If Maimuna thought she would arouse pity by claiming she was carrying Mikael’s child in her womb, she was wrong. If she thought she would become worthless in the men’s eyes because of a pregnancy, she was right. But she was once again wrong if she thought worthlessness would mean freedom for her, that she would be turned loose to walk in the desert, that she would be allowed to follow the jeep tracks back to Timbuktu. She is not Bonaventure, who was allowed to escape through the Amanar kitchen. She is not Samballa, who was able to walk out the front door and disappear. She was Maimuna Mimi Mbegue, the great disappointment, the stubborn adventurer, who had ruined her future by spreading her legs for a European at the wrong moment, without permission, simply out of a desire for pleasure.
Now the Maimuna in the air is ready. She nods to the women and closes her eyes. She spreads her arms, spreads them back, straining her fingers wide. She expands her chest, bending her back like a swan flapping open her wings. Head raised, she sails in pulses to rest before the Maimuna lying on the ground.
She can’t make this journey any more modestly.
Wlibgis, Polina, Nina, Ulrike, Rosa, and Shlomith move to accompany her. They gather behind Maimuna, raising their hands protectively to her head. The yellow light condenses, beginning layer by layer to cover the violent picture beneath. The pulse is more powerful than ever. It roars in their ears like the ocean. It rattles their hands. It pumps auratic power from their fingertips into Maimuna’s head.
Now, Maimuna?
What’s happening?
Be brave!
Maimuna, Maimuna . . .
We love you!
But now one set of hands cringes and falls limp. One of the women breaks away, stumbling a little in front of the others. Nina sees something too familiar through the thickening yellow cloud, something wrong that does not belong in this picture. On the ground, next to Maimuna lying on her stomach, crouches Marcel, no one else but Marcel: Marcel Pignard. Jean-Philippe’s younger brother, who was planning another trip to Africa the last time they saw him. The posture is unfamiliar—the Marcel Nina knows never collapses. The Marcel Nina knows looks you straight in the eye, holds his head up proud, and stands tall. The Marcel Nina knows is never threatened or forced. Just like his brother, the man who saw it as his right to stay in a hotel with a strange woman on the night when Nina, Little Antoine, and Little Antoinette were in danger.
But Maimuna is already on her way. In the dense, bright yellow light of compassion, under the protective shadow of Wlibgis’s, Polina’s, Ulrike’s, Rosa’s, and Shlomith’s hands, she stands up straight and then throws herself down. She plunges toward herself, toward the Maimuna on the ground.
Goodbye, Maimuna!
Goodbye!
Farewell!
One second.
A shot.
The image disappears.
Maimuna, Yalla nako Yalla jox yirmandeem!
SAMI SILLANPÄÄ
HELSINGIN SANOMAT
A Finnish architect’s two-anda-half-month ordeal ended yesterday in Northern Mali. Mikael Holmlund, 42, and his French colleague, Marcel Pignard, 38, were freed at eight o’clock Finnish time near the border with Mauritania. Malian army special forces troops met the hostages.
In a statement released last night, Finland’s ambassador to Nigeria, Riitta Korpivaara, said both men are doing well given the circumstances and are currently recovering in a French hospital.
Holmlund and Pignard departed for West Africa on October 18. The aim of their trip was to document the traditional buildings of the area for a joint exhibition in Finland and France. There were tentative plans for the Finnish exhibition to be held at the Helinä Rautavaara Museum.
The friends began their journey in Benin, traveling through Burkina Faso to Mali. From there they intended to fly on to Casablanca, Morocco.
However, their itinerary was cut short on October 28 in Timbuktu near the Sahara Desert when gunmen barged into the Amanar restaurant in which Holmlund and Pignard were eating, and forced them into a vehicle waiting outside. A local young woman who was in the architects’ company was also taken.
The abductors’ vehicle, a two-door Jeep Wrangler, was found in the desert three kilometers from the restaurant. The kidnapped woman’s body was found beside the car.
“Presumably, the woman was acting as a decoy, either knowingly or unknowingly,” said Foreign Ministry press secretary Marko Turunen, who spoke to Holmlund by phone. “Apparently the girl was from Senegal. According to Holmlund, she was working as a courier. We don’t know what happened, but something went seriously wrong.”
An interpreter and driver were also with the men at the time of the abduction. Neither of them was injured, although eyewitnesses at the restaurant say several shots were fired.
According to one Malian security official, interviewed by HS Mali correspondent Yamoussa Diabaté, the men were held prisoner by the Tuareg Islamist group Ansar Dine. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official confirmed that the government of Mali bought the men’s freedom.
Over recent years 90 million dollars (70 million euros) in ransom money has been paid to West African terrorists. In addition to kidnapping, significant sources of terrorist revenue include drug running and human trafficking. “However you look at it, the fact is that jihad is mostly paid for with western money,” the security official said.
The Malian newspaper L’Essor reported that Tuareg separatists armed by Muammar Gaddafi have been working in concert with the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA). This group has significantly increased the risk of kidnapping for foreigners in the Mali area.
Both France and Finland flatly deny participating in ransom payments. “Finland does not pay ransoms. We are party to international agreements that prohibit the funding of terrorism,” said Foreign Minister
