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Sotigui Kouyaté is a griot. In Malinké, the language of the ancient Empire of Mali which covered most of West Africa in the 13th century, he is a jelis which means "blood." That is to say, in Kouyaté's own words, "One does not become a griot. One is born a griot." Descended from the original family of jelis (there are now over 100) and therefore fluent in the histories and genealogies of his ancestors, Kouyaté is also an actor, whom fans of Peter Brook's work will recognize as Bhisma in "The Mahabarata," Prospero in "La Tempête," and from the more recent "L'homme qui..." and "Qui est là?" This month, Kouyaté directs and plays Creon in Sophocle's "Antigone" at Brook's Bouffes du Nord theater, but not with his fellow actors there. As the founder of the Mandéka Théâtre in Bamako, Mali, Kouyaté leads a young cast in exploring from an African sensibility the universal themes of Greek tragedy. In "Antigone," Creon, the King of Thebes, sentences Antigone to death for having defied his order prohibiting anyone from burying Polyneices, her brother, killed laying siege to Thebes. Though counselled by the elders and the prophet Teiresias to bend his will to the gods' by allowing a proper burial, Creon, in his wounded pride, refuses, thereby setting off a chain of suicides in the royal family. Yet it is above all as a man that Creon is outraged by Antigone's flouting of his authority; he simply will not be shown up by a woman. This is the theme which Kouyaté and the Mandéka Théâtre exploit in their production. "This universal theme of male-female relations is as old as the world itself," Kouyaté said in an interview. "In my tradition, the earth is our mother and the sky is our father. They are two hugely powerful forces, in opposition yet entirely complementary." The affinities between ancient Greece and Africa do not end there however; both developed particularly rich oral traditions which, in Africa at least, survive today. Indeed, the griot is responsible for orally passing a family's history on to its younger generations, not so much as a storyteller or a musician such as griots are usually thought of in the West, but as an historian and a genealogist. The griot also advises the king, mediates disputes and, in times of crisis, judges. In these functions, he most obviously parallels the council of elders and Teiresias from "Antigone." The theme of fateful, unbending pride is equally well-known to the griot who appreciates and respects the value of modesty in human relations. "The griot who lacks humility is unpardonable," Kouyaté insisted gravely. The visit to Paris by the Mandéka Théâtre is an extension of Kouyaté's own work as an actor in France, which is a subtle way of building bridges between Africa and the West. "I've chosen to tell the story of 'Antigone' in French but in the voice and in the form that is ours as Africans," Kouyaté explained. "That is always my approach. Voluntarily or involuntarily, Africa has been marginalized by the rest of the world, but Africa has something to say. Africa has something to show, and these are not the usual images of Africa: starving, sick or quaint." It is a two-way relationship though, he added, in which the young actors and actresses of the two-year old Mandéka Théâtre also learn to see a more human side of France, besides the one that forcibly sends Malian refugees home handcuffed in charter planes. As a true jelis descended from Mali's oldest griot family, it is with humility, ultimately, that Kouyaté proposes to western audiences an African worldview. "We also come to learn and to give what we have," he reflected. "No one gives honestly and sincerely without receiving in turn. When you fill your hand with sand, you give to the earth, and the earth gives back to you. I hope that the Mandéka Théâtre can be a springboard to communicate what is honorable in the African tradition." "Antigone," May 11-29, Tue-Sat, 8:30pm; Sun, 4pm, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, 37 bis, bd de la Chapelle, 10e, M? Porte de la Chapelle, 50-130F, tel: 01.46.07.34.50. |
