Xaraasi Xanne—Crossing Voices
Screened during The Shape of a Practice, this film (a work in progress) by Raphaël Grisey in collaboration with Boube Touré focuses on Somankidi Coura, a self-organized farming cooperative founded by former African migrant workers and activists in France in 1977. The screening was followed by discussion in French, with live English translation.
Please note: the archived stream does not include the screening of the film. To request a viewing link, please email rgrisey@gmail.com.
The film Xaraasi Xanne—Crossing Voices (work in progress) by Raphaël Grisey in collaboration with Boube Touré chronicles the ongoing developments and practices of Somankidi Coura, a self-organized farming cooperative along the Senegal river founded by a group of former African migrant workers and activists in France in 1977 after the Sahel drought of 1973. The film focuses on narrating the history of migrant workers’ struggle in France, peasant infrastructures and networks, and the afterlife of colonial developmentalism and forced labor violence.
A screening of the film took place during The Shape of a Practice, and the archived stream shows the discussion that followed with Raphaël Grisey and Boube Touré about the cooperative and their process of documenting their work, different forms of engagement, and the broader implications of telling these stories. The discussion is in French with live English translation.
