Raw Academy en visite à Kër Thiossane

Le 23 novembre 2016, une délégation de Raw Academy, sous la conduite de la Directrice artistique de Raw Material Company, s’est rendue au siège de Kër Thiossane, au quartier Sicap-Liberté 1, à Dakar. Echanges avec les artistes-multimédias du Fab-Lab, Entretien avec Marion Louisgrand Sylla, directrice de Ker Thiossane et visite guidée au menu de la tournée. 

Bon à savoir

Espace culturel et Multimédia pour l’imagination artistique et citoyenne, Kër Thiossane axe depuis 2002 ses activités autour des recherches sur l’art et les nouvelles technologies et sur ce qu’elles impliquent dans nos sociétés. Lieu de recherche, de résidence, de création et de formation, Kër Thiossane tente de créer des relations à l’art et au multimédia d’un autre type. Pôle de ressource pour la création numérique en Afrique, cet espace indépendant a organisé depuis 2008 cinq éditions du festival Afropixel en marge de la Biennale de Dakar.

Entretien avec Marion

Un selfie dans la nature

Entrée jardin, on vit bio !

Echange avec les artistes multimédia

Toujours au Fab Lab....

Une partielle du Centre

Nous y sommes !

Une toute petite case....

Voici Miss Monde 2016

Miss Monde 2016 et ses dauphines

La plus belle femme au monde s’appelle Stéphanie Del Valle. La jeune Portoricaine élue Miss Monde 2016, a reçu sa couronne des mains de l’Espagnole Mireira Lalaguna qui avait remporté ce titre en 2015. 

La cérémonie a eu lieu dimanche 18 décembre à Oxon Hill, près de Washington. 

Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramirez de nationalité dominicaine est la première dauphine. Elle est suivie de Natasha Mannuella, Miss Indonésie 2016. 

Evelyn Niambi Thungu, Miss Kenya, arrive en 4ème position. La Philippine Catriona Gray complète le Top 5 de cette 66^ème édition qui mettait en lice 117 candidates. 

Miss Monde 2016 a 19 ans. Elle est étudiante en communication à la Pace University, située à New York. Avant son couronnement dimanche dernier, elle faisait du mannequinat. Elle est notamment la muse du designer porto-ricain Carlos Alberto.

L’Afrique était représentée à ce concours de beauté par 16 pays : L’Afrique du Sud, la Côte d’Ivoire, l’Egypte, le Ghana, la Guinée, la Guinée équatoriale, la Guinée Bissau, le Kenya, le Lesotho, l’Ile Maurice, l’Ouganda, la République démocratique du Congo, les Seychelles, la Sierra Leone, le Soudan du Sud, la Tanzanie et la Tunisie.

Stéphanie Del Valle parle trois langues : espagnol, anglais et français. Elle souhaite désormais travailler dans l’industrie du divertissement.

Passation de couronne

Bon à savoir:

Miss Monde 2016: Stéphanie del Valle, Porto Rico

1ère dauphine: Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramírez République Dominicaine 

2ème dauphine: Natasha Mannuela, Indonésie

Top 5
• Kenya : Evelyn Njambi Thungu
• Porto Rico : Stephanie del Valle
• Indonésie : Natasha Mannuela
• République Dominicaine : Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramírez
• Philippines : Catriona Gray

Top 10 
• Philippines : Catriona Gray
• Indonésie : Natasha Mannuela
• Belgique : Lenty Frans
• Brésil : Beatrice Bessera de Fontoura
• Kenya : Evelyn Njambi Thungu
• République Populaire de Chine : Jing Kong
• République Dominicaine : Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramírez
• Porto Rico : Stephanie del Valle
• Etats-Unis : Audra Mari
• Corée : Hyun Wang
• Mongolie : Bayartsetseg Altangerel (Choix du peuple)

