Messages For This Generation
8 images Created 5 Aug 2013
The marionette, a carefully carved small boy with curly hair and large eyes dances in the darkened room.
Children seated on the couch had been watching television, but are now watching the marionette dance with rapt attention.
The message Koffi, the marionette, brings is fitting: Learn how to read and write, and you will be able to read and tell your own stories -- not just watch them on television.
Holding the strings is Adama Bacco, the founder of a female marionette and performance group in Togo.
"I started making my marionettes from waste and garbage," Bacco says, pausing to pick up a puppet style marionette portraying a sorcerer.
"The marionette is a dead object," she says, grabbing the rough wooden stick beneath its tattered red shirt, "but this is the stick of life."
The moment she grabs the sorcerer, Bacco begins to chant in a gravelly sing-song voice: 'there will be peace in Togo. There will be peace.'
Bacco, who has made over 100 marionettes, says the topics she portrays range from peace, reconcilliation, self sufficiency, family values, rural education -- especially for girls, famine, AIDS, health, child trafficking and hygiene.
But in Africa, marionettes are not just the object of social awareness and education.
The self-proclaimed godfather of marionettes, Kanlanfei Danaye explains that marionettes are a deeply rooted part of traditional beliefs in Togo and across many regions in Africa.
"In Togo, some marionettes are seen as something sacred which can heal, curse and protect," says Danaye, the son of a traditional healer and marionette maker.
Danaye treats his marionettes more as animate objects and excitedly tells stories of a marionette which he says behaved as a healing voodoo doll.
"You have to be one with the marionette. The relationship that exists between me and them is special. They have stories that only I know."
At first, making these traditions available for the masses attracted the ire of tribal elders, Danaye says, but he believes preserving culture is something worth pursuing.
"It protects the tradition. There are some songs and rhymes that will never disappear because of this."
For children and adults alike, the stories marionettes tell can relay information, share parables and protect tradition.
"There are many messages to pass on. You can't talk about marionettes without talking about stories. It's not just for amusing the children. There is no limit."
Children seated on the couch had been watching television, but are now watching the marionette dance with rapt attention.
The message Koffi, the marionette, brings is fitting: Learn how to read and write, and you will be able to read and tell your own stories -- not just watch them on television.
Holding the strings is Adama Bacco, the founder of a female marionette and performance group in Togo.
"I started making my marionettes from waste and garbage," Bacco says, pausing to pick up a puppet style marionette portraying a sorcerer.
"The marionette is a dead object," she says, grabbing the rough wooden stick beneath its tattered red shirt, "but this is the stick of life."
The moment she grabs the sorcerer, Bacco begins to chant in a gravelly sing-song voice: 'there will be peace in Togo. There will be peace.'
Bacco, who has made over 100 marionettes, says the topics she portrays range from peace, reconcilliation, self sufficiency, family values, rural education -- especially for girls, famine, AIDS, health, child trafficking and hygiene.
But in Africa, marionettes are not just the object of social awareness and education.
The self-proclaimed godfather of marionettes, Kanlanfei Danaye explains that marionettes are a deeply rooted part of traditional beliefs in Togo and across many regions in Africa.
"In Togo, some marionettes are seen as something sacred which can heal, curse and protect," says Danaye, the son of a traditional healer and marionette maker.
Danaye treats his marionettes more as animate objects and excitedly tells stories of a marionette which he says behaved as a healing voodoo doll.
"You have to be one with the marionette. The relationship that exists between me and them is special. They have stories that only I know."
At first, making these traditions available for the masses attracted the ire of tribal elders, Danaye says, but he believes preserving culture is something worth pursuing.
"It protects the tradition. There are some songs and rhymes that will never disappear because of this."
For children and adults alike, the stories marionettes tell can relay information, share parables and protect tradition.
"There are many messages to pass on. You can't talk about marionettes without talking about stories. It's not just for amusing the children. There is no limit."
