Miñan, by Ibrahima Balde and Amets Arzallus
(Full English text available)
Ibrahima is a teenager from a village in Guinea without much expectations. He left the village to go with his father to the capital city, where they sell shoes in a street corner. At the sudden death of his father, he becomes the head of the family and learns various professions, always alone and away from home, although his dream is to be a truck driver in his country.
When his little brother Alhassane leaves school to flee to Europe, Ibrahima is shocked and leaves everything behind to try to find Alhassane and convince him to go back to their village and continue his education. Ibrahima risks his life many times to reach Algeria and find Alhassane to convince him to return home.
After many penalties, he learns that Alhassane has died in a shipwreck. Ibrahima feels guilty for not having managed to find him and convince him to continue studying. In the end, Ibrahima raises money for the trip to Spain in a zodiac that is about to capsize, but they are rescued.
Miñan was originally published in Basque . It is now on its fourth reprint in Basque language.
The book (152 pages in the original Basque edition) is written in four hands between its protagonist Ibrahima, a migrant from the Republic of Guinea who crossed the desert and the borders of the EU to look for his brother, and Amets Arzallus. In fact, Ibrahima is illiterate and that is why at the beginning of the book it says that "This book has been written by Ibrahima with the voice and by Amets with the hand."
[The two brothers don't call each other by names; they use a common name: Alhassane calls him koto, ‘older brother’ in their language, and Ibrahima calls him miñan, ‘little brother’; hence the title].
Miñán has the thrill of a road-movie: each stage that the protagonist covers takes us to another world, with different customs, other people, other languages, another landscape, other currencies, and above all, a new challenge to overcome. Also with a new aberration, because Ibrahima’s epic journey is a succession of tragedies, but friendship, generosity of strangers and the courage to move forward against all odds are never lacking. His story never falls into the melodrama, sometimes humor even sneaks in.
Ibrahima's goal (to rescue his brother from a dream that might go wrong) is as universal as the feeling of guilt and tears he shares with the reader. But he tells it without bragging, relying on the roundness of the facts, and with a look of an overwhelming humanity.
