Librettist | Composer | Artistic team | Jury and advisors
Born in 1959 in Chad, Koulsy Lamko was exiled from his country in 1983. A playwright, poet, writer of short stories and tales, and author of several screenplays, Koulsy Lamko is also a cultural entrepreneur and actor. Winner of numerous prizes for his plays and short stories, more than ten of which have been published, Koulsy's works have been performed by theatre companies in Africa, Europe and Canada. Koulsy founded the Kaleido Culture Project, a cultural coordinating agency, based in Burkina Faso, and in this capacity led numerous playwriting workshops and chaired conferences in both Europe and throughout Africa. In his approach to art, he believes in using "cultural artefacts" as a tool for raising one's artistic consciousness, a method he uses as both an educational strategy and as a means to create an awareness of social problems. For ten years Koulsy contributed to the promotion of community theatre in urban and rural neighbourhoods in Burkina Faso and was a founder of the International Festival of Theatre for Development. Lamko produced a CD album in 1997 of mixed poetry and music entitled Bir Ki Mbo, in collaboration with Stéphane Scott and Rémi Stengel as a tribute to Thomas Sankara. Other poetry works have been published in Revue Noire in 1994 and La Phalène des collines in 2000. From 1998 till 2002 Koulsy Lamko was Director of the University Centre for Arts and Drama in Butare and taught Creative Writing and the Performing Arts at the National University of Rwanda.
He currently lives in Mexico-City within a refugee programme.
Read the article by Koulsy Lamko on Bintou Were for Nukta Art Magazine
Singer and multi-instrumentalist, Zé Manel (1951) is the most famous and influential contemporary musician to emerge from the West African country of Guinea-Bissau. By the age of seven, Zé, playing drums and acoustic guitar, had become the main attraction of Super Mama Djombo band. During the 1970's, this seminal orchestra played a major role in the liberation struggle of this former Portuguese colony. In 1982, Zé released his first solo album Tustumunhos di Aonti (Yesterday's Testimony), which sounded the alarm over the formation of a new repressive ruling class in Guinea-Bissau. The album was a national event (people in Guinea-Bissau today still sing the songs from this soulful, relevant album), but the political environment was heating up and Manel's fans were concerned for his safety. Manel fled his homeland. This self-exile took him to Portugal, France and, finally, the United States.
His American debut album, Maron di mar on Cobiana Records and released in 2001, was an instant success. It received rave reviews from European and American media and was nominated for best album at the All African Kora Music Awards in South Africa, and best world music album at the Just Plain Folks Music Awards in the United States.
He returns with a new album African Citizen on the M10 label. His message in the title track is more global. Zé calls for African unity, peace, and stability on all the continents.
Sung in many languages (Kriol, Portuguese, English, and French), the lyrics are as declamatory and inflammatory as his rhythms are infectiously danceable. Zé sings of love for family and friends, respect for women, compassion for children, social justice, and he poignantly describes the ravages of poverty, prostitution, AIDS, and the dictatorships that repress the advancement of people.
Wasis Diop (1947) is one of the most sought after and admired African musicians on the international musical scene. In 1981, Wasis Diop sang in a duo with a Malagashi-French singer, Marie-France Anglade. The fruit of their association was the album MFA Kera. Between 82 and 84, he made frequent trips to London, where he met the producer of Sade's songs, Robin Millar. He brought out a single under the WEA label. His first solo album came out in 1992. In fact it was film music, but it was so individual that it was considered as a solo album. Moreover, the director of the film Hyènes was none other than his own brother, Djibril Diop Mambety. The two brothers were very close, and the album is the result of artistic as much as fraternal symbiosis. The delicate talent of Wasis Diop is to be found here, as well as his sense of cultural synthesis. Flamenco and Celtic bagpipes are as at home on this record as the traditional Kora and the guttural sounds of the Wolof language, echoed in the singer's deep voice. This work was celebrated by the critics and brought Wasis Diop a degree of public recognition.
His success was confirmed with a second album No Sant (What is my name?). The Celtic influence of Hyènes was noticeable too. It included musicians such as the Congo (ex-Zaire) Lokua Kanza and the young French singing Ghanean, Lena Fiagbe, who accompanied Wasis in African Dream and No Sant. The latter was somewhat of a hit internationally.
Now viewed as one of the major international artists from Africa, Wasis Diop brought out his third album in autumn 1998. This, called Toxu, has a very synthetic sound, contributed by Bénin musician Wally Badarou. The tone is very western, and they have come a long way from "Hyènes", despite the duo from Mali, Amadou and Mariam. After Lena Fiagbe, it is the turn of the American Beth Hirsch (who also sang on the album by Air) to sing a duo with Wasis. The Senegalese star also recorded an interesting cover version of Once in a Lifetime (the famous Talking Heads classic).
