Belgian of Cameroonian origin, Ebale Zam has a completely unusual trajectory. Dancer, singer, choreographer, author, influencer, he founded the Nyangazam Dance Company when he arrived in Belgium in 2000. An accomplished artist entrepreneur, he is committed to supporting youth, particularly in Africa. here he testifies to one of the many small stories lived and supported through FRIDHA, of which he is also a founding member since 2018.

“FRIDHA supported me during the final stage of writing my book and facilitated the organization of its presentation to the European Parliament. For the last stage of writing the book first, by supporting me in my questioning of my positioning and the essential message that I wanted to convey through this book initiated in 2013 following a proposal from the publishing house Belgian M.E.O. and its publisher Gérard. At the end of 2018, the book was due out in a few months and I was stuck writing it. The meeting organized in Cuba with a Cuban babalao chief was the trigger for its resumption and ultimately its completion in the weeks that followed.

On March 19, 2019, the European Parliament, and in particular a parliamentarian responsible for questions of cultural cooperation with Africa, invited us to present the book in its lecture halls. The question then arose how to use this opportunity to contribute to the dialogue between Europe and Africa?

It is also in this context that FRIDHA proposed an innovative approach consisting of summarizing the political context in which this book was written as part of a 7-minute video capsule produced in partnership with Art Fusion. Our objective was that this capsule, in addition to my book, would serve as a basis and pretext to raise awareness and create a dialogue intended to support potential negotiations within the framework of the political dialogue between the European Union and the ACP countries.

This video sheds light on the problems caused by denial and taboos and calls for a change in beliefs and mentalities. This implies rules of behavior in society to be able to better integrate into it. This involves in particular economic integration and therefore the establishment of orientation and training programs.

This experience taught me that it is possible to create humanist values through art and that finance and politics can impact artistic creation in a positive way.