Mbour
Fishing and market town on Senegal’s Petite Côte, south of Dakar.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness | Carlo Rovelli | turning point | A mosque where an old man carries Rovelli’s shoes in for him: the scene that gives the book its title. |
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There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness — Carlo Rovelli (2020)
Source: There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness · Readwise highlight
I am speechless: there are places in the world where rules are less important than kindness.
- Role: turning point
- In the book: The essay “A Day in Africa”. Rovelli has been spending a few weeks at the Institute of Mathematics in Mbour and sets out by collective taxi through the crowded market to see “something of the ‘real’ Africa”, travelling inland to villages and back by bus. At dusk, back in Mbour, he follows worshippers into a big mosque, carrying his sandals. A young man stops him at the door because shoes must not enter; an old man smiles, puts the shoes in a black plastic bag and carries them inside himself. Inside, in the calm of the near-empty hall, comes the line above.
- Why it matters: It is the climax of the essay and the source of the book’s title. The contrast between the chaotic town outside and the quiet mosque is the whole point; set anywhere else, the title would have no scene behind it.