Theater has always been a vocation for Jean Pierre Leurs (1942). He was already active in the world of theatre before he ended his studies. After the ‘Conservatoire National’ in Dakar, Jean Pierre Leurs is called to make a first “mise en scene” for the Theatre Daniel Sorano whose he will become one of the pioneer. Furthermore he was director of the National Theater Company and director of the National Ballet Company.
He is considered as an african specialist of stage managing “out of the walls”, directing sound and light shows and live shows outside. Jean-Pierre Leurs is considered as an expert in African theatre.
Germaine Acogny (1944), of Senegalese and French nationality, was artistic director until 1982 of Mudra Afrique, a dance center created by Maurice Béjart in Dakar. After Mudra Afrique closed, she worked in Brussels with Maurice Béjart and organized international training sessions in African dance, which were highly acclaimed among European audiences.
She travels around the world to teach, perform, and choreograph and is a true emissary of African dance and culture. With her husband Helmut Vogt, she created in Toulouse the "Studio-Ecole-Ballet-Theatre of the Third World". The objectives of the school were to serve as a meeting place for Africans and Europeans in the practice of dance and music.
In 1995, she returned to Senegal to build the International Centre for Traditional and Contemporary African Dances, a place of training, cultural and choreographic meetings and exchanges between Africa, its Diaspora and the rest of the world. This school, Écoles des Sables, is based in Toubab Dialaw.
Between 1997 and 2000, Germaine Acogny was artistic director of the dance section of Afrique en Creations/AFAA (French Association for Artistic Action) and the Contemporary African Dance.
Flora Théfaine is a dancer and choreographer originally from Togo (she has lived in France since 1969). Théfaine is inspired by the ethnic traditions of her homeland and by themes such as the search for origins. Together with Germaine Acogny, she is responsible for the choreography of the Sahel Opera.
Oumou Sy (1951) was born in Podor, Senegal. She does not have a formal education. As a child, she liked the feel of fabrics and she was always playing with the material in any form her fantasy allowed.
She later developed interest in joining, stitching and sewing pieces of fabrics together to create works of art. Her interest grew stronger. She developed her capabilities further and started making dresses, which today, has developed into a successful fashion business. Her collections have been showcased at international fashion shows in Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States. In 1998 she received the Prince Claus Award.
Apart from creating high-class fashion designs Oumou Sy is very active in development programs in her home country. She founded a school of design, Ateliers Leydi, which provides training for Senegalese in diverse areas of product and fashion designs. In the following, she opened Macsy, school for models, created Simid (fashion week of Dakar and Carnival of Dakar) and set up with Michel Mavros Metissacana. As director of Metissacana Michel Mavros co-ordinates the production of the Sahel Opera.
Professor Kwabena Nketia, Prince Claus laureate and Director of the International Centre for African Music and Dance in Accra (Ghana)
Ama Ata Aidoo, author, Accra (Ghana)
Pierre Audi, Artistic Director of the Netherlands Opera Foundation, the Netherlands
Ray Lema, musician/composer, the Democratic Republic of Congo/Paris (France)
Robert Wilson, theatre-maker, New York (the United States)
Special advisor to the Jury: Achille Mbembe, Professor History at the Witts University, Johannesburg, South Africa
During the first phase, the Prince Claus Fund was assisted by an advisory committee that supervised the concept and working method. This committee consisted of:
Pierre Audi, Director of the Netherlands Opera Foundation, the Netherlands
Martijn Sanders, Director of the Concertgebouw, the Netherlands
Morris Tabaksblat, Chairman of Reed Elsevier and treasurer of the Board of the Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands
A large number of people have been approached and have subsequently agreed to assist the Opera in terms of supervising both the production and the candidates. Here is a random selection of names:
• Damien Pwono, ethno-musicologist, policy officer at the Ford Foundation, Congo/Dubai
• Martijn Sanders, Director of the Concertgebouw, the Netherlands
• Mel Cooper, co-ordinator of the Genesis Foundation, the United Kingdom
• Achille Mbembe, historian, Professor Witts University, South Africa
• Peter Geschiere, cultural anthropologist, the University of Amsterdam, member of the Board of the Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands
• Pedro Pimenta, film producer, Mozambique/ South Africa
• Aminata Traoré, cultural entrepreneur, former Minister of Culture, Mali
• Cheick Oumar Sissoko, film-maker and Minister of Culture, Mali
• Stan Rijven, music journalist for the Trouw newspaper, the Netherlands
• Baaba Maal, composer and musician, Senegal
• Salif Keita, singer/ musician, Mali
• Franz Patay, the International Music Centre, Austria
• Robert Loder, Director of the Triangle Arts Trust and organiser of Africa 1995, the United Kingdom
• Huib Haringhuizen, ethno-musicologist and music consultant, the Netherlands
• John Collins, musicologist, Ghana
• Charles Eason, African and Diaspora Music Organisation, United Kingdom
• Michiel Borstlap, composer/musician, the Netherlands
• Samuel Sibidé, director National Museum Bamako, Mali
• Massamou Welle Dialow, director Music Academy Bamako, Mali
