Call me Mohamed Ali at the FTA | The Black Actor’s Struggle

The theatrical company La Sentinelle offers its rereading of the text from June 7 to 9 My name is Muhammad Ali by Congolese author Dieudonné Niangouna. On stage, a cast made up of eight actors and an actress from the black community. Discussion with four artisans of this show presented at the FTA, then at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous in September.

Stephanie Morin
The Press

Q. Tell us about the text by Dieudonné Niangouna. It is about the boxer Muhammad Ali and his fight against segregation, but also, and above all, the condition of the black actor in the West.

Philippe Racine (director): Boxing is a metaphor for the social struggle that must be waged on the status of black actresses and actors, in Quebec in particular. I discovered this text in 2018 during a reading led by Alice Ronfard. It’s a very powerful text, anchored in a reality that corresponded to me. Reading it, I realized that’s what I wanted to say.

Tatiana Zinga Botao (director and actress): It’s crazy that a text written by a Congolese who was going back and forth to Brussels speaks to us so much. It’s beautiful, but it also raises a lot of questions. It shows that discrimination against black communities is international and that we live the same fight on the other side of the ocean.

Philippe Racine : In Quebec, we wake up a bit late.

Tatiana Zinga Botao : I asked myself a lot of questions about my Congolese identity and about my profession. What is a black actress? One thing is certain, the Quebec black community has a crying need for more representation on stage.

Q. The original text was written in the form of a monologue. You cut it into nine scores to make it a choral piece. Why ?

Tatiana Zinga Botao : The main reason is to show that there is not only one black actor. The industry often considers us as a monolithic block: we pass the same auditions, we are contacted for the same roles. We want to show the plurality in our identities. We are not culturally the same. What brings us together is the blackness of our skin, but we are extremely different.

Philippe Racine : It’s important to show that we are there and that there are many of us, from different generations. By cutting the text, we multiply by nine the power and the lived experiences. Because [les acteurs noirs du Québec] have all gone through the same path, through discrimination, through a normalization and an erasure of who we are, through a concern for kindness on our part, a concern not to rush things.

Q. What does it change to find yourself in an entirely Afro-descendant cast?

Lyndz Dantist (actor): It’s the first time! Otherwise, it never happens. We learn to trust each other in there, which we have never been able to do before, because at school, we often found ourselves 1 out of 12 racialized people. When you are alone, you ask yourself questions, you wonder if you are inventing business, but no. We’ve all had the same thing, the same experiences, whether it’s Widemir Normil or Rodley Pitt, who has just left school.

Widemir Normil (actor): We have the same bases, the same language. Everyone understands where we are starting from. We have incredibly deep discussions. There is a privilege, a relief to be able to share the stage with them. Not to be the only black actor in a cast. I’m sorry, but you have to be strong to carry all this on your own. Together, we can bawl about it, we can laugh about it. Our three friends from La Sentinelle allow us to share all this. I wanted to work with them so much, I went there with my eyes closed. I would have said yes to anything!

Philippe Racine : We all have a desire for social involvement. We could do our job and ride our quiet wave. To say that all that is politics and that politics, we don’t touch it. But there is politics in art: we don’t want to hide. We made that choice.

Widemir Normil : I want to play tennis with the best, with fiery performers who hit the ball hard. This is the case here. We’re all Serena Williams! And the word nigger! When can we say it and be proud to do it? It resonates the same for all of us. We say it and we bite into it.

Q. Isn’t it discouraging to see that the fight waged for 40 years by black actors is still so topical?

Widemir Normil : Me, I never give up, and even less today. When I dreamed of doing this job, at 16, I had no role model. For me, the role model was Sydney Potier. But seeing the next generation, which is strong and beautiful, especially that of La Sentinelle, gives me wings. I’m just sickened to hear that there isn’t [d’acteurs noirs] in Quebec, that theater managers don’t know where to find us. He says so many things. Guess we’re strong! What I find sad is to see that my friends don’t have the chance to have roles that would allow them to no longer doubt who they are, what they do in this profession. You lose feathers when you don’t have those roles, which would allow you to earn a living and say things that make sense. Roles that would allow you to no longer feel like an impostor, even if you went to theater school.

Philippe Racine : We are strong and finally, there are people! I’ve been doing this job for 20 years and I’ve never had the opportunity to bring all these people together!

Q. Do you hope that, in its own way, Call Me Mohamed Ali will move things forward?

Lyndz Dantist : The text is about us, young black actors. He tells us to keep working, asserting ourselves and clearing the ground. And that’s what we continue to do. When we launched La Sentinelle, Tatiana et moi, our goal was to see more racialized actors on TV and in the theatre. We want that to resonate with young people like me, who come from underprivileged backgrounds and who don’t have access to the arts or don’t really know what they want to do with their lives.

Widemir Normil : There is a line in this text that overwhelms me: “How are those who come after me going to survive? I don’t look down on anyone, but I’m the oldest in the gang. I know my fights. We are all doing the same fight, but with different weapons. We fight to try to leave traces so that it is easier for those who follow.

Philippe Racine : The subtlety of the text is intimate. We navigate in moods more than in archetypes. I want it to touch the hearts of the public in the same way.

Statements have been abridged and condensed for clarity and conciseness.