It is the largest competition for artists in Gabon. “BICIG-Friends of the Arts” has been around for 26 years and the 2021 edition is devoted to the protection of endangered species.
with our correspondent in Libreville, Yves-Laurent Goma
Hundreds of men and women with letters have written poems, plays and short stories to convey the need to protect elephants, gorillas and other useful animals to renew forests, themselves useful for the survival of mankind.
This is the case with Zéphirin Ango Ndong, a beginner, who won an award for a story. Its main character is a bit orphaned by gorillas. To make a lot of money, orphans became a gold mine, a dangerous activity for his patrons yesterday. “To extract the gold, he will kill all the beasts of the forest and the beast that raised him to call him to order,” the author tells us: the gorillas he exterminates are precisely those that followed him in his childhood.
All winning works talk about the conflict between man and wild animals. This is the case with Parfait Nziengui’s poem. “I put in stage animal characters who will complain to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Water and Forestry”, starting with the elephant, marginalized, hunted, then it is the gorilla who “will present his complaints”.
Joseph Bile Mamboungou, a retired writer, wrote a play for him about a country where all animals have disappeared. “I tell how the animals disappeared from a village after being hunted too much …” A collection of these works could be edited and distributed in schools so that the messages of consciousness they convey are known to young Gabons.
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