From July 16 to 21, at 11 a.m. (Paris time), festival-goers and Internet users are invited to listen to a text by an African or Haitian author every morning. Under the direction of director Armel Roussel, the RFI readings will take place at the Avignon Festival in the courtyard of the Calvet Museum, with professional actors and actresses, as well as students from INSAS, the Brussels School of Performing Arts, and the ACTE school in Port-au-Prince.
From one year to the next, the reading cycle It’s okay, it’s okay, the world ! changes location, but remains faithful to the Avignon Festival. For this 2024 edition, it is in the courtyard of the Calvet Museum, a magnificent 18th century building, that RFI is setting up to give a voice to the programmed African and Haitian authors.
As every year, this selection aims to tell the diversity of writings of those who write in French in what is commonly called the countries of the Francophonie of the South. And like last year, the authors are on an equal footing with the men, because it is clear that more and more women are writing. And both of them take on strong subjects that impact our certainties and question Western and non-Western societies.
Exceptionally, two Cameroonian texts were chosen to open this cycle, because they bear witness in a local context to the major universal issues, for freedom of the press and for respect for childhood. Open heart won the 2023 RFI Theater Prize and its author Eric Delphin Kwegoue tells the story of the danger faced by journalists when they want to confront power in the name of truth. In his own way, Nadale Fidine advocates for human rights when the main character of his play, Wile, fights to find her missing child and denounce ritual murders.
All the other texts, written by Beninese, Haitian, Congolese or Franco-Senegalese playwrights, are also in touch with the world, its anxieties and its realities… Penda Diouf imagine a thirsty world. Gael Tchégoun Hounkpatin questions the power of traditional African masks in the contemporary world. Stefanie Francois immerses us in the chaos of Haitian society and finally Jocelyn Danga bears witness with modesty to the intimate journey of an exile.
So many stories, so many writings to share during a festival, like a whirlwind of words and emotions, to take a literary break before the Olympic break.
AVIGNON FESTIVAL 2024
FROM JULY 16 TO 21 AT 11 A.M.
Calvet Museum courtyard
Free entry – Duration 1 hour
July 16 at 11 a.m.
Open heart
Eric Delphin Kwégoué (Cameroon) RFI THEATER Prize 2023
Read by Claudette Fleur Mendela Bediebe, Criss Niangouna, Oumou Baldé Diallo, Léonce Henri Nlend, Abdon Fortuné Koumbha, Basile Yawanké Nakpane.
Voiceover: Eric Delphin Kwégoué, in collaboration with Armel Roussel and Pierre-Alexandre Lampert.
A commando enters the house of a journalist and threatens his wife and children to obtain documents compromising the government. A contemporary fable written as a thriller inspired by the assassination of Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zongo.
Éric Delphin Kwégoué is an actor, author and director as well as an artistic expert of the OIF with the CITF. It was through rap, then poetry that he approached writing, before moving towards theater, and later, documented theater. From his first play The Shadow of My Own Vampirehe connects personal situations with social, human and political crises. Author of around twenty plays, he is the winner of the 2023 RFI Theatre Prize.
Broadcast on RFI on Saturday, August 17, 2024 at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. UT).
July 17 at 11 a.m.
Will!
Nadale Fidine (Cameroon)
Read by Nathalie Hounvo –Yekpé, Tadié Tuéné, Ibrahima Diokine Sambou, Fatou Hane.
And the students of Insas: Héléna Ekanda, Margaux Roussillon, Thibault Hébrard, Lewis Forgeur, Emilie Vereggen, Sofia Golovatch.
Voice acting by Armel Roussel.
Assisted by Baptiste Uhl, Martin Villemonteix (Insas).
Sound creation: Pierre-Alexandre Lampert.
One evening like any other, a child disappears. In the village, no one has seen him. The young mother contacts the police, the father goes to see the fortune teller. Lacking the right to speak, it is through song, the wilé, that the maternal cry will be expressed and her fight against a reality that is too bloody will begin.
Nadale Fidine is a playwright, poet and teacher born in Doukoula Kar-hay in the Far North region of Cameroon. Her devouring passion for a more humane society is the ferment of her writing. Author of three texts for the stage, Broth of theses, Reverse Or Wileit deals with endemic problems facing Cameroonian society with the hope of changing mentalities.
On the proposal of Francophonies – Des écritures à la scène and the Maison des auteurs de Limoges, where the text was written during a writing residency.
With the support of the French Institute of Cameroon
Broadcast on RFI on Sunday, August 18, 2024, at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. UT).
July 18 at 11 a.m.
Sip of water
Penda Diouf (France / Senegal)
Read by Insas students: Solange O’Brayanne Muneme, Jeanne Litt-Magis.
Voice acting by Armel Roussel.
Assisted by Romain Cinter.
Sound creation: Pierre-Alexandre Lampert.