Top 20
• République Populaire de Chine: Jing Kong
• Philippines : Catriona Gray
• Les îles Cook : Natalia Short
• Mongolie : Bayartsetseg Altangerel
• Indonésie : Natasha Mannuela
• France : Morgane Edvige
• Kenya : Evelyn Njambi Thungu
• Etats-Unis : Audra Mari
• Inde : Priyadarshini Chatterjee
• Slovaquie : Kristina Cincurova
• Belgique : Lenty Frans
• Porto Rico : Stephanie del Valle
• Australie : Madeline Cowe
• Thaïlande : Jinnita Buddee
• Brésil : Beatrice Bessera de Fontoura
• Ghana : Anthoinette Delali Kemavor
• Japon : Priyanka Yoshikawa
• République Dominicaine : Yaritza Miguelina Reyes Ramírez
• Hongrie : Timea Gelencser
• Corée : Hyun Wang

Euphorie

Émotions

Miss Kenya Evelyn Njambi Thungu, à droite (Photo)

 Majestueuse !

                            

      Stéphanie Del Valle                                    

     

En toute simplicité avec la légende Nadal

Bienvenue à Toubab Dialaw !

(Crédit): Narciz Diaz Pujol

Au sud de Dakar, entre Bargny et Popenguine, une bourgade promène le voyageur le long de la Petite-Côte. Ici, tous les guides touristiques racontent qu’un certain El Hadj Omar Tall, figure inspiratrice des « Toucouleurs » aurait fait jaillir sur les plages, une source d’eau aux vertus mystérieuses. Jeudi 24 novembre 2016, au cours d’une visite de travail dans la localité, sous l’initiative de Raw Material Company, nous avons voulu aiguiser notre curiosité. Toutesfois, dans les artères du village, personne ou presque, n’a jamais vu ce personnage mythique. Quid de la source aux vertus mystérieuses ? Toujours est-il que tous y croient. Tout simplement. Et se laissent bercer par cette fable qui a traversé des générations de « Dialawois ».

Germaine Acogny: Je danse donc je suis...

Germaine Acogny 

C’est ici au bord de l’océan atlantique, loin du tintamarre de la capitale sénégalaise que Germaine Acogny et Helmut Vogt ont posé leurs valises il y a plus d’une décennie. Lui, avait de bonnes notions de la gestion des affaires. Elle, savait danser. Danser pour transmettre ses émotions. Danser pour sentir qu’elle existe. Danser pour donner un sens à cette vie si éphémère qu’elle croque à belles dents du haut de ses 72 ans. Auteure de « La Danse africaine » publié en 1980, Germaine Acogny, née au Bénin, de nationalité franco-sénégalaise, est une passionnée de danse. En 1968, elle avait créé à Dakar, un studio de danse. Entre 1977 et 1982, elle avait dirigé « Mudra Afrique », créé par Maurice Béjart et le président Léopold Sédar Senghor. L’on sait par exemple qu’elle était installée à Bruxelles avec la compagnie de Maurice Béjart et avait organisé des stages internationaux de danse africaine qui remportèrent un franc succès auprès du public européen. En 1985, elle avait fondé avec son Helmut le « Studio-école ballet-théâtre du 3e monde » à Toulouse.

Helmut Vogt (centre) en conversation avec Koyo Kouoh (Droite) , Rasha Salti (gauche) et M.H Pereira 

Ecole des Sables

A Toubab Dialaw, le couple Vogt a fondé une Ecole de danse, en 2004. Qui ne connait pas l’Ecole des Sables de Toubab Dialaw ? Il suffit de demander au boutiquier du coin : « Où se trouve « Jant-Bi » ? » Jant-Bi, pour signifier en wolof : « le soleil ». Voilà qui est dit. 

A la lisière des plages, les fondateurs de l’école ont installé une tente presqu’inamovible. Elle est spacieuse et solide comme un roc et sert de piste de danse. Pour parer à la fureur des vents qui soufflent sur le pays quand arrive décembre, ils ont pris des dispositifs pour s’adapter selon les caprices du climat. Tous les ans, ils y organisent une/ou deux résidences, précise monsieur Vogt. La quarantaine de pensionnaires vient des quatre coins du monde. Les professeurs de danse viennent d’Afrique, d’Europe ou d’Amérique latine. C’est avec beaucoup d’enthousiasme que le sieur Helmut a accueilli l’équipe de Raw Academy, qu’accompagnaient pour la circonstance les curatrices indépendantes Rasha Salti, par ailleurs Directrice du corps professoral de cette première promotion  et Koyo Kouoh, Directrice artistique et fondatrice de Raw Material Company.

