Theatre
Sansoa
Not translated into English
Kpièlè Pierre Dabiré · 1969
Synopsis
In the era of forced labour, Sansoa, the only son of poor farmers, is conscripted against his will to become a tirailleur, through the fault of a cowardly and unscrupulous village chief. The play follows his fate and that of his parents, whom his departure leaves without hands for the fields, and stages the ordinary workings of colonial recruitment, in which coercion passes through the village authorities themselves.
Context
Written for the competition that French radio opened to authors of the continent, the play appeared the following year in the African theatre repertoire series, of which it forms the third number. It is inspired by real events and denounces the abuses of the colonial system and the rifts it produces in families. An academic study has been devoted to it, which is surprised that a work regarded as emblematic has never been reissued in print; a digital reissue has since appeared.
Who it is for
Six acts divided into scenes, in French. It is better to know what the recruitment of tirailleurs and forced labour were in the French colonies of West Africa.
Prizes and reception
Winner of the first inter-African theatre competition of 1967-1968, one of the two international distinctions of its generation; the first work published in Burkina Faso.