« The mouth is noisier than the drum »
Bantou proverb
Here is the first Africultures dossier compiled entirely in an African county. More will follow. We thought it important to explain this undertaking.
Our aim is to ask a leading local cultural player to coordinate the writing and compilation of an Africultures dossier which testifies to the vitality of his or her country’s cultural forms and debates. In short, which testifies to what’s going on. It is an obviously subjective and thus perilous undertaking. Indeed, given the journal’s space restrictions, choices have to be made, favourites plummeted for, and the frustration of those who do not feature and who do not write in it faced up to. And it of course involves affirming a point of view beyond all connivance.
These dossiers are financed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Cultural Action Fund. In an agreement with the French Cooperation on the ground, the cultural organization in charge of the dossier receives a (respectable but not excessive) lump sum to be shared out between the writing and coordination of the dossier, and the photo royalties.
Does this give them control over the contents? Not at all. The dossiers are compiled by the coordinator, who sends them directly to Africultures. This freedom is much to the credit of the financier who, on occasion, gets its knuckles rapped, as is the case in this dossier. Moreover, an aid for distribution in the country is also generally provided.
All that to say that, even though financed in a North-South framework, these dossiers follow a South-North logic. Africultures publishes, but does not intervene in the contents. All that to say too that these dossier are in keeping with Africultures’ general aim: to establish relations with African partners in order to realize joint projects in which no one tries to take the other’s place.
Conceived of by different people, these dossiers will come in succession without resembling one another. Each coordinator will leave his or her mark on their conception and the realization. Many thanks to Camille Amouro, Beninese author and playwright, and driving force behind the Médiathèque des Diasporas in Cotonou, a cultural centre independent from all powers, for having coordinated this dossier. His writing, which is well-known to Africultures readers, is unbridled and cutting, sparing neither one group nor the other. In order to introduce a country as culturally rich as Benin, he has avoided cataloguing and judgements, preferring to prioritize the keys of an eminently complex culture, and often delegating the writing to confirmed specialists. This dossier also offers a range of viewpoints in which political and human factors mingle with voodoo and traditional forms. A series of paths to help us apprehend today’s creations whilst steering clear of superficiality.
///Article N° : 5463
