"The best friend is the one who always reaches out to you" (Aristotle)

All crises have a particularity: they open up periods of uncertainty. All crises have a particularity: they open up periods of uncertainty. Very often, they correspond, for societies, to phases of introspection and transition. They are almost always accompanied by questioning. They lead, sometimes but not always, to the recovery of lost values.

The pandemic crisis due to the coronavirus, which humanity has not finished to develop, does not escape these few rules. It has challenged many predictions, raised a thousand and one questions and trampled many certainties. It has undoubtedly changed many paradigms.

But it has had the merit of bringing back to the forefront a value that we had tended to lose, one of the cardinal values of eternal Africa: solidarity between human beings.

Because it struck, without distinction, great and small, strong and weak, rich and poor, masters and disciples, it reminded us, sometimes at the cost of painful and inconsolable tears, that men are born equal and remain so their whole lives before God.

And that the earth that will welcome them in their last home is the same for all. Oh, of course, the hand that gives is better than the hand that receives, as they say. However, in some communities, the hand that gives has its palm turned towards the sky, so that the hand that takes is above.

But what does it matter if it was the big ones who supported the small ones, if it was the strong ones who helped the weak ones, if it was the rich ones who helped the poor ones and if it was the masters who consoled the disciples, the issue was elsewhere: the survival of societies through gestures of solidarity.

But, did we need a crisis like the one of Covid-19, to glorify solidarity?

Since the beginning, here and elsewhere, day and night, against all odds, men and women have been holding out saving hands, sometimes in general indifference, to those who, often out of modesty or dignity, do not dare to bend their fists to ask.

This is the story of these modern-day heroes, who sometimes act in the shadows but move mountains that, humbly, Manibus TV wants to put under the spotlight.

Many of them are young and we will meet in this gallery many women. Young people and women, two beefs that carry at the end of their hearts societies more and more inclined to individualism and selfishness.

These men and women remind us that wealth and well-being are not the monopoly of some, and that precarity and disability are not the fate of others.

Through the pages of this magazine, they invite us to reflect on the destinies that could have been those of a relative, a friend or simply our own, because, if heaven is, in essence, promised to all, no one is safe from a descent into hell, as long as we live.

But they also invite us to share the happiness of those who have found the joy of life through a chance encounter or simply those who have something to share or a happy story to tell.

They show us in many ways that it is our usefulness to others that justifies our existence on this earth. They do it without any calculation other than to serve, without expecting anything in return.

To those who face an opposite, temporary or final destiny, they say: "Let's give them a hand".

But they also know their limits and they are aware that, alone, they will not succeed, because there are so many cliffs to climb.

So, their call to the rest of society sounds like a cry for awareness: "Let's join hands!

BY FIDE?LE AFANOU EDEMBE

COORDINATOR OF THE OSC OF OGOOUÉ-MARITIME