At the end, there were 28, 652 cases and 11, 325 deaths (cdc.gov). The outbreak generated international news coverage and sparked panic, especially once cases were reported in the U.S., in Spain and in the UK. It also incited Veronique Tadjo's latest work, En compagnie des Hommes (2017), as she explains in an interview published in the Australian Journal of French Studies (2018) : "Étant de la Côte d'Ivoire et connaissant la Guinée et le Libéria (beaucoup moins la Sierra Leone), je me suis dit que derrière ces images, il y avait des tas d'autres choses qui n'étaient pas dites, qu'il y avait des vies, des êtres, des histoires" (252). Beyond the desire to humanize the outbreak, she also insists on the need to remember the outbreak: "… une fois la maladie déclarée officiellement terminée, eh bien on n'en a plus entendu parler! […] Je me suis dit qu'on ne pouvait quand même pas oublier quelque chose qui avait été aussi terrifiant. Il faut continuer à réfléchir sur ce qui s'est passé et sur ce que l'avenir pourrait nous réserver" (252). Tadjo's objectives are not surprising considering her previous works, especially L'Ombre d'Imana (2000) in which she undertook the arduous task of commemorating and bearing witness to the 1994 Rwandan genocide as part of the Fest'Africa project, 'Rwanda: écrire par devoir de mémoire'. In the same spirit, with En Compagnie des hommes, Tadjo memorializes the victims and the heroes of the Ebola. The novel reflects this with its polyphonic structure that consists of 16 chapters narrated by different agents that were directly impacted by or implicated in the outbreak. Tadjo includes not only human agents but also includes chapters by a Baobab tree, a bat (the host) and the Ebola virus itself. Through all these narrators, Tadjo voices
This article examines Congo My Body, an autobiographical performance performed in 2011 at the festival Hautes Tensions de La Villette in Paris, France, by former Congolese child soldiers Serge Amisi and Jean René Yaoundé Mulamba, and choreographer Djodjo Kazadi. In this work, the three performers recreate Amisi and Mulamba’s experiences as child soldiers in Joseph Kabila’s army from 1997 to 2001. After establishing the stereotypical and oftentimes narrow western representations of child soldiers as a starting point, this article identifies how the performers use the performance space to bridge the perceived otherness of the child soldier and position the audience as witnesses. Through the use of their own bodies and puppets, the performers not only recreate the child soldiers’ indoctrination into violence and its traumatic and devastating effects but also blur the line between victim and aggressor. This article argues that with Congo my Body, the performers attempt to make the spectators aware of their own perception of child soldiers and encourage the audience to reflect on the child soldiers’ fate beyond the performance.
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