Centre Sogolon and Iziko Museums of South Africa MOUs
We are delighted to announce that the Centre for Humanities Research and the University of the Western Cape have signed two historic memoranda of understanding with Compagnie Sogolon, Bamako, Mali, and Iziko Museums of South Africa.
Each MOU, signed between the CHR and Centre Sogolon and the University of the Western Cape and Iziko respectively, commit to promote artistic and educational cooperation between institutions, affording access to each institution’s educational and research facilities and developing collaborative and exchange practices across the continent and South Africa. Building upon our ongoing collaborations with Compagnie Sogolon and Iziko, these MOU’s represent a further step toward the formal exchange of educational and research resources and the establishment of collaborative projects that seek to develop practices capable of intervening and coming to terms with the question of the human across the continent and further afield. The MOU between the University of the Western Cape and Iziko constitutes a broader institutional agreement, with the CHR acting as its principle partner.
About the Centre Sogolon
The Centre Sogolon is a puppet company based in Bamako, Mali. Yaya Coulibaly (b.1959), seventh generation descendant of Bitòn Coulibaly, is the director of the Compagnie Sogolon (Sogolon Puppet Troupe), founded in 1980. The company does Bambara style performance, creating designs and productions in conjunction with multiple Coulibaly family members and others in performances that combine dance, drumming, song, words, and puppets, giant-sized to small. The works draw from traditional sources to make contemporary theatre. Yaya Coulibaly first learned puppetry under his father in a village context and then graduated from the Institut National des Arts in Bamako. In 1988, Coulibaly went on to receive a diploma from the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières, France. Rather than following the traditional theatre, where text and narrative are not involved, Coulibaly has chosen to integrate dialogue and story in his company productions.
The Sogolon Puppet Troupe has expanded techniques and includes string puppets (a style not traditionally associated with Bamana puppetry) as well as traditional-style rod puppets and large body puppets. Their visual designs draw from tradition but artistically extends ideas through Coulibaly’s own aesthetic; Coulibaly is a master puppeteer who draws upon varied sources. The company includes females as manipulators, another break with tradition. Sogolon Puppet Troupe takes a uniquely contemporary approach to theatre. The company has performed in Europe, the United States (including at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC) and South Africa. Yaya Coulibaly’s figures have been exhibited in multiple venues.
About Iziko Museums of South Africa
Iziko Museums of South Africa operates 11 national museums in Cape Town. It is one of the premier cultural institutions in South Africa. The museums house natural history, social history and art collections in magnificent, historic buildings, which in themselves are national treasures.
Iziko, an isiXhosa word meaning ‘hearth’, embodies the spirit of a transformed institution and our version of ‘African Museums of Excellence’. The hearth is traditionally and symbolically the social centre of the home; a place associated with warmth, kinship and the spirit of the ancestors. As such, Iziko was envisioned as a space for all South Africans to gather, nourish body and soul, and share stories and the knowledge passed from one generation to the next. Here, Iziko Museums seeks to emulate the ‘hearth’ by creating receptive spaces for cultural interaction and dialogue – and we are proud to ignite connections between our shared history, our heritage and each other.
