The Honorary Consul.

Mark Saade is the Honorary Malian Consul in London. Born in Segou of Lebanese parents, he is a third generation Malian and runs an ambitious and very thorough Consulate it seems to me: certainly not much  resemblance to Graham Greene’s  whisky-soaked and wistful character here...

 I visited the Consulate yesterday: only a pleasant short walk through the lovely autumnal Notting Hill streets.                                                              

The Consulate doubles up as Mark’s architectural practice.  I was very pleased to find out that it is possible to get visas for Mali there. That is it then. No more queuing up at the dreary old Surete in Bamako, with the grumpy Madame Maiga whom my Keita always quarreled with when he used to accompany me to the visa place.

Mark is helping me to try and find sponsors for the Djenne Manuscript Library, so it can at least stay open. He will be going out to Mali at the beginning of December and will be present at the ceremony that marks the opening of the Bamako version of the exhibition which is now at the British Library.

He seems hopeful and has great contacts- here and in Bamako- so hopefully...

                                                                          

And last night our little Dante reading group finally  finished the  Inferno! It has taken us nearly a year to reach  the final line of the  final stanza  as Dante and Virgil emerge from the deep:

'to look once more upon the stars'.

We celebrated by seeing a beautiful film, the very first feature length movie ever made: the Italian 'Inferno' from 1911, with some lovely 'special effects': here the unfortunate lovers are swept around eternally by a great wind in the Circle of the Lustful. In the New Year we will begin to climb 'Purgatorio',  the sequel in Dante's epic poem.