Research MFF, Benga, Village of the Future:
Logbook, week 4: Speculation on the genesis of Benga’s worldview
The average person, in principle, cannot trace their memory back to the period before they were 2-3 years old. Most people can have some very vague memories of when they were between 4 and 5 years old.
Therefore, at that age they have already integrated certain patterns into their consciousness, such as language, mannerisms, etc. This indicates that we carry patterns within us that we no longer remember from their starting point, or from the moment that memory was made.
These patterns become a kind of pillar that defines the construction of meanings and understanding of reality. It’s no coincidence that psychoanalysts and therapists always try to understand their patients’ childhoods, because their adult actions are often the result of structures defined in the past.
I apologise for the long introduction, but this text is still about Benga. Located in the province of Tete, the hottest in the country, which can even reach over 40 degrees, perhaps this is why during the summer people prefer to sleep outside their homes. They spread out their mats inside a mosquito net and spend the nights there.
Once, at dawn, I walked down the street where my neighbours were sleeping in their backyards without walls, completely exposed to the sky.
My neighbour was sleeping with his wife and their baby, who was awake, playing in the hammock in the middle of the night. Next to them, a dog was lying down (no longer surprised to see its owners leaving the house to keep it company in the open), attentive, raised its head and ears, without moving or getting up, recognised me by smell and let me pass without barking.
The insects made an ambient sound that was bigger than them, Mr Lúcio’s donkeys entertained themselves with a nocturnal braying in the rutting season and ran free through the village without ever stepping on anyone sleeping, the foliage of the trees responded in unison to the blowing of the wind in a sound reminiscent of the sea, the sky was covered in stars and the child recorded these patterns and others, thus building the basic elements of his worldview.
