This Sunday, November 14 at Chemin des Dames (Aisne), two Avignon residents put into words and music a text-tribute to the Senegalese riflemen of the First World War. The writer Babacar M’Baye and the storyteller Yasmine Benseba both have a family history that resonates with the place, and wish transmit this still too little-known piece of French history.
– Celine Autin
A family past that resonates with the First World War
Babacar M’Baye is the grandson of a Senegalese infantryman. He began to write “Diaba. The tirailleur angel” at the time of the commemorations of the centenary of the First World War, in 2018, starting from an observation: “at school we do not learn this story, I see it in my children. The schoolchildren whom I also met during the readings do not know the history of the Senegalese Zouaves and tirailleurs. Quite simply, it’s a problem. “
“The shed blood was not white, nor black, it was red for everyone. It is high time to balance.” Babacar M’Baye, writer
From this story was decided a musical reading in two voices with the Avignon storyteller Yasmine Benseba, herself aware of this story: “I will come back to Chemin des Dames for the second time. I went there when I was very young, because my father, from Algeria, wanted to visit the graves of the Zouaves and the tirailleurs. I am very moved to return.”
She is convinced of do useful work : “it is also up to us to sow, to transmit, because we ask a lot of teachers and educators. And playing, in fact, it’s interesting: reading and storytelling are very fun. “ The show has already been given many times, notably at the Avignon festival in 2019.
Explain, educate, but also make people laugh
As we can imagine, the text is serious in many places. Selected pieces : “Do we need particles to be born and die? Do we need Paris, Marseille, Dakar, Niamey, Avignon, to be born and live? No. No mass grave for valiant soldiers. But a smooth, marbled grave. ”
However, the spectators will not only cry during this musical tale. “Some laugh a lot, laughs Babacar M’Baye. I play on the accents in the text, I enlarge the lines, I speak of integration at all costs through certain characters … It’s a funny text. “ An eminently contemporary text since he gives pride of place to a heroine, Diaba, who went into battle pretending to be a man in order to save his brothers.
“Going to the Chemin des Dames is a pilgrimage. We are not going to play, with Yasmine, it will be a prayer for us. When we have done the Chemin des Dames, we will have finished our adventure.” Babacar M’Baye, writer
The reading of “Diaba. The tirailleur angel” begins at 2:00 p.m. this Sunday November 14 at the Dragon Cave. The performance is free. For those who cannot travel, it is of course possible to get the book, but also a version recorded on CD.