MANTEIA
LANGUAGE FROM AN ABSTRACT WORLD
Bilingual edition: Italian-French
Produced by: ScieFestival, Association culturelle Sonagnon.
Text selection: Eric Acakpo, Francesca Pedullà, Nuvola Vandini
Text editor: Paola Mordiglia
Illustrations: Sara Bernardi, Marta Viviani, Arianna Bellucci, Cecilia Ferri, Ilaria Guarducci, Isabella Bignardi, Fungo Francesco Borghi, Lisa Gelli, Alessandra Camporetto.
Graphics: Benedetta Stefani
Audio recording: Tambour du Benin - Eric Acakpo
Coordination support: Costanza Rosa
Translations: Natasha Noack
Manteia is an illustrated handbook that collects stories, proverbs and songs of ancient oral tradition used in the cultures Fon and Yoruba (Western Africa) to open questions about self and social relationships. Sewn in different shapes, the words and images of MANTEIA offer themselves to the reader as creative and playful meeting tools which, by freeing age, culture and experience barriers, can make us reflect on
"How can we live together?"
The Fa is a cultural archive of Indo-European, Middle Eastern and African influences, it is a compendium of fables, legends, songs, metaphors and symbolic references, as well as a method of divination, linked to the Vodun religion and practiced above all by the Fon and Youruba ethnic groups. The Fa is a key to understanding the customs and worldviews of many modern African cultures, connecting storytelling, chanting and sophisticated moral instructions to a mathematical framework that stimulates memory and provokes reflection and self-discovery.
Each story of MANTEIA is illustrated by a different artist, thus weaving a drawing by several hands, representative of the collective gaze that the same tradition of FA proposes. Sara Bernardi, Marta Viviani in addition to having made the very first illustrations, they took care of the curation of the Team of Illustrators.
The book also includes some songs in the FON language, belonging to the FA. Recorded at Spectrum Studio in Bologna, with the music and voice of Eric Acakpo, the audio contributions will be downloadable through a QR Code inserted in the book.
The book is designed and studied for a childhood from 8 to 90 years, for this reason the stories are presented in a sparse and neutral way, to allow the young and non-young reader to imagine and make his own thoughts and reflective observation flourish.