MEDI1TV Afrique : Rencontre avec l'écrivain Wilfried N'sondé, portrait de Myriam Mihindou et zoom sur le film "Fatow" - 08/03/2025
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00:00It is with great pleasure that I meet you on Median TV for this new Escale Culture at the heart of Africa.
00:17In fact, in a few moments we will talk about art with the unbeatable artist Myriam Mi Hindou.
00:23We will come back to her artistic universe. We will also talk about cinema with the great winner of FESPACO and we will talk about literature.
00:32By the way, we talk again about literature and we start with our guest of the day.
00:37Myriam Mi Hindou is a writer, a filmmaker and an activist.
00:42Today she has a pen that makes us particularly excited.
00:48Wilfried Nsonde, we no longer present him, no less of his literary spirit in his work.
00:55A very rich career, plural themes, alterity, exile, political identity, society, in short.
01:03There is something in him that is simply indefinable.
01:07Moreover, he is with us to talk to us about it.
01:09Hello Wilfried.
01:12Hello, hello. Thank you for this invitation.
01:17Thank you very much.
01:19It is a real pleasure to welcome you today in Africa, in culture.
01:24And as I said earlier, we will have time to talk about it.
01:29It is true that throughout your career, several themes are different from each other.
01:36It must be said that you were born in love with art with your dad, a musician.
01:46What convinced you to become a writer?
01:56What convinced me is that I did law and political science studies in Paris.
02:02So very serious and very rational things.
02:06And in the end, a little cold.
02:09I decided to devote myself to literature, to art, because for me what is most interesting in the human being
02:17is perhaps precisely his entire inner, spiritual, emotional universe.
02:23These are very important resources that are missing from our world, but which are at the heart of literature.
02:32That's why I decided to devote myself to it.
02:36And it looks like I was not wrong.
02:40You were not wrong at all, quite the opposite.
02:43I would like to know, you have this double talent, to write with sound and to write with words.
02:51You are a meloman, a musician, an artist and a literary and a musician.
02:59And I would like to know, do the two feed each other?
03:05Yes, for me, the two feed each other.
03:08For me, the two make one.
03:11When I write a text, the words I choose have a sound.
03:15So I choose them, of course, for their meaning, but also for their sound.
03:19The punctuation, I love to play with punctuation.
03:23Why? To create rhythm.
03:26It is important that my text has rhythm.
03:29Each sentence has its own melody.
03:31I am a bit like the French poet Verlaine, who said, music first of all.
03:38For me, the two are closely linked.
03:41It is the same momentum.
03:44Always to produce the strongest emotions, the most just.
03:51It is interesting to combine music and text.
03:55And even dance, when I do dance lessons.
03:58Everything that is exploration of our world, of our sensitive universes,
04:05for me, it is good.
04:08So you have to combine all this for more complexity,
04:12more accuracy, more wonder.
04:16In any case, it is ambition.
04:20And it is true that when I have the pleasure of interviewing an author, a writer,
04:26I always ask him how the writing process takes place in his house.
04:32For me, it is something that fascinates me.
04:35Writing, writing a story, making it alive, giving life to the words.
04:40How does the writing process between the idea and the birth take place in your house?
04:49Well, it is a process.
04:52There is the inspiration, which is something magical, unstoppable,
04:59which almost falls on me, despite me.
05:04Then there is the whole process where the inspiration is specified in my head.
05:09I start to draft a story, a story of characters.
05:13And then the hard way of writing begins.
05:19I would say that I am not a writer who writes,
05:24but a writer who constantly rewrites.
05:27It is a work of rewriting each sentence, each paragraph, each chapter,
05:33to be always more accurate.
05:35It is really a work of long hale,
05:38through which I go through phases of euphoria,
05:44of depression, of suffering and of great joy.
05:50The writing of a novel, for example, is a whole story.
05:57Of course it is not written, but I live it very intensely.
06:03It is a kind of emotional journey, an emotional rollercoaster.
06:08And then there is the full story, when everything is finished,
06:13and a lot of emotion when the book is ready.
06:17My writing process is a journey of suffering, wonder and joy.
06:25A journey, as you say, an introspection that you share with everyone
06:31every time you write a book.
06:33But it is true that throughout your literary career,
06:36there are themes that often come up,
06:39notably African identity.
06:44We talk about slavery, we talk about slave trade,
06:47we talk about African mythology.
06:49There are things that come up quite often in your literature.
06:55And I would like to know, is it something you want,
06:58you do it as an act,
07:00or is it something totally unconscious that escapes you
07:04and comes back to slavery in a way?
07:09I would say it is a bit of both.
07:12Because I was born in the Congo,
07:14I was petrified by all the mythology of the Congo,
07:20the whole system of values, the vision of the world.
07:24And so all of this comes from the unconscious,
07:27because it is in me.
07:30But with the years, and with the distance,
07:33I said to myself, it is incredible,
07:35because this continent is rich in history that we do not know.
07:41Every time I am in Morocco, I say to myself,
07:44it is incredible, it is in this country that we have found
07:47the oldest Homo sapiens.