A schoolgirl and her mother watch a rain of dead birds fall: what catastrophe is this a sign of? Drought sets in, the earth cracks, speech dries up for lack of saliva and between the two women a bonsai, the object of all solicitude. A play about the catastrophe that awaits us, which is already here, faithful to Gramsci’s quote: “ The old world is dying, the new world is slow to appear, and it is in this chiaroscuro that monsters emerge. ».
Since 2007, Penda Diouf has been writing for live shows, Tracks, The Great Bear, Black as Gold… And continues to multiply collaborations with Germany or Africa and orders like this text written for the High School Citizens program. With Anthony Thibault, she also founded the label Jeunes Textes en Liberté to help discover young authors.
Broadcast on RFI on Saturday, August 24, 2024, at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. UT).
July 19 at 11 a.m.
Caleta
Gaël Tchégoun Hounkpatin (Benin)
Read by Serge Yéroné Koto, Ibrahima Diokine Sambou and the students of Insas: Baptiste Uhl, Héléna Ekanda, Solange O’Brayanne Muneme, Lewis Forgeur, Bastien Fourmy, Sofia Golovatch, Thibault Hebrard, Jeanne-Litt Magis, Cyril Romero, Margaux Roussillon, Emilie Vereggen.
Voiceover: Armel Roussel.
Assisted by Martin Villemonteix (Insas).
Sound creation: Pierre-Alexandre Lampert.
Nina, Sico, and Bobo, street children, live a precarious life. One night, drunk, Nina, on a motorbike, accidentally causes the death of a strange being. Frightened, but intrigued, she takes her mask, thus becoming the main attraction of their street shows, called Caléta. Nina’s new identity behind the mask attracts attention, but also trouble. Wearing the mask of disorder is not without consequences…
A graduate in private law, Gaël T. HOUNKPATIN is passionate about theater and cinema. He plays in many productions such as the original Canal+ series, Black Santiago’s Club (2022). Alongside his work as a screenwriter, he trained in dramatic writing. After his first attempt, The girl from the parishhe wrote Caléta, a text finalist for the RFI theater prize 2023, winner of the Lyon Days of Theater Authors 2024 and Convergence Plateau the same year.
With the support of the French Institute of Benin
Broadcast on RFI on Sunday, August 25, 2024, at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. UT).
July 20 at 11 a.m.
Fifi, the drums and the stars.
Stephanie Francois (Haiti)
Read by Esmeralda Dimanche, Gladimy Antoine, Alexandro Christi Nicolas, Wood-Kendy Louis, Nelmendy Emmanuela Bazile and the students of Insas, with Bastien Fourmy on percussion and Cyril Romero on saxophone.
Voiceover: Armel Roussel.
Assisted by Bastien Fourmy (Insas).
Sound creation: Cyril Roméro and Bastien Fourmy (Insas) with the help of Pierre-Alexandre Lampert.
Fifi is alone at home, her mother has left to join her lover Bonami. During the night several convoys set off, that of the Shadowhunters led by Bonami, and that of the Nightwatchers led by Défilé. The mother will be killed. Fifi, she will meet Défilé, who will take her under his protection.
Stéfanie François is a psychopedagogue, teacher, actress, director and playwright. She studied drama at Acte (Drama School co-directed by Gaëlle Bien-Aimé) and is one of the young people who represent the future of theater in Haiti. This first text was preselected for the RFI Prize 2023 and is the winner of the Bivouac of the Reading Committees of the Rencontre(s) d’été de la Chartreuse in 2023.
Proposal made in collaboration with the Chartreuse Villeneuve-Lez-Avignon, National Center for Performing Arts Writing
Broadcast on RFI on Saturday, August 31, 2024, at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. UT).
July 21 at 11 a.m.
Don’t be surprised if my letter smells of salt
Jocelyn Danga (DRC)
Read by Djo Ngeleka and the students of Insas: Solange O Brayanne Muneme, Martin Villemonteix and Cyril Romero.
Voiceover: Armel Roussel.
Assisted by Bastien Fourmy, Baptiste Uhl (Insas).
Sound creation: Bastien Fourmy, Cyril Roméro, Martin Villemonteix (Insas), with the assistance of Pierre-Alexandre Lampert.
At 35, Moluki decides to leave. From the port of Brazzaville to his Parisian maid’s room, he writes to his brother to tell his story of his journey, to describe the difficulties encountered and sometimes to embellish his adventures. A story of a “successful” exile, some would say, but which hides nothing of the inner waves of a person who migrates…
Jocelyn DANGA MOTTY is a Congolese poet and playwright from Kinshasa, currently in France to continue his studies. He has written about ten plays, two of which have been published: A bird at dawn (Passage(s) editions) and This letter that I will perhaps never write to you (Nzoï editions). After his gold medal at the 9th Francophone literature-short story games in 2023, he is also focusing on writing his first novel.
Broadcast on RFI on Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 5 p.m. (3 p.m. UT).