Campement 

A leurs débuts, les Vogt n’avaient installé que le nécessaire. Puis, l’école a drainé du beau monde. Germaine et Helmut ont donc fait du lieu une sorte de campement. Ils y ont planté des arbres pour donner un tonus à l’environnement, installé des sanitaires, ouvert un restaurant pour satisfaire les p'tits gourmets. Germaine et Helmut y ont mis toutes leurs économies, avec l’espoir d’un véritable retour sur investissement. Toutefois, précise Helmut, les difficultés ne manquent pas. La demande en résidences est grande. Mais les jeunes artistes africains n’ont pas toujours les moyens de s’assurer une formation en danse. Or, les Vogt veulent y croire. Au quotidien, ils donnent le meilleur d'eux pour maintenir cette Ecole devenue une référence pour de nombreux danseurs, chorégraphes et plasticiens du monde entier. En attendant l’arrivée de nouveaux visiteurs, Helmut alterne entre les alizées, le sable et les rochers qui rythment le quotidien de ces 3 000 âmes reparties à travers Toubab Dialaw. Germaine elle, est toujours partie. Toujours entre deux avions, elle n’hésite pas à partager avec la jeune génération, cet art qu’elle maîtrise le mieux. Mais l’absence n’est jamais très longue. Aussitôt partie, Aussitôt rentrée, car les Vogt refusent de « voir s’éteindre leur soleil ». Jant-Bi !

Irène Gaouda, à Toubab Dialaw

Bon à savoir:
Localités les plus proches (A vol d'oiseau): Gorée, Thilaw, Tilene, Tiabla, Lela, Khobi, Kelle, Yene Tode et Tiabla
Principaux habitants: Lebou
Nombre d'habitants: Un peu plus de 3 000
Activités: Pêche (village de pêcheurs adossé à la falaise)
                 Tourisme, baignade, promenade

Camping camping !

Un pas de plus...

Une vue partielle de l'Ecole des sables

Raw Academy: On creuse, on creuse !

Les résidences à l'Ecole des Sables

Des dinosaures en plein 21ème siècle !

Le rivage....

Une vue partielle de l'Ecole des sables

(Crédit): Madiaw Njaay

Maitre Gims - On n'est pas couché 10 décembre 2016 #ONPC

Gadi Ramadhani

Gadi Ramadhani (Tanzania) is an artist, curator and exhibition producer. His areas of interest include art as it intersects with social issues through multiple artistic disciplines. Gadi is the founder of Koko’TEN, a mobile art center that believes in the transformative power of the arts in communities in Tanzania. 

Prior to this, Gadi served as a project manager for Nafasi Art Space from 2009 to 2011. During that time he managed the exhibitions program, which included displays by national and international artists. The exhibitions were often augmented with panel discussions, workshops, and interdisciplinary events. Select professional highlights include: curator for Domocrazy Cartoonists Exhibition: Vipaji Gallery (2015) Assistant curator for Impose/Expose: Art Revealing Space in Dar es Salaam (2015), co-curator for 28 Words in Maputo, Asiko | CCA Lagos: Fortaleza de Maputo (2015),co-juror for the Art Cross Border Competition by Emergent Art Space, California (2012); co-curator for The Art of Carving by Hamed Athuman exhibition (2011) and program manager and public relations officer for the East Africa Art Biennale(2009) & (2011) respectively.

Gadi Ramadhani is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Narcis Diaz Pujol

Narcis Diaz was born in Figueres (Spain) in 1986. He studied Fine Arts between 2004 and 09 in Barcelona and one year as an exchange student in the Kungl. Konsthogskolan in Stockholm. 

