KADDU YARAAX
Senegalese Theatre-Forum Festival
Senegalese Theatre-Forum Festival or
Senegalese Theatre-Forum Meetings
INTRODUCTION AND GENERAL PRESENTATION
The 20th edition of the Senegalese Theatre-Forum Festival, organised by the Kàddu Yaraax association, marks a major milestone for participatory arts in West Africa. For over 30 years, the company has promoted the Theatre of the Oppressed as a tool for dialogue, mediation, and social transformation. This edition celebrates both twenty years of the festival, launched in 2005, and three decades of civic engagement. It confirms Senegal as a regional benchmark for social theatre and offers African artists a space for training, exchange, and creation, accessible without the financial and administrative constraints of travel to the North.
Across West Africa, dozens of theatre troupes and community organisations apply Theatre-Forum in the field. However, the lack of academic pathways dedicated to interventionist social theatre often forces these practitioners into self-training.
A need for training and recognition
PROJECT CONTEXT AND JUSTIFICATION
Across West Africa, dozens of theatre troupes and community organisations apply Theatre-Forum in the field. However, the lack of academic pathways dedicated to interventionist social theatre often forces these practitioners into self-training.
The festival addresses a fundamental need:
- Capacity building: Improving acting skills, forum dramaturgy, the Joker (facilitator) technique, and the development of texts rooted in local reality.
- Professional recognition: Defending the status of committed actors and valuing the practical training provided within local troupes alongside traditional university courses.
- Networking and breaking isolation: Enabling regional (Ziguinchor, Kaolack, Kaffrine, Podor, Sébikotane…) and international companies (Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guinea, Mauritania, DR Congo, Cameroon, USA, Belgium, Brazil, Switzerland, France, Spain…) to share their practices.
Cultural sovereignty and popular roots
By bringing together international and African troupes in Dakar, the festival embodies a model of South-South cooperation. Performing in national languages (Wolof, Pulaar, Serer, Diola, Mandinka…) ensures direct access for the populations and reaffirms the central role of popular knowledge.
How the participatory stage works
THEATRE-FORUM: METHODOLOGY AND CULTURAL ROOTS
Stemming from the Theatre of the Oppressed founded by Augusto Boal, Theatre-Forum replaces the passive spectator with the "spect-actor":
- The oppression scene: The actors perform a short play depicting an unresolved social problem that leads to a deadlock.
- The Forum: The Joker (mediator/facilitator) interrupts the play and invites the audience to come on stage to replace the oppressed protagonist and test concrete alternatives.
- Collective experimentation: The actors improvise in response to the audience's suggestions, making it possible to assess the viability of solutions in a safe and supportive environment.
In Senegal, Theatre-Forum naturally connects with the "arbre à palabre" (discussion tree) and traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. The Joker acts like a community facilitator, ensuring a democratic dialogue where the voices of young people, women, and elders have equal value.
Details of the main areas of activity
PROGRAMME AND ACTIVITIES | 20th edition
For this 20th edition, the programme is structured around 30 to 35 activities spread over six days of immersion in the Yarakh district and in various cultural spaces in Dakar.
Forum Theatre and Street Theatre Performances
- The performances are presented outside of institutional venues, as close as possible to the people: Themes performed: Migration, gender-based violence, local governance, community hygiene, and environmental protection. Interactivity: Each session is followed by a 45 to 60-minute citizen forum led by an experienced Joker.
Technical capacity-building workshops
- Dramaturgy and impasse writing: How to construct a realistic scenario without falling into moralising or giving moral lessons.
- Joker facilitation technique: Managing speaking time, stimulating citizen debate, welcoming stage replacements, and maintaining benevolent neutrality. Creation in national languages: Work on orality, proverbs, and the adaptation of universal texts into Wolof.
Forum Theatre and Street Theatre Performances
- The performances will be as close as possible to the people: Themes performed: Migration, gender-based violence, local governance, community hygiene, and environmental protection. Interactivity: Each session is followed by a 45 to 60-minute citizen forum led by an experienced Joker.
Technical capacity-building workshops
- Dramaturgy and impasse writing: How to construct a realistic scenario without falling into moralising or giving moral lessons. Joker facilitation technique: Managing speaking time, stimulating citizen debate, welcoming stage replacements, and maintaining benevolent neutrality. Creation in national languages: Work on orality, proverbs, and the adaptation of universal texts into Wolof.
Discussions and debates, and conferences
- Spaces for prospective reflection bringing together artists, academics, art critics (hosting international figures in theatre criticism), and development actors: Status of the engaged artist: Debate on professional recognition for social intervention theatre. AI and disinformation: How theatre-forum can counter information manipulation in rural and urban areas.
Selection criteria
SELECTION OF COMPANIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
For this 20th edition, the programme is structured around 30 to 35 activities spread over six days of immersion in the Yarakh district and in various cultural spaces in Dakar.
Selection criteria
- Field Practices: Proven mastery of the Theatre-Forum technique (presence of a real situation of oppression and effective opening of the forum).
- Community Anchoring: Companies and individuals regularly working in the field with vulnerable populations.
- Thematic Relevance: Proposals addressing current economic, social, or environmental issues.
Recommendations for participating troupes
- Sobriety and Technical Autonomy: Favouring light, mobile, and symbolic sets, adapted to public spaces (streets, squares, courtyards).
- Play Format: Theatre forum, (Theatre of the Oppressed), followed by 45 to 60 minutes of interactive forum.
- Languages: Preferred use of the local languages of the target audience.
Selection criteria
LOGISTICS AND SOLIDARITY HOSTING IN YARAKH
The organisation is based on a model of solidarity homestays in the Yarakh Tefess neighbourhood:
Selection criteria
- Intercultural Immersion: Actors and regional/international guests are hosted by families in the neighbourhood, creating lasting human connections and strengthening community cohesion.
- Local Catering: Meals prepared from local produce by women's associations in the neighbourhood are provided.
- Mobility: Shuttles organised between accommodation sites, workshop venues (Blaise Senghor Cultural Centre, schools) and street stages.
Selection criteria
PARTNERS AND NETWORKS
The festival relies on a dynamic of multi-stakeholder partnerships
- Institutional & Local: Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture of Senegal, Municipality of Hann Bel-Air, City of Dakar.
- Cultural & Educational: Blaise Senghor Cultural Centre, Kër Thiossane, Hann Social and Cultural Centre, Bara Gaye School.
- Organisations & Networks: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, ANCS (National Alliance against AIDS), Alliance of Initiatives for Peace and Stability in West Africa, Senegalese Theatre-Forum Federation.
- International Partner Troupes: Collaborations with organisations from Africa, Europe and South America (e.g. La Xixa Teatre, GORARA from Casablanca, RAPAGADA from Drôme, GTO from Bissau, Quase-Cine from Brazil…