Mathieu Kerekou

Whether we are poor among the poorest, or less poor among the wealthier, let us stand proud and noteworthy, united and strong, comforted by our belonging to the Community of the Free Nations of our Planet.

Put two ships in the open sea, without wind or tide, and, at last, they will come together. Throw two planets into space, and they will fall one on the other. Place two enemies in the midst of a crowd, and they will inevitably meet; it is a fatality, a question of time; that is all.

There is a recurring temptation for any nation, and for any writer who operates within its field of force, to make an ornament of the past: to turn the losses to victories and to restate humiliations as triumphs.