His childhood dream is coming true. The 37-year-old Malian dancer-choreographer, never shy about recounting the last idea he had the day before, is fine-tuning the final details before the official launch of Mali’s first artist-residence boat.

The work, financed by the European Union and implemented by the architect Cheick Diallo, will host theater performances, photo exhibitions, dance performances… And stands out in the Bamako decor.

You have to imagine the banks of the Niger in the Malian capital, strewn with waste, where several communities of artisanal fishermen live. On the water, they sail on their thin wooden canoes.

From now on, a strange ship of about twenty meters by six made of iron and wood is offered to the eye of the drivers stuck in the traffic jams of the neighboring bridge.

At dusk, when the bats take flight, the skins of the tom-toms resounded to the rhythm of the dance steps of the young women and men of the Lassina team.

A few dumbfounded peanut sellers stopped.

Short dreads on the head, bulging muscles and vintage sunglasses, Lassina Koné, the choreographer, runs everywhere: finalizing the performance but also final paint strokes and even last-minute welding, at the back of the boat.

“Every second is important, everything has to be perfect tomorrow,” he said.

– “Uncle, I have a dream” –

Let’s rewind the story. “Lassina came to see me several years ago and told me Tonton, I have a dream, help me”, says the architect Diallo.

The two know each other well. The first, Lassina, is at the head of Don Sen Folo Lab, an artistic creation space located in a village, Bancoumana, 45km from Bamako. The second is a recognized local architect-designer, exhibited at design biennials around the world, and currently delegate of the photography biennial in Bamako, a major cultural event on the continent which is held every two years.

“It turned out that I had almost the same dream, so I embarked with him,” he says.

Lassina’s idea: to be able to travel on the river and offer art performances to its residents. That of “uncle” Diallo: finding a creative way to navigate the river, one of the longest in Africa which goes from Guinea to Nigeria, to meet the peoples who live there.

Never mind — “we, artists, we have to be crazy, it’s madness that allows us to overcome the constraints of everyday life”, proclaims Cheick Diallo. “It’s the meeting of a madman with another”.

Four years later, after five months of work, the Pirogue du Zémé, the Sage in Bambara, is floating on the brown waters of Niger. In this small world of contemporary Malian art in full expansion, dreams, madness and hope seem to be the watchwords, far from the political and security crisis in Mali.

– “Mali, a country where we create” –

The young Assetou Aïda Doumbia, a 24-year-old dancer, still can’t get used to dancing on the water. “It’s something else, but we are 100% ready”. Yacouba Coulibaly, 28, agrees: “It’s a special job to adapt as a dancer to this environment. It’s my first time on a boat”.

But we must see beyond the dance, argues Lassina. “There are also puppets”, a renowned traditional art of southern Mali, “theater, photography”… He wishes to make this Pirogue du Zémé a permanent residence for young artists.

On the evening of the inauguration, a light rain fell on Bamako. The giant puppets stroll along the bank, two young actresses declaim a skit, and Lassina’s troupe takes their places on the platform, in front of authorities and diplomats.

“It’s a way of making another Mali known,” said EU Ambassador Bart Ouvry.

Culture is “a vector to prevent young people from pouring into something else”, he says, in one of the least developed countries in the world, ravaged by jihadist attacks. And also to say “to investors that Mali is a country where there is creativity”.