Vacances au Pays/A Trip to the Country

A voyage in search of the illusion of modernity, which haunts Cameroonian society.
A Trip to the Country questions, sometimes ironically, the notion of development associated in Africa with a “tropical modernity” which can be summarized as follows: Everything from Europe is modern, while all things local are archaic and must be discarded.
After the ravages of slavery and colonialism, the African continent now faces another threat: educational systems, which perpetuate inferiority complexes and dependence vis-à-vis the West. This self-destructive mentality also establishes a social hierarchy placing “modern” city dwellers above “backward” rural people.
A Trip to the Country is a personal reflection on our obsession with modernity, our desire to conform to a certain model of “development”, which ironically turns our backs on the possibility of real progress, and perpetuates our dependency to Humanitarian “so-called” aid.