Radio theater piece in five episodes
Directors: Alejandro González Puche and Ma Zhenghong.
Music and sound design: José Martínez
Orika and the Hippos is a radio theater piece to celebrate Benkos Biojó’s fourth centenary. In five episodes, tells the events of the first session of a community council led by María Loreto, who is promoting the necessary debate among Afro-Colombian communities about the implementation of self-jurisdiction. This session is interrupted by several initiatives such as the implementation of a very particular museum, the inexplicable absence of some members, and the sudden appearance of a Congolese composer.
Through stories and anecdotes, we witness the collection of some pieces for the museum and the remembrance of cases when Afro-Colombian communities implemented ancestral justice. Upon request by the uninvited composer, they evaluate his project for an opera based on the mythical figure of Benkos Biojó – the founder of the first free town in the Americas. In this process, the council members exalt the figure of Orika, Benko’s daughter, who according to the legend, was sentenced to death by her own father, who found her guilty of treason as she fell in love with n Spanish military.
This project was a large collaborative effort that involved Colombian students from the Theater Department at Universidad del Valle in Cali and Buenaventura, as well as a creative team in Congo, USA, and Bogotá.
Recording sessions in Cali, colombia
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