Erica Meade did the logo (and the book covers, and this Web site, and everything in my endeavors that has to do with esthetics, design, technology, and beauty).
The Shield/Coat of Arms device sums it all up: faith, endurance, hard work, courage, heart—all the elements needed to fight the battle that is life.
- Liguey - Mbeguel - Yermende is Wolof for Work - Love - Compassion.
- Africa — a place for which I have a mystical, visceral, profound attachment.
- The Lion — my totem animal and, as it happens, Senegal’s.
- The Sword reinforces the idea of a continuing quest, of being at war. The war has two fronts: spiritual (to rise above one’s defects, fears, and limitations, and to strive for greatness); and temporal (to make one’s way into the world, to gain back that which has been lost through slavery, colonization, and economic stagnation, and to restore a people’s dignity, a country’s standing, a culture’s luster).
- The Pen — my true livelihood, my love, my mission, my commitment, my credo, my modus operandi. A mighty object, if only speaking figuratively. A keyboard or computer screen would have been appropriate substitutes on the logo. They don’t look half as cool.
