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So, have you made your kite yet?
In French, this object is called a cerf-volant – a flying stag. Which raises the question “why should a stag be flying?“Well, in fact, the cerf-volant has an ancient history and went through a few linguistic mutations. Originally, it was called a serp-volant. In Latin, a serps was a snake. Giving rise to the “chimera” of such a creature dancing in the blue sky. I also learned that in German, this object so precious to a child’s heart, is named after a “dragon”. In German, “drachen”, “drage” in Norwegian Danish and Swedish, “sakany” in Hungarian and “Ziha” in Kurdish. In Castilian, it becomes a comet “cometas”, in Basque “kometa”, “estel”, star in Catalan, in Italian it’s “aquilone” from “aquilo”, eagle. And in English, kite, another raptor of the eagle family…
In any event, if the facts hold true, we can thank the Chinese of the 4th century BC. The object served as a link both to mythology and to religion, since its bird shape was used to attract the attention of the spirits. True, some evil minds claim that the “flying dragons” were first used for military purposes as means of communication or even of intimidation of the enemy. But let’s remain in the poetic imagery of this bird flitting about between the clouds and bucking at the end of our fingers.
Because what we are holding in our hands is a history of resistance. Struggles, resistances, revolutions cannot exist without poetry:
Kite, your resistance
Comes
From constantly
Bucking the wind
So, have you made your kite yet?
Remember, we have a meeting set for June 5 in Nice, to mark a Europe without walls, a meeting of thousands of feminists, women, men, and all genders… And for this day, we call on joy, conviction and, mostly, wind. Because, you see, all together, we will transform its kinetic energy for once, not into mechanical energy but into a huge, communicative, feminist energy.
We call on the Mistral, of course, the master wind of the region. The one that shapes the landscapes but also the towns, the buildings, the gardens… We call up the Aguileoun, the western Garbin, the Greek one blowing on the waters, the soft humidity rising in the East… May the Libeccio rule, the Marin unleash itself in announcing fine weather. The Sirocco, the Tramontane… No matter which one, we want wind in Nice. Wind that gives wings!
Those wings will carry our words up high. “We feminists living in Europe, of every social class and of every age, no matter our origins, our life choices, our worlds…We raise our voice to say:
NO! These European policies cannot be carried out in our name!”
We do not agree and we wish to “break with the patriarchal and military history, in favor of freedom to circulate on the planet, for a Europe without walls, for a dignified welcome and the recognition of specific reasons for asylum granted to women, to lesbians, to all persons not in conformity with the patriarchal order, so as to create spaces of resistance and solidarity in the struggles.”
In one of her latest columns, the feminist and antimilitarist sociologist Pınar Selek, exiled in Nice, said “we will make them fly together above the sea which is also a murderous frontier.”
“It is more than time to deploy our forces to render visible what isn’t.”
So, is your kite ready?
If not, watch how to make one:
Headline illustration: Naz Oke for TAF
Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
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