Colonial awareness and responsibility

Saturday 17.02.2018 7:00 PM | Seminar Room 1

Admission: free entry

Organizer: Werkstatt der Kulturen/ AKAYOVU

Co-Operation

Colonial awareness and responsibility

The novel "Africa 2.1 Arnaque" by Francis Beidi
A discussion accompanied by short extracts from the novel

The audience is invited to discuss key themes affecting the African continent as a whole and those so vividly reflected in the novel "Africa 2.1 Arnaque". The discussion will take part in French and German, with translations between both.

The novel "Africa 2.1 Arnaque" reflects the colonial history of Africa during French rule. The novel’s narrator takes us to his grandfather’s village, occupied by France during the Second World War, and to France, Indochina and Algeria. When his grandfather plans on going to France for treatment of his war injuries he is arbitrarily denied a visa to the country he had viewed as his motherland. This sets into motion an awareness of the relationship between France and several African countries.

The young narrator evokes the Thiaroye massacre from 1944, where Sengalese Tirailleurs troops were shot by the French Army after they claimed pay in arrears for giving a good part of their land to France and liberating it from the German army. The massacre is symbolic for the contempt felt by all those Africans who served on behalf of France.

Destabilisation programmes of the so-called international community, methods of intimidation and influences on the economic systems of African countries are identified by the narrator as the blatant betrayal that France has always perpetrated in Africa. He calls on the young and and future generations of Africans to be vigilant in order to bring an end to this long-running fraud. Building on this base, the novel creates a vividly poetic reflection on the future of Africa, and the future of humanity.
 

Francis Beidi

Artist, author, director, and sound & lighting technician for events
 

As an artist in the fullest sense of the word, Francis Beidi has published more than ten books in various genres (including poetry, novels and plays) and painted some one hundred or so paintings. He has also filmed a dozen documentaries about African countries. He has been working for more than 15 years as a sound and lighting technician for theatre, music and dance groups from a variety of countries and has also worked as the technical director at several festivals too. Through his engagement, ALISÉ was founded, which is an organisation of publishing industry and event management actors who advocate for education. He also established the Auteurs Pluriels publishing house in 2007 in Cameron.

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