07:49He is the one who teaches us that we have existed
07:52for at least 300,000 years,
07:55and we only know the history of the last 10,000 years.
08:00So there is a huge void of history,
08:05of the stories of this continent.
08:08So it is fascinating for an artist
08:12to explore still unknown universes.
08:17And this is very conscious,
08:20because I can rewrite an episode of the history of France
08:28that everyone knows.
08:30But the history of Africa is unknown,
08:33beyond 10,000 years, it is completely unknown.
08:36Even before colonization,
08:42we know very little about the history of this continent.
08:46So it is almost an omen.
08:49And it is also a duty to fill the void,
08:52which is abysmal.
08:56Before leaving us, Wilfried,
09:03I would like to know,
09:05are you currently writing a book, a novel?
09:12Is there something that is coming to light?
09:17Yes, there is something that is coming to light.
09:23It should appear next year.
09:26After talking about the transatlantic trade of the 17th century
09:32and the resistance of the Kingdom of Congo of the 18th century,
09:38we are now in the 20th century.
09:41But I won't say more, because I'm not finished yet.
09:46Thank you very much, Wilfried Nsonde,
09:49for being with us.
09:50It was a pleasure to receive you.
09:52Thank you very much.
09:54Thank you too.
09:55And hello to all my Moroccan friends.
10:06And right away, in the cultural moment,
10:08an unbeatable artist,
10:10Myriam Mi-Hindou,
10:12between sculpture, drawing and fixed image,
10:14or in movement,
10:15Myriam covers all the mediums of Africa,
10:18including the Indian Ocean.
10:19She sees art as an infinite experience
10:22that is renewed each time in different forms.
10:25She will say,
10:26the experience of these territories enriched my reflection
10:29where language, history, spirituality, representation
10:33and the environment have a central place.
10:35What interests me the most,
10:37are the consequences of the traumas
10:39produced by colonial or repressive systems
10:42on our bodies and our imaginations.
10:44In her work,
10:45it is often also a question of psychological disorders,
10:48of vulnerable states.
10:49She will say,
10:50with my plastic and visual work,
10:52I propose ecluses,
10:54as a kind of compression,
10:57so that the bodies restore,
10:59wake up and heal.
11:00I deploy a performative practice
11:02to create new stories
11:04which, I believe,
11:06can give us a smile,
11:08a little happiness.
11:12I am a plastic artist
11:14and a videographer.
11:16I also draw
11:18and perform.
11:22The question of time, performance
11:24and the artistic process
11:26is at the heart of my practice,
11:28between the intimate and the collective.
11:30I went to an art school,
11:32the School of Fine Arts of Bordeaux,
11:34and I also have a training in architecture.
11:40I have lived in different countries,
11:42like Egypt, Morocco,
11:44the Indian Ocean,
11:46and other territories
11:48where I often go
11:50to work and think about the world.
11:54I have a meditative practice,
11:56but at the same time
11:58an alchemist and political practice
12:00of the world.
12:02It is true that the body is central
12:04in my work,
12:06and for me, the body is a body of energy.
12:08If I go back to the source,
12:10we have in Gabon
12:12practices,
12:14rituals,
12:16which are figures of ancestors,
12:18which ensure the uprooting
12:20of thoughts and knowledge,
12:22which we call quotas.
12:24These are sculptures made
12:26of wood and copper.
12:28This presence of the quota
12:30is important to me,
12:32which is ultimately an uprooting.
12:34There is also all the work
12:36I did on the Dogons of Mali,
12:38in my part of Gabon.
12:40We have a basement
12:42full of copper,
12:44and this copper is also
12:46a story of colonization,
12:48a story of cohabitation, of transmigration.
12:54Myriam Minidou was born in 1964
12:56in Libreville, a French-Gabonese
12:58double culture,
13:00a multidisciplinary artist.
13:02She is interested in the blue of the soul
13:04and the impregnation of our territories
13:06Her commitment to environmental
13:08and feminist causes
13:10brings an undeniable political dimension
13:12to her work.
13:14She also sees herself as a shaman artist.
13:16Myriam Minidou
13:18uses her works to think
13:20about the plagues of the world,
13:22to weave the parties, to discover
13:24through many journeys,
13:26irrigated by the questions of displacement
13:28and exile, of struggle against domination
13:30and affirmation of ancestral memories,
13:32but also of the care inspired
13:34by the cultural experiences
13:36that she has been able to cross on her path.
13:38Since I have been in spaces
13:40of water, of sea,
13:42in the forests, I have observed the landscape a lot
13:44because I know that the landscape
13:46today is threatened, or at least
13:48the landscape is changing.
13:50So we arrive in this exhibition
13:52on a very clear work floor
13:54in which, I would say,
13:56I have dug holes
13:58that even hold
14:00sand.
14:02We already have
14:04pieces placed on these holes
14:06filled with sand to have this comfort
14:08and these pieces themselves
14:10are also filled with sand.
14:12And so the interest is
14:14that the public can occupy
14:16these pieces, these alcohols, these textile pieces
14:18to be able to take
14:20the anchorage
14:22of the sand that is contained
14:24in the hole, of the sand that is in the pockets
14:26and to rest inside these spaces.
