N’deye Coumba Mbengue was committed to the rights of women and children in Senegal. She met and became friends with the Paroles Indigo team when in 2021, during a Senegalese edition of the festival, they intervened in the crèche where she worked at the time. Subsequently creating her own support structure in the Saint-Louis region, she landed a partnership with Sciences Po Lyon, which invited her to France to support and develop her emerging project. But like many young people on the continent, she saw her visa refused. A decision which destroys the young woman but does not distract her from her objective. Embarked in a canoe with the hope of reaching her goal, she disappears at sea, with all the passengers in search of somewhere else. “To Coumba as well as to all these courageous young Africans, victims of an absurd house arrest, guilty of having defied it at the risk of their lives”, the 11th edition of the Paroles Indigo festival is dedicated.
A 2024 edition which gives pride of place to authors and artists from Cameroon and Senegal, including the author and historian Mamadou Diouf, professor at Columbia University in New York where he directs the Institute of African Studies. This is the title of his latest work, Africa in world timewhich the festival has chosen as the theme and common thread of the week of meetings and reflection which opens this Tuesday, October 29 in Saint-Martin-de-Crau and Marseille, before running its program in Arles until Sunday . Major intellectual, Mamadou Diouf will be present in Arles for a conference, Saturday afternoon, around his book, through which he addresses the question of writing history, demonstrating “how Africa is indeed inscribed through its history in world timeexplains Isabelle Grémillet, artistic director of Paroles Indigo. It is a very accessible approach even if you are not a specialist in Africa.“. A book published by Ròt-Bò-Krick, dedicated in particular to decolonial thought and which will also be present during the festival.
Among the other invited personalities, Cameroonian children’s author Alain Serge Dzotap, one of the few on the continent to be translated into several languages, will lead writing workshops for children aged 7 to 11. His compatriot Christian Epanya, author and illustrator also for young readers, is also featured in Paroles Indigo. “They are truly the two leaders in their field“, underlines Isabelle Grémillet. Still under the colors of Cameroon, the photographer Sarah Dauphiné Tchouatcha will present, before its commercial exploitation, the film that she co-directed around the work of Mongo Beti, author of a significant book on the economic plunder of his country, Hands down on Cameroonand to which a tribute will be paid at the National School of Photography.
Another African country highlighted for its creative dynamics, Senegal is represented by Pathé Dièye. The author, poet and slammer will lead a poetry workshop Saturday and Sunday at the Arles antique departmental museum, closed with a public restitution. A work carried out with the complicity of the Senegalese Hajar Pourmera Thiam who will also be heard during various readings and on the occasion of the 6th edition of the Lycéen.ne.s Poètes program, from November 4 to 8 in establishments of Arles and Tarascon.
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