François Stéphane Alima Mbarga (b. 1981)
François Alima is an actor, storyteller, and musician living in Yaoundé and a member Othni Theater’s artistic ensemble. He works with traditional artistic practices and explores their constant modification caused by contemporary influences. While telling stories, he masterfully plays the mvett, a string instrument resembling a musical bow that was first seen in Egyptian culture. It was used to perform the great African epics, for example the Central African lore detailing the struggle between the Ekang and Okü tribes over knowledge of immorality, which is passed on still today. In 2013 Alima was awarded the silver medal for storytelling at the Jeux de la Francophonie in Nice. As an actor he participated, together with the theater group OTHNI from Yaoundé, in the collaborative production “Fin de Machine / Exit.Hamlet” at the kainkollektiv theater in Bochum, Germany. For Crossing Boundaries of Doubt, he plays an instrumental piece called “Renaissance” on the mvett and tells the story of “Roc and Water”.
His contribution to crossing-boundaries-of-doubt.net:
ROC AND WATER
