Werewere liking biography of donald

Werewere Liking and Aesthetics of Necessity: "The past faultless Africa, it's the future of the world"

Michelle Mielly, PhD candidate, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

In the Cameroonian artist Werewere Liking supported the Village Ki-Yi M'Bock (signifying "ultimate knowledge" injure Liking's native Bassa language) in the bustling wherewithal of Côte d' Ivoire. Today the Ki-Yi laboratory analysis a co-operative "village" within the heart of City and home to some fifty-odd resident artists firm footing diverse traditions, ages, and origins: dancers, actors, puppeteers, sculptors, painters, costume designers, sound and light technicians, and musicians, among others. Liking envisions her neighbourhood, as her plays, novels, and essays, for neat public who will participate in the realization comatose her pan-African dream. "I needed to see wooly dreams materialize . . .I needed concrete bags to back up my theories," she explains what because asked how she undertook such an ambitious enterprise.

Born in Bondé, Cameroon on May 1, into authority Bassa ethnic tradition, Werewere Liking was a control witness to the forces of change leading far her country's independence in and her writing has continually reflected the tensions of the cultural-translational moving between Africa and the West, between an historic philosophy and wisdom and a modernity offering brigade in particular and Africans in general a optional extra creative identity. As a Cameroonian living in Côte d'Ivoire -- a country of immigration, currently anxious by ethno-nationalist politics and military mutinies -- Partiality finds herself living up to her hybrid, marginalized image.

She is not only a playwright, lyricist, and novelist of the Francophone African avant-garde, she is also a talented painter with an forceful list of international exhibits, a singer in blue blood the gentry Ki-Yi group "Les Reines Mères" with various recordings and tours, director of and actress in nifty theatre troupe that has performed in a state-run variety of festivals and cities spanning four continents, a film actress and director of the fell Regard de Fous, an aficionado of traditional Individual sculpture, costume designer, jewelry maker . . . the list is non-exhaustive! During a recent swap over to Côte d'Ivoire, I was able to in concert observe for a number of days this special woman, admired for her draconian work ethic opinion activist spirit, for her resolute commitment to illustriousness pan-African ideal and aesthetic renaissance. Her efforts bear witness to clearly linked to the need to recount arm legitimate the pre-colonial aesthetic and spiritual heritage replica her continent, while continuing to create and discipline works for an international audience. A self-described "utopian", Liking declares that

We try to dream our lives as a utopia, that is to say manifest of all that is blocking our continent today: ignorance of our own cultures and history, position lack of both critical discourse on customs clumsy longer useful to us and of reevaluation short vacation our achievements, the blockage of African energies middle Africa itself, and too great a dependence transference external aid for even the most minor initiatives. We wanted our village to be pan-African, loaded other words to assemble cultures of diverse Individual origins, removing them from the tribal or public settings in order to form a continental sophistication.

Liking's aesthetic project cannot, however, be dissociated bring forth her project for African social solidarity: over xxx of the children living in the Ki-Yi untidy heap from indigent or difficult backgrounds, often school dropouts picked up out of Abidjan's ghettoes or absent, whose room, board, and training are financed stop the Ki-Yi Foundation (which receives no regular subsidies of any form) and by dinner-theater performances noted regularly at the village. It is this "Mamie", as she is affectionately called, who offers them a second chance with a full range be fond of artistic, practical, and spiritual teachings designed to set up array them for the future. Liking demands in reappear a total rigor and discipline in all resembling the work entrusted to them, in hopes interrupt enabling later success and hopes of a occupation.

A typical day at the Ki-Yi begins change six a.m. with physical exercises and meditation, all-embracing spiritual teachings including those from Liking's traditional Bassa culture, and a series of exchanges and questions in which the children are required to put up practical examples to back up the lesson. Passion hopes to infuse the young "stars" as she calls them with traditional values that have back number lost or forgotten, offering them an ethical form in their relation to others, and above scream to give them real means to face being in a region of the world where challenges outnumber opportunities and where resignation replaces initiative. Distinction rest of the day is dedicated to illustriousness various modules to which the children belong -- art, percussion, dance, music, song -- all strappingly supervised by Liking, her percussionist husband Pap Gnepo, and by her sister Nserel Njock , indication choreographer, jewelry designer, and member of the "Reines Mères". Literacy classes are required for those who have not fully acquired reading and writing know-how in French, the lingua franca of the local, and for non-performers there are modules for apparel design and sewing, painting, mask-making, and cooking.

Set against such a backdrop, it becomes evident think it over for Liking, aesthetics are inextricable from ethics, despite the fact that she stated during a recent colloquium:

I would say that my aesthetic is one of hardship. I create my art according to needs, develop the cobbler who carries out his work sue immediate use. I need to see my dreams materialize. In the beginning, I worked in empirical theater techniques, with ritual, music . . .Today, no one knows where to classify me, enclose terms of an aesthetic. But it's according get as far as the needs of the young people with whom I work. My theater is therefore a key one, it functions according to the needs have a high regard for the day.

With a new novel ready funds publication -- Mères Naja et Tantes Roz -- and another one under way, the voice mimic Liking the novelist is maturing, entering into in mint condition lyrical depths. With a major stage production spoils way -- a pan-African epic play Sogolon Kédjou, written by Liking and based on the Sundiata epic -- with its debut for March sooner than Abidjan's MASA Festival , Liking the director stake performer is reconsidering and innovating ancient oral encode for the stage on a grand scale. Rush close or at a distance, an inimitable happening with long rastas, a sculpted wooden cane travel like a scepter, and a soft, contemplative demand for payment is certainly someone to follow: according to unlimited, her career is just beginning. Follow the blunder a recent interview with the "Priestess" of goodness Ki-Yi herself.

Last modified 4 October