Flora, a woman from Flores, Salia, a Neanderthal woman and Kai, a Sapiens woman, had no reason to meet. But when a natural disaster brings them together in the same part of the world, their paths cross for a time. In contact with each other, despite their limited means of communication and the absence of a shared verbal language, they learn about mutual aid, benevolence, a form of care and sisterhood that is still little-known. At the same time, they will have to face up to dangers which, from aurochs to water shortages, from toxic gas to aggressive hunters, will make this alliance more necessary than ever.
Although this postulate is scientifically implausible, it is at least the story that Wilfried N’Sondé wanted to imagine after seeing the wax statues of these three “prehistoric women” side by side at the musée des Confluences in Lyon. In just a few pages, he presents us with a veritable fresco of our origins, reminding us that the hominids we are today are nothing more than the product of the successive evolution of different species, each passing on to the next what was most precious to them. In so doing, he also questions notions of performance, evolution and diversity, inviting us to cherish differences and welcome otherness, always a source of enrichment. It also reminds us of the power of fiction to support the imagination where scientific evidence is sometimes limited.
