The Monitor's View: Quote

I thought . . . I would begin by trying to serve the first things in myself, to turn to the point of origin in myself, to my own moment of innocence when the first things of Africa came over the rim of imagination like starlight out of the night so dearly loved by my native continent. I realized that earliest and latest, old and new, primitive and civilized had met in my life in a way which was perhaps unique. I had experienced primitive Africa, the first life of the land. If I succeeded in rediscovering my own first experience of the first things of Africa, if I honoured them in myself, I might help others to rediscover and honour the same things in themselves. It would not matter that I possessed no expert training or knowledge. Consciously or unconsciously, one lives not only one's life but also the life of our times.