M’appelle Mohamed Ali
LA CHARGE DU RHINOCEROS ASBL
Avenue de la couronne 216, 1050 Brussels
Tel: 0032 (0) 2 649.42.40 - Email : [email protected]
Web: www.chargedurhinoceros.be
M’appelle Mohamed Ali
With Etienne MINOUNGOU
Script by Dieudonné NIANGOUNA
Staged and directed by Jean Hamado TIEMTORE
Music by Julien TRUDDAÏU
Artistic coach François EBOUELE
Lights by Rémy BRANS and Herman COULIBALY
A production of Compagnie Falinga / Théâtre le Public /
les Récréâtrales/La Charge du Rhinocéros
Context-background of the project
M’appelle Mohamed Ali, by Dieudonné Niangouna and Etienne Minoungou, is
the first co-production between La Charge du Rhinocéros (We also recently
produced Ayiti by Daniel Marcelin, Carte d’identité by Diogène Ntarindwa, Un
fou noir au pays des blancs by Pie Tshibanda ....) and the Festival du
Récréâtrales of Ouagadougou.
This first co-creation marks the establishment of a structural partnership in
which La Charge du Rhinocéros will open its networks, including the European
tours, to creations of the Récréâtrales. The two institutions have had a more
than fraternal relationship over the last ten years.
M’appelle Mohamed Ali is an original text written specifically by Dieudonné
Niangouna for Etienne Minoungou. Dieudonné Niangouna composed his text
from numerous interviews on ethical, political, cultural, historical issues... with
Etienne Minoungou. So, M’appelle Mohamed Ali is, to us, much more than a
show about boxing. It is a work which questions the relationship between the
African continent and the West and cuts across two periods: that of Mohamed
Ali and that of Etienne Minoungou. It goes back and forth between the ring
and the stage of the political fights of the boxer Mohamed Ali against racial
segregation and the Vietnam War and the struggle of Etienne Minoungou to
restore his dignity. Etienne Minoungou uses theater to set out on a real
struggle marked by urgency and the necessity of the struggle to "fight with the
impossible," to "punch the situation" in order to change history.
The show was presented at the BANANNEFABRIK on 10th June 2013 in
Luxembourg, in Theater Der Ruhr in the framework of the AFRICOLOGNE
FESTIVAL of modern theater of West Africa in Germany on 12th June 2013, and
at the WatermaelBoitsfort / La Vénerie Cultural Center as part of the " Regards
Partagés" Festival, in collaboration with Wallonie-Bruxelles and Burkina Faso
on 24th and 25th September 2013 in Belgium.
It was also presented at the Avignon Festival in 2014 and Francophonie events
in Limoges.
Introduction
There are three elements of the show: The first is an actor boxer . The second
is a boxer and performer. The last is the author and distributes the blows…
Etienne Minoungou is the brain behind the ambitious West African Theatre
Festival. Dieudonné Niangouna, a Congolese artist associated with the last
festival of Avignon and the boxing world champion Mohamed Ali share a
commitment to art, sports and politics.
M’appelle Mohamed Ali depicts the boxer of the century as brilliant vested,
provocative ... It tells of his most important battles, his world championship
title which he lost by refusing to do military service because, in his words; "No
Vietnamese ever called me nigger". He recovered the same title 7 years later in
the match of the century organized by Mobutu in Zaire in 1974. As the
underdog, the king of the dance at age 32 won his fight against Foreman, the
American. He was carried by the fervor of a fully packed and overflowing room.
To win? One should float like a butterfly and sting like a bee ...
There is a strong physical resemblance between Etienne Minoungou and
Mohamed Ali. Whether this resemblance was the key to the creation of the
show? Maybe. Or probably.
Today "mid-life", Minoungou and Niangouna refer to Ali when thinking about a
modern Africa where overcoming challenges is still a daily activity. Using Ali,
they question the value of life.
Since it moves back and forth between life and the fights of the boxer, and the
reflections of Etienne and Dieudonné about Ali, M’appelle Mohamed Ali is a
sobering creation that provokes reflection on strength, belief in oneself, the
complementarity of beings, community, a fighting spirit and crossing of
boundaries.
Being African and making the choice to be one -if one may; by proudly wearing
the identity like a flag; initiating a personal or collective act of resistance
without deviating from a great irony. It is in this way that three black men go
to battle.
Biographies
The actor: Etienne Minoungou
Born in 1968 in Burkina Faso.
Etienne Minoungou is an actor, author, director,
playwright and a Burkinabe cultural entrepreneur.
In 2000, he founded the Falinga Company in
Ouagadougou and in 2002, he introduced Les
Récréatrales.
The Pan African Writing, Creation and Theatre Research
Resistances in Ouagadougou are now one of the major
events of the theater world in Burkina Faso and in
Francophone Africa.
The Récréâtrales is biennial and in each edition, it receives about ten
international creations involving 80 to 100 creators from all over the African
continent. It gives them a working environment, the space and means of
production, dissemination and visibility opportunities for all shows created
throughout a 4-step process.
