Francophonies: "In Africa, 'over there' means the West"

Ivorian actor and director Fargass Assandé presented the premiere of "Là-bas" at the Festival des Francophonies Zébrures d'Automne in Limoges.

© Siegfried Forster / RFI

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

6 min

When a son tries to leave for Europe and disappears ... “Over there”, by Ivorian actor and director Fargass Assandé, speaks in a subtle and intimate way of the mourning of those who remain in Africa, sentenced to life imprisonment of expectation.

A very applauded premiere at the Festival des Francophonies, Les Zébrures d'Automne, in Limoges.

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He has made his way to the theater, television, cinema ... Born in 1962 in Bongouanou, Ivory Coast, Fargass Assandé owes his love for the stage to Ivorian legends Bitty Moro and Bienvenu Neuba.

At the age of 23, Assandé created the N'Zassa Théâtre in Abidjan, before taking refuge in Burkina Faso in 2002 and continuing his career in France as well. 

In addition to his multiple commitments as an actor, he has directed many plays: from Friedrich Dürrenmatt to Gustave Akakpo, including Heiner Müller, Eugène Ionesco or his own works.  

In cinema, he worked in particular with the Ivorian Henri Duparc, considered the master of African comedy, and in 2015 won the prize for Best male interpretation at the Pan-African Festival Fespaco for his incarnation of the strength and madness of the warrior. traumatized Blackshouam in

, by Burkinabè Sékou Traoré.

He is also one of the key players in the new Ivorian series

on Canal +.  

In Limoges, at the Zébrures d'Automne, he presents

, a play written, directed and performed by himself, with the Cameroonian actress Yaya Mbilé Bitang.

RFI:

Fargass Assandé

This son is the heir of a master blacksmith, therefore rooted in a deep Dogon tradition.

These are people who usually do not leave their environment, since it has inheritance in charge.

But this son, for reasons of war in his country, decides to leave the territory, therefore to make the adventure, with the support of his father who is certain that his son will return.

Three years after the departure, there is still no news, remains the glance of the company, the big questions and the concerns of the parents.  

The father starts looking for "over

“Over there”, in Akan cosmogony (mythology), which goes from Ghana to the Ivory Coast, “over there”, in my mother tongue, is the afterlife.

For other peoples in Africa, “over there” means elsewhere, it is another territory, another country.

Generally, when we say there being in Africa, we mean the West.

And the father, who has no news of his child, decides to take a real trip, almost initiatory, a trip inside himself to try to admit the non-return of his son.

So he tries to go "over there".

And the mother retorts: " 

 ."

So how is he going to get there?

No one knows the "over there" or those who know it have never returned.

“Over there”, by Ivorian actor and director Fargass Assandé, with Cameroonian actress Yaya Mbilé Bitang.

© Siegfried Forster / RFI

Death often represents an imaginary place.

This imaginary place, is it only death or also life

“Over there” can be life, for those who attempt the adventure and succeed in reaching the West.

“Over there” is also death, the unknown, oblivion, absence.

This is what the term "over there" contains, depending on where you are.

In the case of the child, no one knows what “over there” he is in.

Even the parents, until the end, decide to do this ritual Nyame, the Creator God, to entrust the child to him, but they are still in doubt.

The father says it: how can we mourn without the deceased?  

At the start and end of this musical complaint-prayer piece, the mother sings in her mother tongue.

Everything else is told in French.

What does the French language represent for you

Everyone knows, first of all, French is a language that has been imposed on us, but, ultimately, it is the best thing that has happened to us in this colonization, in this mistreatment through the acquisition of our territories by the occupier.

This is the legacy he left us today and which allows us today to communicate with an audience here, with French friends.

It is this language that we have in common and it is a beautiful language for the rest.

So we try as best we can to enrich it.

For this, for us in Africa, the Francophonie is not the apology of the French language, but rather the contribution of our mother tongues to the enrichment of this language that we have in common. 

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