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A
new journey began at Lac du Bois this summer and it is called Odyssee
Afique.
Villagers who picked this option took a swift tour through the cultures,
the languages and the traditions of peoples of francophone countries
in Africa. Two weeks in the making, their journey was filled with interesting
discoveries at every turn of the path. From the moment they first met,
the rhythm of their welcome became a ritual, a traditional naming ceremony
at the end of which each villager emerged with a name that truly embraced
who each one truly was. Hence, Tere Mansa, which means
Queen of the sun, became the adopted name for a villager who described
herself as liking the the outdoors and fun under the sun.
The Boukarou, a traditional house from north Cameroon,
built on site and inaugurated last year, was the center piece for the
experience of Odyssee Afrique.
Driven with the basic immersion tools of Lac du Bois, i.e. role play,
theater, games and so on, Odyssee Afrique set out to
impart the flurry of experiences that truly captured the spirit and
the soul of this ancient, rich and most deeply misunderstood continent.
Here the villagers gathered into a traditional Pow-Wow (palabre sous
l'arbre) under the great Baoba, at the summon of the chief, and assuming
the roles of different characters in the traditional communal organization,
they settled a dispute over a lost goat. Quite a stir in the village
that day! Yet a resolution satisfactory to all was found. This experience
taught the villagers the place of speech into an african community,
a moral lesson regarding false accusations and most of all the importance
of communal organization.
In order to complete the journey, the villagers tapped into the vast
well of songs, games and tastes that make up the rhythm of existence
in Africa, and once they mastered the basic elements involved in such
areas as dance, craft and music, they produced their own creations of
these crafts, according to the styles learned. This year, in addition
to the stories they made up, the craft they painted on the Boukarou,
the games and dance learned, the villages composed traditional songs
that could be found in a CD collection of songs made at Lac du Bois.
Another highlight this year was the reaching out to Washington with
a written invitation adressed to the Cameroonian Ambassador (a representative
of one of the country featured in Odysse Afrique), from the villagers,
exposing the activities they were involved in and asking for a telephone
interview with his Excellency.
All in all, Odyssee Afrique began with a bang! Here
is what some of the participants had to say about their experience:
We
praise the life of the world and the spirit moving in all life!
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