Journeys of identity in the works of Sarah Bouyain
The article draws from several of my published works-- Beti Ellerson.
Image : sarahbouyain.fr
Reflections of the works of Sarah Bouyain—the documentary, Les Enfants du blanc (Children of the White Man, 2000), the short novel Métisse façon, and the fiction feature, The Place in Between(2010) present a glimpse at Sarah Bouyain’s journeys of identity during which she teases out the personal and historical experiences of her bi-racial, bi-cultural and social identities.
Les Enfants du Blanc, a very moving film about Jeanne Bouyain, the paternal grandmother of Sarah Bouyain, also gives us an indication of the drama of her paternal great-grandmother. It is from the discoveries during her research that motivates her to "reflect on her own bi-raciality and her need to recognize and accept her roots." Here lies Sara Bouyain’s desire to trace her identity through her elders by giving a historical account of the practice of "colonial marriage" and the harsh consequences for the people born of those alliances—an important part of her family history. Her approach at the intersection of history and family research is very prominent in her work. Moreover, the interconnection of colonial desire and post-colonial identities and the resulting creation of a mixed-race class is an underlying subtext in the film. The colonizer-colonized relationship based on sexual power is the basis of the colonial forced concubinage and thus in many cases the birth of a mixed race which was the creation of a sector of the population that is neither black nor white.
This metissage identity is very present in the work of Sarah Bouyain: two cultures, two races, two languages, their historical construction and their contemporary lived experience, at the same time political and personal. One also observes a historical background of identities born of colonial practices as well as contemporary identities informed by the relationships that continue to exist between Europe and Africa: Métisse façon as a continuation of the comprehensive research in Les Enfants du blanc—the return to the source—and which is more closely tied to the film The Place in Between. The mixed-race protagonist Rachel in Métisse façon becomes Amy in The Place in Between. And rather than seeking her African father as in the former work, the protagonist goes to Africa in search of her mother, who is African in the latter, while the theme of “in-between-ness” remains the common thread.
The title of the original French version Notre Étrangère, “our foreigner”, has a very different meaning than the English title A Place in Between. Nevertheless, the two titles reflect the parallel stories that command the film. Amy and her mother Miriam are both "in a place between two" in the respective countries where they are located, and at the same time, both are foreign in these places. But why "our" foreigner, which was the nickname that her African family called her? In Africa at the same time different, Amy belongs to the family, to Africa. The presence of language—spoken and silent—undergirds the film. In Burkina Faso, Amy has to rely on the French translation by the adopted daughter Kadiatou into Dioula to "talk" with her aunt, while in France, Miriam teaches Dioula to a French businesswoman. Amy and Miriam seem isolated from the culture in which they are located. Similarly in Métisse Façon, language is a point of frustration. We recall in Les Enfants du blanc, while narrating the film Sarah Bouyain talks about her great grandmother who did not want to speak French. When Kadiatou is present and translates the Dioula-French dialogue between Aunt Acita and Amy, subtitles are provided. However when they are alone and Tante Acita speaks to Amy in Dioula, the viewer who does not understand the language must comprehend by reading the gestures. Is it to show the point of view of Amy, who does not speak the language?
The presence of Amy's late father is virtually nonexistent. And besides, there is a great silence around Miriam in the family since Amy’s arrival in France to live with her father, up until his death a year earlier. However, the place of women is dominant. Amy, her mother Miriam, Mary, the wife of the father of Amy, Aunt Acita, Kadiatou, her adopted daughter, Esther, the business woman, and Miriam's roommate. Yet the intertwining web between these women is very fragile. In the end, the complex links between them seem to unravel, to collapse.
Sarah Bouyain’s research, and the theme of the loss of mother and child are omnipresent in her work. Amy reclaimed by her white father and brought to France at eight years old, is raised by him and his wife—to the chagrin of Mariam, and Acita her sister who raised her during her childhood in Burkina Faso. Soon after Amy’s departure, Mariam disappears. Kadiatou who loses her mother, is rejected by her father because his new wife does not want her in the family. Kadiatou who also became a companion for Acita after the death of her husband, replaces the "daughter" that she lost with the departure of Amy. Upon Amy’s return, it is as if Kadiatou again lost a mother. And Mary, the step-mother of Amy, who a year earlier had lost her husband, has to accept the departure of his daughter who after his death had the desire to find her mother. Mariam, lost and alone, who left Burkina Faso for France a long time ago, teaches Dioula to a white French woman whose reason for her interest in the language is only revealed when the announcement that the process of adoption of little Joseph, of Burkina Faso is finalized. Mariam senses a betrayal despite Marie’s effort to convince her that she is not stealing him from his mother. Mariam has only one desire: "to take from your mouth all the words that I taught you." A story of mothers and daughters wrought with anxiety...the journey continues.
