In Mali, KotEsope and BiBook promote the Francophonie

The Malian association Culture en Partage launched the KotEsope project on the social network TikTok and on YouTube. This project stages Aesop's fables in the form of a koteba with two actors, one who speaks in Bambara, one of the Malian languages, and the other answering him in French. © TikTok screenshot @Cultureenpartage

Text by: Sidy Yansané Follow

3 min

This Monday, March 20, is celebrated as the International Day of La Francophonie. For this year 2023, the theme chosen by the International Organization of La Francophonie is "321 million Francophones, billions of cultural content". It is a question of promoting the creation of cultural content, and above all facilitating its dissemination and access on the internet.

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In Mali, the artists' association Culture en Partage launched the KotEsope project on the social network TikTok and on YouTube. "KotAesop" is the contraction of "kotéba", the famous traditional Malian theater, and "Aesop", writer of the sixth century BC, considered the inventor of the fable, which will inspire Jean de La Fontaine, Phèdre or Charles Perrault, and to whom we sometimes attribute African origins.

KotEsope, the koteba in fables

With a series of 18 five-minute video sketches, KotEsope stages Aesop's fables in the form of a koteba with two actors, one who speaks in Bambara, one of the Malian languages, and the other answering him in French. Since they went online just a few months ago, these videos have racked up more than a million views on TikTok.

The whole story contained in the fable is thus told in Bambara and French, so someone who does not know French but knows Dioula, Bambara, Malinké etc. understands everything, and vice versa. " explains Jean-Louis Sagot-Duvauroux.

This French writer and playwright, who lives between Mali and France, has adapted these fables of Aesop to Malian: "This allows us to see how these two languages play, especially in Mali where French has gradually become a language of use that mixes in conversation with local languages.

KotEsop also has a pedagogical function. We are doing a lot of work with a network of thirteen schools in Bamako. French is the language of instruction, but students often arrive without understanding it because it is not spoken within their families. It's very difficult to learn history, arithmetic, in a language you don't understand. With KotEsope, we have a concept that allows us to become familiar, to make it something that is part of their imagination, to remember words too because we end all the sketches with a particular word that we put forward, "he continues.

BiBook, the literary application by and for Africa

The BiBook application, a mix of Bambara and English that can be translated as "today's book", offers a free catalogue of carefully selected books, the themes being centered on Africa and the stories related to it. For example, on the life of the American Frederick Douglass, the famous freed slave, or on Askia Mohammed, ruler of the former Songhai empire in present-day Mali. The latter is also the most downloaded book of the application created in 2019 and which already records more than 35,000 downloads.

We promote reading and speaking in French because most of our literary cafés in schools are held in this language. ", explains Luke Tamou Koné, developer and director of BiBook, for whom these cultural contents are the best vectors of the French language.

We encourage young people to write content that speaks about us, our history, our culture, encourages us to consume it, to produce around what we live and to have a literary commitment. Because if what you write is of good quality, it spreads at least in your region of origin. It's a big boost that BiBook gives to the French language," he continues.

The BiBook application is currently being refounded. It should be available again in April 2023. Building on its success, the team will install a paid option to distribute and support books by contemporary African authors.

In Mali, KotEsope and BiBook promote the Francophonie

In Mali, KotEsope and BiBook promote the Francophonie

KotEsope, the koteba in fables

BiBook, the literary application by and for Africa

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