With this autobiographical play, the author and actress Tatiana Zinga Botao revisits her Congolese roots with wit and passion by combining her personal history with that – eventful – of the Republic of Congo. A theatrical story delivered in the style of griots, these bearers of words essential to the transmission of knowledge.
Leaving the playing arena of the Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, arranged in a horseshoe, we cannot help but think of the stories of Mani Soleymanlou – and of his identity trilogy Un, Deux et Trois which took us on a journey from Iran to Montreal via Paris, Toronto and Ottawa. Or even in Chokola, by Phara Thibault, a Haitian adopted by a Quebec family, who recounted the quest for her biological mother.
Nzinga is inspired by this same introspective approach aimed at inscribing his family history in the great political and social history of his country of birth. The result is impactful.
His starting point? Tatiana Zinga Botao shares the same surname as Queen Nzinga, a figure of African resistance in the 17th century against European colonizers – Portuguese and Belgian in the case of Congo. During the performance, she will multiply the parallels between her journey and that of this warrior queen, whom she will go so far as to embody on stage. A woman who will inspire him with pride, courage and strength.
Where I come from ? asks the actress born in Zaire, who grew up in Belgium before emigrating to Quebec at the age of 25, several times.
The authors of Nzinga – because Tatiana Zinga Botao wrote this text with Marie-Louise Bibish Mumbu and Alexis Diamond – take us back and forth between Montreal, Brussels and Kinshasa at different periods of history, a game of ping-pong fun pong, but above all it allows us to put into perspective the political upheavals experienced on both sides of the Atlantic.
Like several spectators present – whom the actress calls out to during the play – Tatiana Zinga Botao combines several identities. “We are the sum of all our metamorphoses,” she will say, “but the Congo is in me. » “You can take everything from a people, but not their ancestors,” she adds in a segment where she sings in her mother tongue.
Albertine M. Itela’s sober staging leaves plenty of room for her charismatic performer, whose words were lost at times. It was enough to accompany Tatiana Zinga Botao in her movements and her short choreographies, in music and lighting. Which was done beautifully.
Yes, the theater here is the equivalent of this village square where we tell stories and transmit knowledge. And this Zinga from Mile End, “queen of nowhere and everywhere at the same time”, will definitely touch you. Whether your roots here are deep or recent. The story she tells us, hers, like that of Queen Nzinga, is universal and repeats itself. For better and for worse.