On 2008 he start exhibiting his artworks in galleries and art centers. His work was focused mainly on postmodern painting: syncretic large canvases. 

At that time he became engaged with social and political activism. First with the students protests against the Bologna Process, later the 15M, and afterwards with some anti-racist and anti-fascism collectives. He also began to be interested in critical theory due to the work of Paul B. Preciado as a director of PEI of MACBA. 

He gave up making art for four years, but in 2014 he go back to art production. In 2015 he studied marxist theory with Raimundo Viejo. The last year he has been working with Berto Martinez on a project about the representation of the Atlantic colonization, and with David Bonet on a project about the representation of the evil in Europe. 

He has also has worked as an art professor in a high school.  Narcis Diaz Pujol Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Frida Robles Ponce

Frida Robles is a text-based artist currently living in Mexico City. In her working practice she looks for spaces to place ideas and then, letting ideas be affected by places. She is particularly interested on how poetry can reside outside the page, with the understanding that poetry can be a powerful means of social and personal conscience.Her interest is frequently related to notions of memory and self-construction narratives. Some of her reflections on these matters have been expressed in her creative essays. 

Recently she finished her first book entitled "All love letters are ghost stories", project supported by the Young Creators FONCA scholarship. Open to collaboration, her art focuses on finding new artistic research practices and participatory strategies. Robles explores the idea of street-based art as a means to keep art alive, real. 

She holds a bachelor degree in History from the Iberoamericana University (Mexico City) and a master's degree from the University of Applied Arts (Vienna). Member of the artist collective Blind Date Collaboration and the urban lab [applied] foreign affairs.

Frida Robles Ponce is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Madiaw Ndiaye

Born in Keur Mor Ndiaye (region of Thies, Senegal), Madiaw grew up in Dakar and developed an interest for drama at Lycée Blaise Diagne. 

He was involved in several drama projects: The Baobab Théâtre group, Directed by Abdel Kader Diarra (Pichininiko), the Idéo o Lasso workshop with Élodie Saos, the D Gens T group, with Corine St Faust, as well as several short projects on body movement, acting and actor direction, namely with Jules Souleyman Laubert and the Cie des Cries and with Khaled Tamer from Cie Graine de soleil. After being involved in several theater plays, he won the lead role in the short film entitled “La Statuette mystérieuse” by the American Director Mike Brown. 

In 2013, he joined a group of Senegalese voice-over artists to China to dub Chinese films and teleplays to be broadcast in Senegal. He had the opportunity to direct major events at the Grand Theatre, including the Penccu Art concert with Takeifa and that of the rap artist Simon; he worked as Assistant to Dr Massamba Gueye, the Artistic Director and Director of the show “Le retour de la légende Oumar Pene”. 

He also co-directed the Allien Cartoon fashion show by designer Selly Raby Kane, which was held at the Dakar Train Station, and the Back to the future Present show with the band Daara J Family in June 2015. Building on this wealth of artistic performances and collaborations and having taken part in artistic residences such as Danse A ex Corps with choreographers Andrea Ouamba, Serge Aime Coulibaly and Salia Sanou from Burkina Faso, MOMA en tête à tête avec les marionnettes with Yaya Coulibaly from Mali at the French Institute of Dakar, Shakespeare Live Sénégal (a dance drama slam performance) with the British Council, Madiaw is the coordinator of the artistic and community association NiTThéâtre and the artistic director of the collective Vendredi Slam. Mad NJAAY, his stage name, is currently enrolled on a Master of Arts and Cultures at the ISAC/ IFAN Higher Institute for Arts and Cultures at Cheikh Anta DIOP University of Dakar and is working on installation-performance projects tackling issues related to children and the youth (child begging, alternative education, equal opportunities, etc.). 

Madiaw Ndiaye is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Philippa Ndisi-Hermann

I am Philippa Ndisi-Herrmann. I was born in 1985, in Bonn, Germany. I vibrate and create in the realm of still and moving words and images; primarily as a filmmaker and photographer, also as a writer and painter. 

