Mittérand et Sankara

“Françafrique”: the term denotes everything rotten about Franco-African relations in the decades following independence in France’s former colonies: the misappropriation of millions of francs in aid, the creation of a corrupt political class and the awarding of highly advantageous development contracts to French industry and engineering. That the current government under President Nicolas Sarkozy is at the least making noises to distance itself from the policies that were the bread and butter of French-African “cooperation” in the 1960s and 1970s (see the recent tribune published in Le Monde by French Secretary of State for Overseas Development, Jean-Marie Bockel), is testimony to the insidious heritage of French neocolonialism and the enduring power of its reputation even for the French public. That incredible and tortuous history, uniting figures as outwardly diverse as Georges Pompidou and Félix Houphouet-Boigny, Valérie Giscard d’Estaing and Mobutu Sese Seko, has interested writers from Mongo Beti to John Le Carré, and now becomes a piece of theater under the pen of Jacques Jouet.

In “Mittérand et Sankara” however, Jouet proposes a fictional meeting between two heads of state separated by much more than the Sahara : the French president who confided the secret dealings of France’s notorious “African cell” to his son Jean-Christophe (allegedly baptized “Papamadit” by his interlocutors) and the reform-minded leader of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987, Thomas Sankara. What indeed could these two have to discuss on the dimly lit terrace of the presidential residence in Ouagadougou? But seek each other out, they apparently did, on several occasions: if youthful idealism must have fascinated the elder statesman, the latter’s political instincts undoubtedly commanded a certain attention in return. The qualities of each are to be measured in the two speeches with which director Jean-Louis Martinelli has framed Jouet’s play : Sankara’s address to the U.N. on December 4, 1984, and Mittérand’s opening remarks at the 16th Summit of French and African Heads of State in 1990. On the one hand : Sankara’s verve and convictions, arguing passionately for the defense by the international community of the rights of the wretched of the earth, even going so far as to demand a reorganization of the U.N. itself to give greater voice to the paternalistically termed “Third World”. On the other : Mittérand’s bold bet (yet to be won) that democracy would and could, with unusually strict French encouragement and means, sweep across Africa as it had done in Eastern Europe.

Imagined by Jouet, a member of the Oulipo group of writers united by a predilection for word play and linguistic jousting via pre-determined and self-imposed compositional constraints, the coming together of these two individuals, however true, is a celebration of verbal oneupsmanship. In “Mittérand et Sankara”, Jouet develops his concept of “simple theater” which prefers the verbal aspects of the art over the visual, translated here into a contest of who, literally, has the strongest tongue : each character, including one representing “Simple Theater” in the flesh, must successfully spit a roasted grain of corn into a gourd at his feet in order to be allowed to speak. The device, while not preventing the characters from delivering the entirety of their respective speeches, nevertheless creates an imbalance of power. On the night I saw the show, “Simple Theater” won hands down, leaving “Sankara” and “Mittérand” (played convincingly by Moussa Sanou and Pierre Hiessler, respectively) to briefly duel it out. The “gallic chicken” (Sankara’s expression) allowed himself a certain number of exceptions to the rule of order (Jouet’s characters are close representations of their real-life counterparts) in order to best his junior, but Sankara, as the loser, had the last word.

As one of postcolonial Africa’s few leaders to place people and country over personal ambition and desire, Sankara was not long for this world. After defending the rights of women, battling corruption and illness and tackling environmental issues like the encroachment of the Sahara Desert, Sankara was no match for a certain “Françafrique” that had him gunned down and replaced by Blaise Campaoré, who remains in the director’s seat of Burkina Faso some 20 years later, with the faithful support of France. If the clash of social ideals and political status quo are the subject of “Mittérand et Sankara”, Martinelli’s idea to end the evening with the famous La Baule speech lends the impression that the French president’s vision for a democratic Africa found its impetus in Sankara’s vision for a socially responsible Burkina Faso that could in turn change the world. Between Jouet’s play and Martinelli’s interpretation, yet two more commentaries on the period face off.

To February 17, Tues-Sat, 9 pm, Sun, 4 pm, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, 7 avenue Pablo Picasso, Nanterre (92), RER A Nanterre-Préfecture + shuttlebus, 12€-24€, tel: 01.46.14.70.00.

Photo Credit: Agathe Poupeney