Laureates of Africa Simply the Best

"Africa Simply the Best" is a dance platform and competition for solo performances initiated by choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly, founder of Faso Danse Théâtre and ANKATA, an international laboratory for performing arts. Cherishing creativity, innovation, and originality, this Pan-African cultural event rewards every two years the best African creators in solo choreographic work. The three winners of the 4th edition of "Africa Simply the Best", held in December 2021 in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, are Bibata Ibrahim Maïga from Mali with her project "Esprit Bavard", Asanda Ruda from South Africa with "Kemet (black lands)", and Tchina Ndjidda from Cameroon with "CROSS".  Tchina Ndjidda sees himself as an activist, describing through his solo piece the problem of clandestine immigration and its roots in colonization, education, and social image. "CROSS" is a dance performance based on Ndjidda’s own experiences that tells a story of a young dancer in search of a career in Europe. After frustration and many failed attempts, he returns to his country and family to talk about a utopian world. The solo piece moves from a melancholic and tragic plot in the search of pride and love to encountering frustrations, anger, sadness, and loss. His experience creates a new force, which gives him hope to face his future and the dream. The dance is a combination of contemporary hip hop, mixing jerky and fluid energy, and ritual, therapeutic, and traditional dances from North Cameroon (Tchawal and Badag) which guide the dead and enter a trance celebrating life and hope. Bibata Ibrahim Maïga is a dancer, actress and young choreographer born in Gao, Mali. As the director and founder of the B-z’Art move center and the I dance’O association since 2018, she organized training activities for professional dancers, children, and teenagers in Bamako, Mali. In 2017, she completed her dancing and choreographic training at the Ècole des Sables in Dakar. Her project "Esprit Bavard" dives into the individual’s spirit which is restricted by social norms, traditions, and religions. The pressure from society hinders individuals to be themselves. The dance deconstructs the walls built by ancestral past and suffocating the individual. It seeks to free those, who feel trapped by the world already made.  Asanda Ruda’s dancing career began in community groups around Soweto, South Africa. In 2020, she joined the German-based dance Pina Bausch Foundation to take part in the piece "The Rite of Spring", a joint production by École des Sables (SEN), Sandlers’s Wells (UK), and the Pina Bausch Foundation. Her piece "Kemet (black lands)" explores space and politics through generational otherness and emancipation of oneself through culture. This work questions political conformity in an Afro-contemporary world. Website