I am drawn to the Indian Ocean because, if you calm your heartbeat, you hear the whispers of secrets of those that came before you. 

I am in post-production with my documentary film, Philippa/Rabia (formerly The Donkey that Carried the Cloud on its Back - The Göteborg International Film Festival Fund, IDFA Bertha Fund and Docubox EADFF). I have exhibited my photography in collaboration with The Sundance Institute, at MoCADA in New York City (2011) and with the Goethe Institut, at the National Museum, Nairobi (2013). 

In 2012, under a pen name, a selection of my poetry was published in Reflections: An Anthology of New Work by African Women Poets. I spend most of my time in Nairobi, Kenya where I write, cook, paint, shoot, make jokes, laugh with kindred spirits, whirl, twirl, fall in love and read Rumi.

Philippa Ndisi-Hermann is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

rène Gaouda Lyoum

Born on the banks of the Logone River (far north of Cameroon), Irene Gaouda spent her childhood between Kumba Town and Ekondo-Titi, a small community lost in the heart of the Equatorial mangrove, not far from the Bakassi Peninsula, in the South-West region. 

The passing of time did not succeed in cutting the umbilical cord which connects her to this nature so dear, and now a source of inspiration. In 2013, she presented a collective exhibition in Yaounde with Osmose culture entitled: “In Toumai’s footsteps”. Currently at the Center for Information Science and Technology Studies (CESTI) of Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), I.G., as she is affectionately referred to, has not eliminated her pen. 

She shares her passion for art and African culture across several media platforms. In 2016, the author of “La chèvre de ma grand-mère” (“My grand-mother’s goat”) started publishing a blog dedicated to her passion.

Irène Gaouda is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Mahammad Fathy Kalfat

MF Kalfat was raised in the Egyptian Nuba and moved to Cairo in 2003 where he's been mainly working as web editor (currently of a forthcoming film web-zine in Arabic) and translator (currently of a 19th-century orientalistic travelogue). Apart from personal blogging and occasional poetry, he writes about music, sex and cultural politics, and contributed to an Arab media activism youth camp for 3 years. His most recently curated film program was about Arab civil wars. For this publication he originally wrote a much longer biography that had to be cut down and all the humor had to go. Mahammad Fathy Kalfat is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Marinette Jeannerod

Marynet J is purely a product of cultural hybridization. Her passion consists in crafting bridges with words, pictures and ideas across the disciplines of the living. Human complexity is an endless supply of raw materials out of which ideas can be developed: arts, technologies, biology, ethnology, body mutations, video games… these are all sources worth connecting through words. And to prevent these words from leaving your brain as soon as they’ve entered it, Marynet acts like Aguin, the little one-footed Voodoo goddess; she is there to plug your ears shut so that ideas can linger and develop.
Marinette Jeannerod  is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Aissatou Ndeye Aida Diop

Aïssatou Diop, aka ANAD, graduated in Heritage and Cultural Institutions Management. Since 2014, she has been contributing to the setting up of various exhibition and cultural event projects in Dakar and Saint Louis (Entre’vues, Research and Documentation Centre of Senegal, Henriette Bathily Museum of Women, Blaise Senghor Cultural Centre). She held the position of heritage manager at the Henriette Bathily Museum of Women, where also served as Youth Officer. After having worked for cultural companies, events and associations, she was hired as cultural mediator of the International exhibition at the 12th Dak’art Contemporary African Art Biennial in 2016. With a good awareness of the Senegalese arts scene, to which she’s highly committed, ANAD is the co-founder of Yàolàn, a cultural engineering and mediation firm in Dakar.

Aissatou Ndeye Aida Diop is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Dulcie Abrahams Altass

Dulcie was born and grew up in East London, first moving abroad to Paris at 18 before starting her degree in History of Art and French at University College London. Her studies took her to Dakar in 2013 for a year-long internship with the artist's collective Les Petites Pierres, and then back to Paris for a year's study at Paris I and IV, specialising in African history. Building on her prior engagement to collaborative art projects, she has returned to Senegal on several occasions for research and to contribute to the organisation of a series of cinema clubs. Recently graduated and the recipient of the Violet Hall prize for academic achievement, she is now based in Dakar where she continues to pursue research on performance and social change.  Dulcie Abrahams Altass is Raw Academy 2016's Alumuni.

