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In 1994 near Nantes, 25 men, women and children were brought from Côte d’Ivoire to live and represent themselves in a zoo. Edith Lago was a dancer at Safari Parc. She testifies in the documentary “The village of Bamboula”.
“You always had to dance topless. We were used to it, we didn’t live in town, we lived where the animals lived.” In 1994, in Port-Saint-Père, 20 kilometers from Nantes, an “Ivorian village” was set up in an animal park: the “African Safari”. The village was nicknamed “Bamboula village” in reference to the St Michel biscuit. of the same name, sponsor of the park. This story is told in the documentary “The village of Bamboula” by Yoann de Montgrand and François Tchernia, broadcast on France 2. Edith Lago was a dancer in this park when she was almost 14 years old. “There is a dance called N’Goron, which is danced topless and since I had a nice chest and I danced well, that’s how I was picked up to come and dance“, she says.
It was the head of the troupe who signed the contract and managed the schedule of the dancers. But very quickly, anti-racist associations and union activists reacted and formed a collective. The collective of associations will end up obtaining an increase in wages, the return of passports and the schooling of children.
A few months after the start of the “Ivorian village”, the group was fired. On July 1, 1997, justice officially recognizes the violation of human dignity. The African Safari and Dany Laurent are condemned to pay a symbolic franc to the collective.