Florient Jousse

In March 2023, our company performed in Puerto Rico. I was unfamiliar with this American island, but there, I encountered a musical form that felt oddly familiar. It was bomba, which bears a striking resemblance to the Réunionnais maloya, both rooted in a shared African foundation. It felt like a revelation. This experience sparked a need for exploration, with the goal of writing a documentary play conceived as an archipelago, reflecting on this question: how does an insular territory culturally (re)construct itself from the voids left by History (colonization, slavery, and the repression of revolts)? What are the interstices navigated to exist culturally between dominant and marginalized cultures? In other words, is there a notion of transgenerational cultural resilience?

I will seek answers through the means of reclaiming an intimate cultural anchorage of a people or community, dulled after shocks related to History. To support the core of the theatrical project, I plan to explore three research axes:

1. The Original Language: As a Creole speaker, I understand that language can convey a particular worldview and open up a cosmogony. Puerto Rico is still named in the Taíno language as Borinquén, meaning “Land of the Valiant and Noble Lord.” I am intrigued to meet those who continue to preserve elements of this root vocabulary.
2. Vegetal Imagery: I often draw inspiration from nature in my creations to enhance the depth of the story. I will investigate if there are any narratives surrounding endemic trees or plants.
3. Music: I will seek to understand how bomba has been preserved and its relationship to contemporary society.

Before March 2023, I had never had the opportunity to visit the United States. For a long time, it seemed to me like a distant land of plenty, very removed from reality. This feeling was largely due to the fact that, like many others, I had been daily exposed to various stereotypical portrayals. Once the vastness of the continental country was processed, the cultural hegemony that has emerged from its diverse population remained, making it so that at some point, one inevitably feels a bit at home somewhere. Choosing to lay the foundations of my creation in the United States means tuning into a frequency whose history constantly reverberates through the rest of the world. An example of this multicultural resonance can be seen in Puerto Rico. This island is a crossroads of multiple influences at risk of being forgotten, much like La Réunion.

To conduct my research, I will attempt to meet Professor Awilda Rosa Santiago, a historian, and Yvonne Narganes, director of the archaeological research center at the University of Puerto Rico. I will follow the Taíno route guided by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and will contact a Taíno representative, Agüeibaná Borrero, to discuss her endangered culture. In Peñuela, in the south, I will speak with the creators of the Flamboyant Tree Festival, an important symbol that heralds the arrival of summer in the Indo-Oceanic region. Finally, I will listen to the women’s collective Ausuba, specializing in bomba, to consider their presence on stage alongside other performers for the Flamboyants! project.