14:28We need to feel
14:30the body today.
14:32We have been deprived for a long time
14:34of this proximity of the bodies
14:36and so I come back to reactivate
14:38this relationship with the world.
14:40The words that are
14:42like scars
14:44are words to heal.
14:46These are words chosen
14:48to carry the dream
14:50and the meditation of my audience.
14:52It must be admitted
14:54that Miriam Hindou
14:56addresses issues related to
14:58memory, language, rituals
15:00and especially the feminine condition,
15:02spirituality or ecology.
15:04Her practice could be described as
15:06healing as well as artistic, nomadic
15:08in the soul. The artist works
15:10by merging with her environment
15:12specific situations and people
15:14by attaching and repairing the individual
15:16and collective wounds
15:18caused by different forms of
15:20subjugation or domination
15:22and always thanks to art.
15:24I think that if men
15:26in ancient times
15:28produced rituals,
15:30it is because in these places
15:32everything was transmitted.
15:34These were very powerful places
15:36of transmission.
15:38The series of shockings was produced in 2003.
15:40I was in Haiti
15:42and I wanted to work on
15:44the body and the mirror,
15:46the relationship between Africa and the Caribbean,
15:48this body that moved.
15:50And I thought
15:52how can we find ourselves?
15:54If we were to find ourselves,
15:56what would we have to say?
15:58So we worked like cats.
16:00It was a real dance,
16:02like tai chi.
16:04Our bodies were moving in space
16:06in a very soft way.
16:08We rubbed each other,
16:10I followed them.
16:12We entered a dance,
16:14a mystical dance,
16:16because at that moment
16:18I think I was not aware
16:20of what we were living.
16:22L'Orge
16:43And now we speak cinema
16:45with the film Malien Fataux,
16:46the first of its kind
16:47at the FESPACO 2025
16:48that reopened on March 1st.
16:50The 29th FESPACO was closed this week during the Pan-African Film Festival.
16:59Four special prizes were given to the Malian Fuseini Maïga for his documentary,
17:07FATO, which means crazy people in Mambara.
17:10This documentary follows the Malian heritage, which has truly paved the way for culture
17:15and which finds a better place in the politics of African states.
17:19Let's take a look at the trailer.
17:49The Malian Fuseini Maïga
18:19The Malian Fuseini Maïga
18:23The Malian Fuseini Maïga
18:27The Malian Fuseini Maïga
18:31The Malian Fuseini Maïga
18:48Today's set is a bit exceptional.
18:52Overall, I would say that the script is something that will speak to all Malian artists.
18:57FATO is a documentary with real names of the Malian culture,
19:01which is a testimony of this country, of its culture.
19:05It is also a creative and artistic work,
19:07where the viewer is simply guided by actors disguised as madmen.
19:11Artists in African societies are often perceived as madmen.
19:15This is what the Malian director explains.
19:18Fuseini Maïga, so we are part of this collective perception.
19:22The film is carried by four madmen in four different and representative settings
19:27of the Malian cultural and geographical zones.
19:30You have a first madman in the hills,
19:32a second on the Niger River,
19:34a third in the dense forests,
19:35and a fourth in the desert.
19:37These different madmen, in their walks,
19:39simply invite us to discover summits like Aminata Dramantraore,
19:43writer and former minister,
19:45Mansambuwele Dialo, musician,
19:47or dear Tidiane Seck, who is also a musician.
19:51The history of Mali is depicted through its cinema, its music,
19:55its theater and its cultural heritage.
19:58FATO is above all a plebiscite for the place of culture in national policies.
20:03And for Fuseini Maïga, who himself directs the National Center for Malian Cinematography,
20:08this award comes as an additional argument
20:12to give a whole other dimension to cinema on our continent.
20:24And before we leave,
20:25let's hear from the poet Dambudzo Marechera,
20:28one of the greatest political pioneers of our continent.
20:30It all starts with a trauma,
20:32an original trauma that occurred at the age of 11
20:35for the poet when he is confronted
20:37with the corpse of his father, who died in an accident.
20:39This traumatic scene haunts the whole work of Marechera.
20:43Marechera is also considered a bit like the terrible child of African literature,
20:47especially Zimbabwean,
20:49of his anarchic behavior linked to his very difficult childhood,
20:53poverty, deprivation,
20:55but he was especially traumatized, as I said earlier,
20:57by the terrible death of his father.
20:59He bore this pain all his life,
21:01and literature and poetry were really all that made him hold on.
21:05And more than that, this poetic operation he managed to do
21:08is precisely to transform this core of pain
21:11into something vital, poetic,
21:13from this trauma that is inaudible in his poetry,
21:15from which the splinters of life that these poems are going to be born,
21:19with this diversity of influences too,
21:21since we see the poet going to draw his inspiration
21:24in mythology,
21:25especially Greek and Western,
21:27or even African.
21:28And moreover, a book composed of all these poems
21:34has recently been released,
21:36and that's why we absolutely wanted to talk to you about it.
21:39Thank you for being with us on Mediien for African Culture,
21:43and we'll see you again next week, without fail.