Laura Adebayo

My aunt named me Achakè (child chosen to be pampered). My mother gave me the first name of Adebayo (the one who comes to find joy). My great-uncle (my aunt's husband) whom I loved very much and who established my birth certificate gave me the first name Laure.

My first names are Laure, Adebayo, Abebi, Achakè. My family belongs to the Madjè Morodji community of attakè, a district of Porto-Novo, the administrative capital of Benin (West Africa).

I was born on July 4, 1949 in Athiémé, a city in the province of Mono, a province of Dahomey, currently Republic of Benin. I got married at 35. The Almighty gave me adorable children, despite my advanced age. I give him thanks.

I have only one uterine brother: Machoudi, and several consanguineous brothers and sisters: Mamoudou, Koudriath, Alimath, Ibath, Issiac Hervé, Nouredine, Ismaël, Sylviane, Djarin, Pierre, Justin, Clémentine. Some brothers and sisters are in Europe (France, Belgium, Greece), others in Africa (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Benin). I have a cousin whom I really appreciate: he is an architect, his name is Gratien.

A fact marked me a lot in my childhood: it was the absence of my biological parents. I didn't have the joy and happiness of seeing them live together. I was only a few months old when they separated, my mother told me. I missed their affection very much. I often hid to cry.

My father was an African doctor and lived in Bangui (Chad) where he had been assigned. I didn't really know my father until I was 8 years old. As for my mother, I saw her very little. She had remarried and was doing her business in the province of Mono. When she was leaving, she would say to me in the Yoruba language: “In three days, I will be back”. I began to count the days...The three days could last three months.

My mother was a beautiful woman of mixed race, "very light-skinned", as we say back home. One day, returning from school (I must have been seven or eight years old), I saw, from behind, a very pale woman bent down in the yard of the house. I took her for my mother and threw myself on her. When I saw it wasn't my mother, I started crying. The poor lady didn't know why I was crying.

I lived with my great-grandmother, my grandmother who pampered me. She was in my care. I lacked nothing, but despite that, I missed the affection of my parents...

Another highlight of my childhood is the period of long school holidays. My mother came to take me to spend them with her and my half-brothers and sisters. I really liked this period. We went to several villages where she did her business. She lived in Athieme. On Sundays, we went to wash our clothes in the Mono River. We also washed in it and brought water to the jars at home for cooking and drinking. We didn't have running water. It was the water from the river that we drank in those days. Despite
that, we were doing wonderfully.

A few other vivid memories: A few days before Ramadan, an aunt wanted to buy me some new imported shoes in a shop, but I refused to enter because I saw something spinning on the ceiling, I I was afraid he would fall and cut off my head. This is the first time I have seen a ceiling fan.

One evening, an uncle had taken my cousins ​​and me to see a film in an open-air room on a giant screen, title of the film: "Samson and Dalida or a woman's revenge". I was terrified by the scenes, by what I saw on the screen. I wanted to urinate. My uncle tells me that we have to go behind the screen to relieve ourselves. I said: "never, those who are behind the screen will kill me!" ". All
the world laughed around me. I wondered why he was laughing, because I hadn't said anything funny...

When I was a child, I dreamed of being a teacher (teacher in primary school). My older brothers and sisters called me: “Institutrice Florence”.

After entering 6th grade, I was placed in Protestant secondary school in Cotonou. My father sent me to boarding school. After the 2nd year, I continued as a boarder at the Lycée Toffa 1er for young girls in Porto-Novo until the 1st D class (Cégep). Failed the probationary exam with a good average, my father sent me to Bordeaux (France) for the Terminale S class (DEC
scientific), the probationary examination being abolished in France. So I got my Baccalaureate at the Lycée Montaigne in Bordeaux. I enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Place de la Victoire in Bordeaux to study Pharmacy. I got my pharmacy degree in 1977, option biology. I had to pass 4 certificates to have the title of biologist pharmacist, but I preferred to do the pharmacy.

I liked reading. I read a few novels by Victor Hugo such as Les Miserables. I also read Katia, the blue demon, by Alexandre Tsar.

My favorite music is in Yoruba: Sony Ade, Femi Kouty, Abeni. Background: Dena Gan. In French: Charles Aznavour, Michele Torr, Nana Mouskouri and Mireille Mathieu.

My favorite colors are brown and white.

My favorite dish is the Moyo akan okoun that my ancestor prepared for me. It is a dish made from very large crabs with tomatoes, chilli, onion and gari. My favorite dessert is coffee flan.

My favorite smell is the smell of jasmine flower.