Field notes from editing Book V, Part III The Kivuko Chronicles, of The Memory Cartographer. This week I’m deep in the opening of Book V, Part III of The Memory Cartographer: Elena six months pregnant in Cotonou, trying very hard to pretend this is still just “fieldwork.” Breakfast at the Sofitel, security logistics, anthropologist armour firmly in…
Tag: Benin
The Memory Cartographer- Book V The Alkebulan Chronicles- Part II
Chapter 22 Recovered Ritual isn’t something that happens only in temples here. The whole city throbs with it: festivals erupting into trance and song, women possessed by spirits, ancestors remembered with offerings, the boundary between the ordinary and the divine blurring in music, dust, and sweat. Nearby, Tarmo’s phones are arrayed like instruments. He switches…
The Memory Cartographer-Book V The Alkebulan Chronicles-Part II
“Where the gods keep office hours” Southeast. The destination is set. Now Elena does what Elena does best — research at thirty thousand feet, tea steaming, gods at the kitchen table. I find a seat in the main cabin—spacious table, panoramic window, high-grade leather. A discreet flight attendant approaches. “A device to research Benin, please….
The Memory Cartographer 