PROJECT

Wildfire is the name of a slave ship described by Malcom Ferdinand in his essay « Une écologie décoloniale » For Malcom Ferdinand a ship, and more specifically a slave ship, symbolizes a political metaphor and tells the story of the world and the Earth.

This analogy with a ship resonates with Betty Tchomanga’s research on the Mami Wata myth. Her representation is an amalgam between mermaids on the bow of the colonist boats and the spirits of the African waters. A ship brings the possibility of an encounter and a flow of beliefs, thoughts and imaginary worlds.

She uses this title as a frame, as a base that allows her to express certain issues and pose some questions that will guide and structure her research.

It is also a support to bring about poetic and aesthetic “visions” in order to develop the beginning of a choreographic play. She gathered some mental images that she calls “visions”. These are the pieces that form the subconscious part of the project:

“I see two women with their bodies bent as if they were tilling the land. A third body, that of a child, seems to want to emerge but stays blurry.”

« I see body parts of different colours: sky blue, bright pale pink and clay green. Once they are at a standstill, the bodies seem to be divided into parts however they stay as one. Their faces have disappeared.”

« I see a small flame on the ground or in the hand of a woman. The flame grows a little bit bigger and becomes a flag. »

« Fire. Smoke. Women who smoke fish on a Dakar beach. I do not make out the bodies well. Only bent figures without faces that appear through the smoke. They move around between the blaze. »