The Alliance Française de Banjul is proud to host, for the second consecutive year, the writing residency for the “FESTHI”. FESTHI, an inter-school theater festival supported by the French Embassy in Senegal and Gambia, has been taking place in these two countries for four years. This festival provides a platform where thousands of students, from elementary to high school, perform plays written during a writing residency by French-speaking authors.
In April 2025, the writing residency will host three authors: Amina Jules Dia, Kouam Tawa, and Adebayo Adjaho. Throughout the month, these authors will draw inspiration from their Gambian discoveries to write plays on the theme “Create, Innovate, and Venture in French”, aimed at young Senegalese and Gambian students.
The written plays will be illustrated, edited, and distributed to the participating classes in Senegal and Gambia. This project, which promotes the French language, supports creation and innovation, while strengthening the cultural ties between the two countries.
Playwright, poet, and director Kouam Tawa resides in Bafoussam, Cameroon, where he leads a theater troupe, La Compagnie Feugham, and a cultural space, La’akam (Laboratoire artistique du Kamer). He has conducted writing and dramaturgy workshops in a dozen countries in the Francophone world and has published about thirty books, mostly for young audiences.
Most of his plays have been read, staged, or performed in several African countries, France, Canada, and Japan. He has won the first ACCT Prize for African literature for young people, the Lire et faire Lire Poetry Prize, the Lu et partagé Junior Novel Prize, and the Danielle Grondein Prize.