Little brother
This is a story that had no literary intentions, but that became a great little phenomenon that has inspired, devastated, and made a large community of readers reflect. Little brother -or minan— is a book narrated by the voice of Ibrahima Balde, and written by the pen of the Basque poet Amets Arzallus. The story was published in Basque by the Susa publishing house, and later by the Blackie Books publishing house, in charge of its translation into Spanish in 2021.
Little brother began as an asylum application before an Irún immigration official in 2018. In that year Ibrahima Balde met Amets Arzallus, one of the volunteers in the support network for immigrants from Guipúzcoa. “I am in Europe, but I didn't want to come to Europe,” Ibrahima told Amets. At that moment, the Basque realized that he was facing a very different anecdote.
Synopsis of Little brother
a contemporary odyssey
This is not the type of book that can be reviewed without further ado, because talking about its structure, characters or narrative style is not enough to cover all the nuances that are shown in Little brother. This is the true story of Ibrahima, a 24-year-old boy who crosses the African continent to recover Alhassane, his 14-year-old little brother. In three years, the protagonist lived a contemporary odyssey full of violence, friends, loneliness, uprooting and hope.
Two days after the young man's arrival in Irún, Amets Arzallus approached Ibrahima Balde to offer his help. However, it was Ibrahima who ended up helping the volunteer gradually reach out to the traumatized and needy immigrants. After getting to know each other a bit, Amets told his new friend that he had the possibility of requesting asylum. To obtain it, he had to submit to an interview with the police to tell his story.
Preparing for the conversation
Telling an anecdote like the one Ibrahima lived through is difficult and uncomfortable. To speed up the process a bit, Amets proposed to the young man to create a small dossier where he could express his experiences to make it easier to communicate with the people destined to interview you. That was how they embarked on a series of conversations transcribed by Amets.
Amets explains that among the reasons that motivated him to transform his interviews with Ibrahima into a book found empathy, the need of immigrantss, and the close friendship that developed between him and the boy, whom he wanted to help. But perhaps the most important reason was the sentence: “I am in Europe, but I did not want to come to Europe”.
Thanks to her, Amets realized that not everyone wants to come to the European Union with the same conceptions of the future. The poet understood that there is diversity in the reasons people leave home and his family. In the case of Ibrahima, that leitmotiv It was her beloved little brother.
A special orality
While listening to Ibrahima, Amets realized that his way of expressing his ideas and anecdotes was very particular. The young man was endowed with a beautiful orality, almost poetic. With very few words he managed to create strong images that never left the interviewer indifferent. For that reason, Little brother It has such a marked lyrical language.
“I used to sit next to my brother, and I would talk to him like I talk to you now. She spoke to him with her mouth and with her eyes, because that way words don't fall out. This is a phrase by Ibrahima that demonstrates the narrative quality of the text. The way in which the boy spins his stories —although tough— never lacks beauty, which, in turn, shows the great resilience of the protagonist.
Ibrahima Balde's journey
Ibrahima was born and raised in Guinea Conakry, along with her parents and three siblings. From a very early age I dreamed of being a mechanic or a truck driver., trades that would allow him to earn enough to stay at home and take care of his family. His father died soon. Growing up, the young man managed to drive trucks. Later, when Ibrahima was away from home, his younger brother undertook a trip to Europe to improve his living conditions.
However, some time later Ibrahima received a call from Alhassane from Libya. After going out to find him, He found out that his little brother disappeared in a shipwreck.
Worried about their well-being, and with the responsibility of being the eldest of children, Bucket began the frantic search for Alhassane. Unlike those who leave their home on other continents to reach the European Union, Ibrahima did not want to leave her home, nor her mother or her little sisters, but she had to protect the youngest of the family.
A survival challenge
From the day he left home, Ibrahima Balde had to follow a ghostly trail. Without knowing where Alhassane was or how to find him, the protagonist of this story crossed the African geography from Guinea to Mali. This journey was not easy; he had to overcome the lack of money and support, in addition to doing forced labor to survive. The inclement desert took him to Jeria, from where he left for Libya and other regions.
The search for his brother led Ibrahima to encounter slave traders, child guerrillas, mafias and border soldiers who still rob passersby for whatever they get. In addition, He was exposed to extortion and inhumane mistreatment. More than three years later, he managed to reach Spain in a state of desolation, but without losing hope of finding his miñán, who even today has not recovered.
The present of Ibrahima Balde
Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus
Currently, Ibrahima lives in Madrid, where he learns more about truck mechanics and studies his Spanish. He use the money for the rights to his book to pay for the education of his sisters, in addition to medical treatments for his mother and the apartment where he lives.
Some fragments of Hermanito
-
“The rescue boat stayed alongside us and held out a long rope for us. First the children and women went up. We all yelled for a turn and he yelled at us: 'Calm down, calm down'. So I relaxed a bit. My turn came. They handed me a rope, gave me water and a blanket. I drank a drink and started crying like a little child, then stood up and looked around to see where they were coming from. Now I know, the sea is not a place to sit.
-
“When the spirit leaves you, it is not easy to bring it back. There are many people like that, I have seen it. Lost people, people who prefer to die, but live. A person cannot bear so much suffering. If you suffer like that, you too will get sick. Your head will leave you in a chair and go away. People will walk past you and say you're crazy."