Obock

"There are names of cities that seem to condense all the attractive power of a place, all the mythology on which our desire to travel is based. Thus Timbuktu, Zanzibar, Vancouver, Valparaiso ... It is the name of Obock, that of a former French colony that has become today the port of the Republic of Djibouti, which is at the origin of this story and the trip that Jean -Jacques Salgon undertakes in February 2016 to, in his words, go "visit what does not exist anymore". That Rimbaud and the explorer Nîmes Paul Soleillet one day crossed there, were able to talk about their commercial projects and perils incurred on the tracks which led their caravans towards the kingdom of Choa, that their adventurous life found In these hostile climates, each in its own way, its early end, this gives a particular relief to the evocations of which this book is woven. An exploration of the life of Soleillet, infinitely less known than that of Rimbaud (while an opposite situation prevailed in their lifetime), is the breadcrumb trail that guides us to these distant lands in both space and time. time. For the two traffickers, Abyssinia was a dream, a commercial dream, obstinate, devouring. It is towards this dream "where filtered the impulses of a true geographical passion" that this book leads us." --Translated from back cover