halfwayhouse kids

by

Sami Mensura - Arno Gassmann

This is the story of Iyop Temesgen and his adventuresome way through life as told by the all-seeing author and creator of Temesgen.
Temesgen's creator accompanies the young African on his journey from his arrival as a child in Germany and he comments on each step the protagonist makes through the matrix of European culture. Iyop attempts to understand and question the European world of thought and ways of thinking but the unexpected happens: the creator and his creation come closer to a common set of values; the one approaching from the standpoint of a god and the other from the standpoint of a refugee. As Iyop grows in confidence it becomes clear that his creator too is himself only a creature subject to doubts and in search of meaning and an ethical justification for human existence.

Iyop loses his illusions about the European idea of a fulfilling existence through his experiences as an orphan, foreigner, a colored person stigmatized yet striving for power and education while trying to climb in society. He frees himself from the whispering influence of his creator and seeks his own way between the worlds. He begins to see himself in a new light, not as someone who wanders between the two worlds but as both an African and a European, as a citizen of the world.

Temesgen's expectations of himself and his fellow citizens/human beings are high. He develops a guiding principle summed up in a few words: The best of Europe is possible in Africa and the best of Africa is possible in Europe. Possessed by this idea and its fulfillment Iyop Temesgen becomes a missionary in the cause of world citizenship. His cause is doomed to failure. He knows the code of the streets but he is naive enough to believe that he can change this code through the power of persuasion and his own belief.

Iyop pays for this mistake with his life when he returns to his old native country. As his senses fade while he lies dying his mistake becomes clear to him. He alone was Iyop Temesgen and no one else.

Europe took him in and formed him according to its own norms. He was a stepchild. Africa brought him into the world, a prodigal son. Iyop Temesgen, the prophet of a united world is all alone when he dies. The only true citizen of the world and the last of the just. The death of the protagonist foreshadows the nemesis, the unavoidable, inevitable war of the worlds.

Sami Mensura's first born pleads for an end to seeing Africans as noble savages and for an end to the feeling of pity that Europeans have for the African continent. His protagonist dies in his search for a synthesis of both cultures. Mensura can give us no guiding principle or instruction in this. He can only wipe away the disguises of hidden prejudice. Ein packender Entwicklungsroman (a morality play/ a story about change?), honest and tempestuous and honestly disturbing.

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