Curtesy: Raw Material Academy

Ziguinchor : bientôt un musée des arts et du patrimoine de Casamance

La création d’un Musée des Arts et du Patrimoine de la Casamance à Ziguinchor est en pleine gestation. Porté par le metteur en scène et sculpteur Djibril Goudiaby et son équipe de la Compagnie Bou Saana, ce projet privé et prometteur commence à prendre forme.
 Emise entre les répétitions et les tournées de la Compagnie Bou Saana, avec des pièces comme « Allah n’est pas obligé », « Des vies à jamais » ou encore « Le destin du clandestin », l’idée de création d’un musée des arts et du patrimoine de la Casamance à Ziguinchor a commencé à bénéficier du soutien d’amis et sympathisants par l’achat symbolique de cartes postales.
 La volonté des porteurs du projet et ce premier élan de solidarité ont permis d’ouvrir « Une fenêtre du musée ». Après quelques moi d’exercice, l’espace a reçu des élèves et des touristes de tout bord. Cependant, l’exiguïté du site et l’ambition grandissante du projet poussent l’équipe à s’orienter résolument vers la mise en place effective d’un musée digne de son nom.
C’est ainsi qu’un nouveau site beaucoup plus spacieux leur a été alloué dans l’enceinte du village artisanal de Ziguinchor, par la Chambre des métiers. Local qui va cependant nécessiter des travaux de réfection et d’aménagement estimés à 5 255 euros soit environ 3 500 000 francs CFA. En quête de mécènes et sponsors, l’équipe s’active déjà avec les moyens du bord et projette même de procéder à l’inauguration officielle vers janvier 2017.
En plus des œuvres d’artistes de la région et autres articles du patrimoine déjà collectés, le projet compte accueillir la collection de John Lucas Eichelsheim. Présente en ce moment dans sa version numérique sur le web-documentaire inter-actif Art Casamance, cette intéressante collection composée d’œuvres d’artistes aux fortunes diverses de la sous région ouest africaine, marque l’ouverture du projet. Réputée pour leur sérieux et leur dynamisme, la bande à Djibril Goudiaby manifeste une fois de plus sa détermination à contribuer à ce devoir de mémoire et de valorisation des arts et du patrimoine, de promotion des artistes mais aussi de la destination Casamance.
Source: www.au-senegal.com

Literature: Professor Bole Butake dies at age 69

Professor Bole Butake wrote his final chapter to eternity at 5 am at the Yaoundé Teaching Hospital age 69. 

The Professor Emeritus of the Department of Drama and African Literature spent 40 years lecturing at the University of Yaoundé I. Hundred have been trooping at the residence of the deceased in Yaoundé to pay their last respect to one of the fathers of Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Bole Butake was a distinguished and internationally recognised academic whose vision will remain in many of his publications. He authored the play entitled "Family Saga". He also wrote "Lake God" in 1986, "The Survivors" in 1989 and And "Palm Wine Will Flow" in 1990.

He has also directed several plays. He works were written against the backdrop of rapacious and inhumane oppressors of the seemingly silent and marginalized masses of the fictionalized communities of the North-West Region of the Republic of Cameroon, Africa. The literally critic highlighted themes such as corruption, tyranny, nepotism and the rampant abuse of power. Butake’s approach according to several authors shifted the traditional responsibility of the fight for political liberation, which has hitherto been the preserve of the men to women. 

