Back to Kidal

Song and movement bring history to life in Back to Kidal. A collective narrative of pain, dignity and the longing for freedom unfolds through blues, bodies and tales.

Back to Kidal is a modern day epos telling the story of a people’s great march to freedom and self-determination. The performance centres around the question of how the more recent past of African people can be told. Serge Aimé Coulibaly explores the legacy of slavery, colonialism and cultural erasure – using the human body and music.

The piece is loosely inspired by the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (2024), about the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the role of jazz as a political instrument during the Cold War. That history resonates in the background, where music becomes both a tool of power and a dissenting voice.

The shared language of the performance is the blues. This musical style, with roots in West Africa, travelled with the enslaved people to the Americas and grew into a universal expression of pain, dignity and resistance. Patrick Kabré has been working with this sound, the Sahel blues, for years. His voice is warm and rich, alternating effortlessly between tradition and the present.

With Faso Danse Théâtre, dance, live music, text and video merge into a form of physical theatre that gets under your skin. The lyrics by Koulsy Lamko are recited by Odile Sankara and the composer Yvan Talbot (Doogoo D) weaves these voices, sounds and rhythms into a single, ever-evolving whole.

Part of the audience sits on stage, close to the performers. In this way, Back to Kidal becomes a shared experience that does not explain but invites you to empathise and reflect on freedom and the future.