Totaling almost five months of intense work and about 150 days in which the
artists reside in the same area, the Récréâtrales has become a great moment
of dialogue, exchange and coexistence between the local residents, the
professional artists and the audiences.
Since 2007, he has been the leader of the coalition of artists and culture
intellectuals. This is a think tank that brings together artists, researchers and
scholars from Burkina Faso.
The writer : Dieudonné Niangouna
Born in 1976 in Brazzaville (Republic of Congo),
Dieudonné Niangouna is an actor, writer,
director. Nothing better describes the writing of
Dieudonné Niangouna than the name of the
company: Les Bruits de la Rue - The Sounds of
the Street. His literary works thrive on the street
and are based on an explosive and devastating
language which is coherent to the image of the Congolese reality.
To his compatriots, as we as all his viewers well beyond the borders of Congo Brazzaville, he offers a theater of urgency, based on a country ravaged by years
of civil war and the aftermath of French colonization. A theater of immediacy
in a society where one must struggle to survive as a writer and actor. A protean
theater that appeals to the most classic French language as a popular and
poetic language, nourished by that of the great Congolese writer Sony
LabouTansi. Recognizing the triple need for theatrical language to be written,
said and heard, Dieudonné Niangouna uses images and formulas borrowed
from his mother-tongue lari, to invent an enriched and generous French
language; "a living language for the living."
Together with the Brazzaville companies, he acts among others, in Le Revizor
by N. Gogol, L’exception de la règle by B. Brecht, la liberte des autres by
CayaMackhélé
In 2005 Dieudonne Niangouna was one of four African playwrights presented
in reading in la Comédie Française at the Vieux Colombier.
With The Sounds of the Street, he signed the scripts and direction of Big!
Boom! Bah!, according to Nouvelle Terre of WeréWéréLiking in 2000; Carré
Blanc, in 2001; Interior-Exterior in 2003; Dugout in 2006; Attitude Clando,
created at the Avignon Festival in 2007 and Les Inepties Volants, created at the
Avignon Festival in 2009.
In 2005, the photographer Nabil Boutros luiErreur did his photography but this
type of video is not currently recognized as a portrait in his exhibition
"Portraits latent" with three other African authors: Koffi Kwahulé, KoulsyLamko
and Marcel Zang.
His narratives are published in the Cameroon in the Sopecam and Interlignes
publications, in Italy in the Corsare publications and in France in the Ndzé et
Carnets-Livres publications.
The Inepties Volants (followed by) Attitude clando was published by Les
Solitaires Intempestif in September 2010.
The Avignon Festival hosted Dieudonné Niangouna in 2007 with Attitude
clando, then in 2009, with Pascal Contet for Les Inepties Volants. He was an
associate artist at the Avignon Festival in 2013.
The producer: Jean HamadoTiemtoré
Jean Hamado Tiemtoré is a director and actor born in
Burkina Faso in 1983. He graduated from the
Performing Arts Training and Research Centre in Ouagadougou (CFRAV) and he
is also a graduate of the Joint European Erasmus Mundus Masters program in
Performing Arts in 2011. His intellectual and artistic research focuses on issues
of identity and alterity in Francophone and postcolonial African countries. He
carries out his artistic activities and academic research between Burkina,
Belgium and Italy where he works with Astragaliteatro of Fabio Tolledi and the
Puglia cultural association to promote African cultures through theater and
film.
Follower of Amadou Bourou, artist at the forefront of youth theater in West
Africa, Hamado was trained within the Feeren company on theater
Productions such as Les Propos Coupés Décalés d’un Nègres Presque Ordinaire
by Alain Mabanckou, La geste Des étalons (first horse show of West Africa, or
the opening shows of the international cultural events such as le Fespaco 2007
and le Salon international de l’artisanat of Ouagadougou 2008, but also the
fairy tale shows. In film, he has worked with Abdoulaye Dao as an assistant on
the television series on Burkina fairy tales; Au clair de la lune, and the casting
and directing of actors on his feature film Une femme pas comme les autres.
In 2006, his first staging, Demain c’est dimance, a play about the relationship
between faith and society, followed A La Vie A La Mort (2008) by Etienne
Minoungou, Joyeux Noel Maman (2009) by Hyacinthe Kabré and call me
Mohamed Ali (2013) by Dieudonné Niangouna.
AWARDS
The scripts of Dieudonné Niangouna recieved the 2015 award of Lycéens et
des Apprentis at the Salon du Livre in Paris.
Between June and July 2015, this show will go to not less than 17
countries ; starting from Gabon, Congo, Senegal, Rwanda, Equatorial
Guinea, Togo, Madagascar, Uganda…as well as Morocco.
In 2015/2016, this show will be staged in numerous spaces of the
Wallonie-Bruxelles federation as part of the ASSPROPRO tour.