The Drying Prayers: Peace Dance from a Central African Perspective

This follow-on project responds to a community need, which is the promotion of culture for development among displaced communities in Central Africa. Our previous research has built capacity for knowledge exchange (Phase I) and training (Phase II). We now require support from AHRC for impact and engagement activities. Our new focus group are women and children. These developments are part of a long-term collaboration between PI Salazar Sutil and non-academic partner Taigue Ahmed (Artistic Director of Ndam Se Na). Ndam Se Na has conducted community engagement work in refugee camps for almost 15 years, developing a unique pedagogy for community-building through dance. The focus of this project is the Baga Sola UNHCR refugee camp located in the Lake Chad region, which is a new area of activity for NSN. This fund is supporting the growth and expansion of NSN's methodology both within Chad and internationally. The reason for conducting work in Lake Chad is all the more relevant given the fact that this region is experiencing one of the largest humanitarian crisis in the world due to the disappearance of the lake, a problem aggravated by Boko-Haram related violence.

This project will enable us to take our research programme in new directions through development of a novel impact and engagement plan that enhances previous research, while engaging new communities and partners in defining and responding to the above-mentioned need. This fund will enable a new team of African artists and researchers to be recruited through open call. The team will conduct practice-research on the subject of "peace performance," exploring embodied ethical values found within traditional Chadian dances used in Ahmed's pedagogy. The team of practitioners will spend three weeks in the Lake Chad, and will facilitate rhythm and dance workshops with our new focus group (women and children). In September 2019, we will conduct a festive event in N'Djamena to showcase the art co-created with lakeside refugees. This event will also give our trainees from the previous research project an opportunity to showcase new work done in their home countries. This will inform our feasibility study and impact report, as we will evaluate the impact of Ahmed's training (Phase II) in new regional contexts beyond Chad (i.e. Mali, Senegal, Cameroon and Madagascar). The event will also support policy-making and match-funding activities.

In addition, this fund will support the collation of audiovisual records of the fieldwork, to be carried out by the PI. The research material amassed during Phases I, II and III will be housed in a new project website, which will include blogs and unpublished material concerning Pas en Avant pedagogy (including a downloadable toolkit).

Finally, the artistic research will lead to the production of a novel work of documentary dance, also led by Ahmed and his team of 8 unnamed artists. The piece, entitled "The Drying Prayers", will be presented in Germany, UK, France and Chad, and it will be co-produced by a number of high-profile cultural organisations for maximisation of artistic and cultural impact. This work of documentary dance will provide an opportunity for the realisation of talks and Q&As, so as to engage new academic communities, dance experts, and art researchers from across Europe and Africa.

The choreographic work and academic talks will promote the basic conceptual framework of our research, which draws on dance philosophy to construe an embodied understanding of "peace" as creative praxis. The project demonstrates creativity and innovation through promotion of a distinctly Chadian perspective on peace dance, as well as through the development of the emergent medium of documentary dance. The success and legacy of this project is ensured by a trusting relationship built through our continuing work with African experts, scholars, and the participating communities.

This project's prime beneficiaries are women and children living in the refugee camp of Baga Sola. We will contribute to UNHCR's educational and cultural provision in this refugee camp, which is currently extremely limited. We will also support the development of 8 African artists (unnamed), and 5 trainees from Phase II (Ba, Ndoubabe, Iasora, Gansaore, and Maiga). We will benefit ECR researcher Romeo Koibe Madjilem (University of N'Djamena), who will moderate the public event at Institut Francais (IF), and who will pursue new academic and policy contacts. The impact to be generated is twofold:

1) Social impact

Follow-on activities build on work conducted in Chad in May-June 2018 (Phase I) and in May-June 2019 (Phase II). This impact and engagement fund will give longitudinal value to our social impact through new community engagement workshops aimed at building group resilience, personal well-being, and peace through cultural affirmation. The proposed community engagement workshops will focus on women and children. We will therefore prioritise specialist artists with relevant experience and/or qualification. The beneficiary community of Baga Sola is currently experiencing large volumes of Internally Displaced Peoples and refugees, particularly Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram, Malians fleeing war in the Sahel region, and refugees from Niger fleeing food crisis and drought. Traditionally, the lakeside communities have been tourist hotspots. Religious extremism and drought have prevented economic development, all but eradicating tourism. The crisis has also affected fishing, agriculture and trade. Insofar as we aim to strengthen community cohesion through cultural affirmation, our project can pave the way for further economic and policy-related activity. While our previous event at IF engaged cultural stakeholders, we now seek FoF support to engage policy-related stakeholders (UNHCR, African Union, Lake Chad Basin Commission). These stakeholders will be engaged through programmed roundtables activities, during which we will discuss the role of cultural affirmation in supporting development in the region.

Cultural impact

The pedagogy developed by Ndam Se Na (NSN) hinges on the valorisation of African rhythms and gestures used in ritual, traditional dance, and tribal forms of interpersonal exchange. One example of a local practice used by NSN is the Bazaga 'friendship dance', which Ahmed uses to open up dialogue between refugee and non-refugee workshop participants. The impact of NSN's work hinges on a deep ethical valorisation of local African practices, and the integration of these forms within contemporary culture, especially contemporary dance and electronic rhythms. The synthesis of contemporary and traditional practices is a sensitive and delicate issue that does not always work at the ethical level. Embedding tradition within media like contemporary dance, DJing, and electronic music can help new audiences reach ritual culture, at the expense of cultural appropriation. Our project has the potential to uncover traditional ritual culture in Chad to new generations, and to promote rural African tradition in urban areas. At the same time, contemporary practices can help interrogate problematic beliefs and values entrenched within Central African traditions, particularly around the role of women and children. This delicate balance is an important factor in delivering cultural impact to both the international and local communities involved.

Also at the heart of our impact agenda is the documentation of this project, and web dissemination of work conducted by NSN in Central Africa. This fund will support artistic research for the gathering of documentary choreographic and rhythmic materials that will be harnessed as part of a new piece of documentary dance to be presented in UK, Germany, France and Chad. The stage work will be accompanied by talks and Q&A activities that will engage new international publics