AFRICOLOR 2024

The 2024 edition of the africolor festival will be strongly marked by the presence of French Africans, with a highlight devoted to musicians from the Upper Maroni basin, also known as the Bushinenge. Arriving four centuries ago in French Guiana and Surinam, they lived for decades in autarky along the Maroni, their music, languages and rituals coming from Ivory Coast and Ghana and remaining with them completely African.

Around these will also be joined by the master drummers from French Guyana, the Cippe brothers, for a creation entitled "de la peau à l'électro" (from skin to electro). But, as France's African roots are not confined to Guyana, we'll also be welcoming Blick Bassy's new creation, "L'Afrique enchante Kassav", as well as Maxime Delpierre's Zouk and Kompa.

Alongside these artists, other musical encounters will enrich the 2024 edition, a mirror of France to itself: a meeting between Sian Pottok and Siti Amina from Zanzibar, a creation by the Atelier des Artistes en Exil around Sulafa Elyas, and many others!

All these evenings need to be complemented by time to reflect on France's relationship with its multiple identities, and the need to think about a post-assimilationist model. We'll be talking about the "Indian men" of French Guiana, the children of Reunion in La Creuse, the dual civil status and psychological pathologies in Mayotte, to listen to the crimes and shackles of the past, and to build a new French Africanness based on cultural rights.