The second chapter takes up the letter I wrote to Tsimiavo, a Malagasy captive who spent fifteen years on the island of Tromelin before being rescued by the French authorities, which combine text from the letter with “black” images except for the last one, which is taken from my father’s archives.
The “black” photos speak to the difficulty to illustrate the crimes perpetrated by my country in the name of “civilization.” The last picture was taken by my father as he was drafted to fight France’s last colonial war in Algeria. On this photo, we can barely distinguish the silhouette of a woman in the background walking towards a dirt bridge.