 CRTV

Dakar: Un colloque sur la pensée et l'écriture le 27 octobre 2016

Après le succès du colloque « Penser et écrire l’Afrique aujourd’hui », qu’Alain Mabanckou a organisé le 2 mai au Collège de France, les plus grands penseurs du continent se retrouveront au Sénégal. Du 27 au 29 octobre à Dakar, puis les 30 et 31 à Saint-Louis, Felwine Sarr et Achille Mbembe réuniront une vingtaine d’intellectuels d’expression française, dont les romanciers Alain Mabanckou, Boubacar Boris Diop, Léonora Miano et Lydie Moudileno, les historiens Mamadou Diouf et Françoise Vergès, les philosophes Yala Kisukidi et Souleymane Bachir Diagne. Durant ces « Ateliers de la pensée », soutenus par la Fondation Rosa Luxemburg, le Gœthe-Institut et l’Institut français, les chercheurs alterneront séances de travail à huis clos et échanges avec le public. Objectif : « construire des outils pour comprendre les mouvements de population et les migrations, les situations minoritaires résultant des héritages postcoloniaux, les effervescences religieuses, le racisme, la quête de nouvelles formes de la citoyenneté, les reformulations de la critique féministe ou les nouvelles préoccupations concernant l’avenir de la planète. » Source: Jeune Afrique

Salif keita - Kalabancoro

One afternoon with the Massa people

The Massa who are often called « Banana » live on the flood plains bordering the middle course of the Logone River about 155 miles south of N’Djamena. In the 70’s, there were about 75 000 Massa in Cameroon and about 50 000 in the Republic of Chad. More recent statistics released by The Joshua project give an estmate of about 488 000 accross the world.

Joyful moments

The Masa build their enclosures on land above the flood line and keep their cattle near their huts only during dry season. In rural areas, they live by farming, fishing and raising livestock. They have a balanced diet, which is rare in the center of the savanna. The principal agricultural product is quick-growing red sorghum, which is grown on level ground during the rainy season. Millet, sorghum requiring transplanting peanuts, rice, beans and peas are subsidiary products. Fishing is carried on all year round in the Logone and its tributaries. When the floods subside, the men organize fishing expeditions in the lower courses of the Logone and Chari Rivers. In addition, they raise goats, sheep and small zebus. The latter are an important part of the economic and community life of the massa. Owners of zebus enjoy high social status : first, because a man is required to give ten fertile cows to the family of his future wife before he can marry her and second, heads of families extend the network of their social and commercial relations by building up a complex system of lending cattle. 

The taking of a milk treatment by oneself or one’s children is also considered to be a sign of wealth. When a person goes in for such a treatment, he stops working and drinks large quantities of milk and sorghum gruel to get fat. He spends the best part of the day attending to his appearance and physique in preparation for the wrestling, singing and dancing which are part of the festivals of the dry seasons. The Massa are skillful basketmakers who use the reeds in the flood areas. The lack of trees and stones has caused them to master the art of making cob (mixture of clay and straw), which they use for the walls of their huts and furniture.

Lox-wax processors

They know how to work iron and copper, which the blacksmiths make into bracelets and pipes by means of the lost-wax process. They do not use bows but employ assegais and throwing knives. The most common weapon i sis the cudgel, and a man is never without one. Formerly it was used for what may truly be called « fencing », practiced with heads protected by padded helmets. 

Marriage

The political organization of the Massa hardly goes beyond the framework of patrilineal lineages. Preferential marriage- marriage to someone of a particular parentage- does not exist. Rather marriage is exogamous and people are requiered to marry outside their patrilienage and communal residence. The massa follow the practice of levirate- marriage the widow of one’s brother. The administrative division of the country into cantons, villages and districts marks the former divisions into lands occupied by members of the same patrilienage. Within the lineage, the elders and the land chief, elected by descendants of the founder-ancestor, wield the highest authority.The land chief supervises the division of the fields and decides when the main agricultural operations should begin. It is also incumbent on him to performs the rites and sacrifices on which the prosperity of the community depends, and to win the favor of the ancestors and the different genii. The powers of the other world include : laona, a beneficient god who lives in the sky and sends the rains ; nagata, mother earth ; matna, the genius of death ; and mounounda, the genius of water. Soothsayers are constantly requiered to decide the nature and purpose of the sacrifices that must be performed to appease the powers above. Their systems of divination consist in arranging several hundred signs in spirals on the ground. For hundreds of years, the Massa have used an initiation similar to that of the Yondo, one of neighboring sara tribes. In their general development, though, the Massa tend to follow the example of the muslim societies (fulani and bagirmi) with whom they live.

