
10h
“N’tséé”: “I have the power to do”
THEATRICAL WALKING TOUR in CONVERSATION with
Koumarami Karama, Special Prize
by Oliviero Vendraminetto with the Ostana Prize artistic and musicians collective
Dioula language
Biography
Koumarami Karama, also known as Ange Gertrude, was born on November 16, 1984, in Naniagara, in Cascades Region of Burkina Faso. She’s a livestock technical agent but is better known in the theatrical field as an actress, playwright, and director. Karama has also been involved in set design, lighting, and audio techniques.
She writes theatrical texts in her mother tongue, Dioula, addressing social and cultural issues in Burkina Faso. Her work focuses on defending the original Burkinabè values and how these values can exist and interact in contemporary society, sparking reflection on gender relations.
In 2020, she wrote “La goutte devastatrice” (“The Devastating Drop”) and “Le dilemme” (“The Dilemma”). In 2021, she penned “Je suis une femme” (“I Am a Woman”) and “Le messager” (“The Messenger”). In 2022, her theatrical text “Bange ko kura” (“Renaissance”) won first prize at the RITLAMES festival in Ouagadougou, a recognition she repeated the following year with “Kele neemaw” (“The Graces of Struggle”).
She acted in Sarah Bouyan’s films “Notre étrangère” (“Our Foreigner”) and “Tonkré” (“The Thread”). She holds various responsibilities in the artistic, cultural, and women’s empowerment spheres.
She is the president of the women’s cultural association “Le amazzoni di Santa” (ACFAS) and promotes the annual festival “La terapia dell’arte”. She is also part of the organizing committee of the festival “Niangoloko en fête”, artistic director of the theatrical company “La Compagnie de l’Arc”, and coordinator of FENATHEB (National Theater Federation in Burkina Faso), Cascades section.
Award motivation
Karama Koumarami has twice won the first prize at the Ritlames festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. She achieved this with texts written in Dioula, her mother tongue, works in which she manages to reconcile a set of deep African values with a modernity that encourages a positive consideration of women’s emancipation and promotes awareness of the problem of terrorism in the country.
An actress, theatrical director, and playwright, Karama is a young author who deserves the full attention of those who hold the protection and promotion of mother tongues close to their hearts. The festival that saw her win in 2022 and 2023, Ritlames (Rencontres Internationales du Théâtre en Langues Maternelles – International Encounters of Theater Writing in Mother Tongues), is the result of the initiative by a young Burkinabé, Sidiki Yougbaré, who succeeded in creating a festival of dramaturgy writings in African mother and minority languages in Ouagadougou.
Therefore, the Special Prize of the XVI edition of the Ostana Prize goes to Karama Koumarami not only for her authorial and dramaturgical research within the Dioula world but also as a representative and symbol of the Burkinabè festival Ritlames, a reality twinned with the Ostana Prize, to which a great future is hoped for: there’s a bit of Ostana in the Ritlames of Ouagadougou, and from this edition onwards there will surely be a bit of Ritlames in Ostana.
Offering authors the opportunity to present texts in their native language is a true revolution in Burkina Faso, considering that in Francophone African countries, French is the dominant language that occupies virtually all cultural and artistic spaces, despite the existence of at least sixty different languages.
PARTNERS
The Ostana Prize celebrates the international support received
from the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages, and from two reference institutions in the linguistic field: the ELEN network (European Language Equality Network) and the NPLD network (Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity).