Performance, ritual and colonization
I have been dealing with the topic of colonization for about ten years, have created several performances on the subject and participated in several events on colonization.
A project is important in the process I started:
AFTER TEARS
After Tears is a performance that was created in 2015 on the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the Berlin Conference. A performance that raises questions. What remains of our history in reality? Is the memory of our ancestors appreciated? Did we mourn? And what will happen after the „reconciliation“ ?… This performance redefines the relationship between Africa and Europe in general.
The TSO is a mystical but solemn rite. It is practiced to purify the souls of the deceased, those of the living, and to extinguish the shed blood so that the community may continue to live without a curse. It is presented in this performance because there is a process of reconciliation that has begun. The goal is to reinvent a future. But the different parties must be sincere for the rite to be effective.
As a human being, I had a grandfather who was born around 1890 and died in 1981. He sang and spoke all the time in German. I, as a child, made me laugh because Papa Edzoa (as we called him) spoke a language that no one understood. I was 9 years old when he died. However, his character has shaped me. But as an artist, I see this German presence as a contamination, as a misfortune for Cameroon, for Africa.
Subsequently, I have already presented this performance in Germany, Cameroon and in 2018 at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Now I intend to set up an aftermath, or rather a successor, by proposing this project to other platforms.