Explorations #1 – Tales from Afropa

In October, in the series Explorations #1 – Stories from Afropa, we present three artistic positions from different sub-Saharan African countries, in which the complex web of relationships between Africa and Europe is the focus of individual (fictional) stories, as is the often painful relationship between the two both continents is examined in terms of the history of ideas.

In You judge, Robert Ssempijja from Uganda negotiates his ways of dealing with the expectations that his family and his community of origin have towards him. These themes also imply an examination of his existence as an artist on the European performing arts market. With his play, he opens up a space for reflection, in which there is space for dealing with his personal family history as well as asking himself and the (European) audience which eyes look at him in which way in the local theaters.

Dido, the protagonist in Dieudonné Niangouna's play De ce côté, confronts us with the inner turmoil of a West African political refugee who has found refuge from persecution in Europe. The character, though unable to find his way onto European stages as an actor, is wracked with guilt and questions as to where her place might be in this alien environment. Where is her position and how can she speak to an audience - and to which one? The play confronts us with their perceived foreignness in Europe - towards the new context of life as well as towards themselves. In this way, it invites a European audience to explore the feeling of alienation from an African diasporic perspective.

Finally, Martin Ambara presents his current research in the (lecture) performance Sundeita Keita and the Manden Charta. In this manifesto, which was formulated in the Sahel in the 13th century, human rights are already centuries before they were adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations after the Second World War, but also centuries before their invention in the context of the revolutions in the 18th century - so the Western narrative of the history of ideas – formulated as a prototype. The ignorance about this charter and its irrelevance in today's discourses on human rights confronts us once again with the arrogance with which Europeans or so-called Western ones look at African cultures and their history - namely mostly not at all. Martin's project, which we are presenting as a first step in 2022 as a presentation of research material, opens a discussion that breaks up this isolation in the history of ideas and, above all, focuses on other forms of transmission in historical contexts. With his project he is paving the way for a post-colonial redesign of the foundations of political, social and cultural platforms on which Western cultures and those of the Global South can meet on an equal footing.

The stories presented here in a series establish a common narrative and historical space between African and European contexts, which connects us and whose conditions of existence and forms we have to reflect on and develop together again and again in order to find necessary answers to the question of how we say goodbye to Western discursive dominance in a world that is becoming more multipolar and be able to encounter things differently - for example by listening to one another in new ways - and listening to the stories from Afropa.