Based on the Senegalese academic, philosopher and poet Felwine Sarr, this lyrical text is captivatingly performed by Burkinabe actor Étienne Minoungou as an inspiring and imaginative storyteller speaking to his African brothers.
Infused with the cultural and historical experiences of the continent Traces is a way to bring Felwine Sarr’s philosophy to a younger African generation, emboldening them to build a new utopia. With uplifting accompaniment by musician Simon Winsé on the kora, the speech is an invitation to sow the seeds for a better future.
60 minutes
In French with English supertitles

Étienne Minoungou
Born in 1968 in Koupéla, Burkina Faso, Étienne Minoungou is an actor, author, director, playwright and cultural entrepreneur.
-
Read More
-
His studies in sociology, theater and literature led him to work first as an instructor and an artist. As an actor, he has appeared in many plays, films and television series. His recent work includes Petit Frère by Léonor Serraille, presented at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. He founded the Falinga Company in Ouagadougou in 2000, and in 2002, he initiated the pan-African festival Les Récréâtrales. In December 2018, at the inauguration of the Museum of Black Civilizations in Dakar, Etienne Minoungou presented for the first time the show Traces – Speech to African Nations, a text by Felwine Sarr. He won the prize for best actor (2020-21 season) at the 58th Prize of the Syndicat des Professionnels de la Critique in France, for his performance in this show.
-

Simon Winsé
Simon Winsé is a multi-instrumentalist (Kora, N’Goni, Mouth Bow, Peul Flute) composer and singer.
-
Read More
-
His musical universe is nourished by jazz fusion, blues, rock and traditional music of the San country in the northwest of Burkina Faso, where he is originally from. It is in his native village that Simon Winsé, as a child, learned to play the mouthbow. His inspirations are at the confluence of jazz, desert blues and rock. Resolutely turned towards interculturality and modernity, Winsé reveals his poetic writing with texts that resonate like philosophical tales. By resurrecting the heritage of the Samo culture, Winsé demonstrates that traditional African instruments and modern music are not antinomic.
-

Felwine Sarr
Felwine Sarr is a Senegalese academic, writer, and musician.
-
Read More
-
Since 2020, he has taught contemporary African and diasporic philosophy at Duke University in North Carolina. His academic work focuses on the ecology of knowledge, contemporary African philosophy, economic policy, epistemology, economic anthropology, and the history of religious ideas. With Senegalese writers Boubacar Boris Diop and Nafissatou Dia, he is the co-founder of the Jimsaan publishing house. Felwine Sarr makes literature a vital necessity, a work of light and freedom. In 2022, he published Les lieux qu’habitent mes rêves, a meditative and initiatory novel.
-
-
Production Information
-
Traces – Speech to African Nations is co-presented by Abrons Arts Center and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), as part of Crossing The Line Festival.
Produced by Théâtre de Namur
Written by Felwine Sarr
Directed by Etienne Minoungou
Performed by Etienne Minoungou + Simon Winsé
Outside Eye Companyide Tarnagda
Lighting Design Rémy Brans
Live Music Simon Winsé
Excutive Producer and Touring La Charge du Rhinocéros
Stage Manager Gaël GenetteCo-produced by Festival Les Récréâtrales (Ouagadougou)
With the support of Fondation Von-Brochowski-Sud-Nord (Berlin) + Institut Français (Paris) + Wallonie Bruxelles International (Brussels)Traces – Discours aux Nations Africaines is published in French by Éditions Actes Sud
-