, so that life may be . . .. For life to be! For life to be! And this, this role, is already so important that we should not let ourselves be distracted by demonstrations.

This is not . . .. I mean that if we get enlisted in armies, if we become the most effective soldiers, if we kill more men than men do. . . .. Anyway, we're killing women's children, this is not . . .. We need to choose our priorities to improve humanity. If I could make a plea to all women, I would tell them: Let's choose priorities for the improvement of humanity, not for its destruction.

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Because feminism, as it appeared at a time—but I think it must have improved since—but the way it appeared at a time, it consisted mainly of lots of demands, lots of demonstrations, and I think this is a trap. Truly, when you look at it, we don't need to demonstrate our womanhood. It's like music for the heart. We know that we have things to do. We must do them, attain our goals, but without losing our nature. Our nature, our charm, our beauty, our gentleness. This is a totally different thing. This is not contradictory. To be a woman means to have it all. It's to be all. Because for me God is a woman. So, it's to be a creator, to be the source of life and consequently to privilege life above all. But with feminism, at a given time, especially during the 60s and 70s when it arrived in Africa, there were a great deal of demands, a great deal of protests.

It's true, there are abuses, but I think that we can, we have, in any case, here, in Africa, we succeeded in going beyond these forms of feminism that were really virulent at the time and that, ultimately, gave the impression that it came to mutilate us yet again of a part of ourselves, as women. I think feminism should not be a mutilation of any part of a woman, of her assets. But on the contrary, if there is feminism, it should come and add. However, I really don't see what could be added to women today, because woman is God.

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