I.G

With notes by Igor de Garine

Welcoming visitors on a Masa land.

Women make selling millet and sorghum in Yagoua market

Diverse herbs by a traditional doctor.

Female dance

Appreciating a work of art

One afternoon with the Massa people

The Massa who are often called « Banana » live on the flood plains bordering the middle course of the Logone River about 155 miles south of N’Djamena. In the 70’s, there were about 75 000 Massa in Cameroon and about 50 000 in the Republic of Chad. More recent statistics released by The Joshua project give an estmate of about 488 000 accross the world.

Joyful moments

The Masa build their enclosures on land above the flood line and keep their cattle near their huts only during dry season. In rural areas, they live by farming, fishing and raising livestock. They have a balanced diet, which is rare in the center of the savanna. The principal agricultural product is quick-growing red sorghum, which is grown on level ground during the rainy season. Millet, sorghum requiring transplanting peanuts, rice, beans and peas are subsidiary products. Fishing is carried on all year round in the Logone and its tributaries. When the floods subside, the men organize fishing expeditions in the lower courses of the Logone and Chari Rivers. In addition, they raise goats, sheep and small zebus. The latter are an important part of the economic and community life of the massa. Owners of zebus enjoy high social status : first, because a man is required to give ten fertile cows to the family of his future wife before he can marry her and second, heads of families extend the network of their social and commercial relations by building up a complex system of lending cattle. 

Skillful basketmakers

The taking of a milk treatment by oneself or one’s children is also considered to be a sign of wealth. When a person goes in for such a treatment, he stops working and drinks large quantities of milk and sorghum gruel to get fat. He spends the best part of the day attending to his appearance and physique in preparation for the wrestling, singing and dancing which are part of the festivals of the dry seasons. The Massa are skillful basketmakers who use the reeds in the flood areas. The lack of trees and stones has caused them to master the art of making cob (mixture of clay and straw), which they use for the walls of their huts and furniture.

Lox-wax processors

They know how to work iron and copper, which the blacksmiths make into bracelets and pipes by means of the lost-wax process. They do not use bows but employ assegais and throwing knives. The most common weapon i sis the cudgel, and a man is never without one. Formerly it was used for what may truly be called « fencing », practiced with heads protected by padded helmets. 

Marriage

The political organization of the Massa hardly goes beyond the framework of patrilineal lineages. Preferential marriage- marriage to someone of a particular parentage- does not exist. Rather marriage is exogamous and people are requiered to marry outside their patrilienage and communal residence. The massa follow the practice of levirate- marriage the widow of one’s brother. The administrative division of the country into cantons, villages and districts marks the former divisions into lands occupied by members of the same patrilienage. Within the lineage, the elders and the land chief, elected by descendants of the founder-ancestor, wield the highest authority.The land chief supervises the division of the fields and decides when the main agricultural operations should begin. It is also incumbent on him to performs the rites and sacrifices on which the prosperity of the community depends, and to win the favor of the ancestors and the different genii. The powers of the other world include : laona, a beneficient god who lives in the sky and sends the rains ; nagata, mother earth ; matna, the genius of death ; and mounounda, the genius of water. Soothsayers are constantly requiered to decide the nature and purpose of the sacrifices that must be performed to appease the powers above. Their systems of divination consist in arranging several hundred signs in spirals on the ground. For hundreds of years, the Massa have used an initiation similar to that of the Yondo, one of neighboring sara tribes. In their general development, though, the Massa tend to follow the example of the muslim societies (fulani and bagirmi) with whom they live.

I.G

With notes by Igor de Garine

Welcoming visitors on a Masa land, in Kartoua

Women selling millet and sorghum in Yagoua market

Diverse herbs by a traditional doctor.

Female dance

Appreciating a work of art