When and how was Loba created?
In 2008 by William Njaboum and Bolewa Sabourin. We were two dancers who wanted to express our multiple identities through art and to give our friends that same opportunity. Loba means “express yourself” in Lingala, the language of the Congo. It’s a cri du coeur that gives speech to those who have a hard time expressing themselves.
How did the project "Re-Création", which helps victims of sexual violence through dance, come about?
At a meeting with Dr. Denis Mukwege on March 8, 2016 in Paris where he said that the women he helps in the Congo expressed themselves more through dance or song than at a psychotherapist’s office.
Why did you choose the name “Re-Creation” for your project?
Because we start from recreation through play in order to move towards “Re-creation,” the reconstruction of self. But to do this we have to leave the intellectualization of our traumas aside and analyze them later.
Your motto is “liberate, connect, transcend”. Do you think that dance is a more liberating than other forms of therapy?
Dance is a medium that allows for freedom through the body, the mind and the soul, whereas other forms of therapy only use our minds, and we have deified the mind.
Your association works with high school students. Why is it important to promote awareness about sexual violence at a young age?
We only act once the wrong has been done – that’s good but we can’t live that way all our lives. High School students represent the future and the solution to finding ways to avoid becoming the next victims and the next aggressors.
You recently wrote an autobiography. Did this exercise allow you to reappropriate your story in another way than through dance?
Yes, but writing the book wasn’t possible until I had danced for years and years. The next stage in the process was to put it all down in words and intellectualize my traumas.
You describe yourself as an artivist. What does that mean?
For me, an artiviste is a person who uses art to create awareness, to mobilize and to find solutions to problems encountered by humanity. Art acts as a tool for engagement, for change, and it rejuvenates social movements.