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Villa Karo

A Crash Course in Beninese French: Part I

La Francophonie, the community of French speaking people, is worldwide. French takes different forms all over the globe as over 250 million people speak it as either first or second language. For those of us who have learned to speak French in Europe, the Beninese version of the language has some interesting elements. Let’s take a look at the French spoken in Grand-Popo’s streets.

Although I suppose that “bonjour” is probably the most well-known French word in the world, …

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Look at me! The enchantment of photographs

Text by Matti-Juhani Karila (translated and abbreviated by Anna Ovaska)

I am not a photographer, but I’ve gotten hooked on the mysterious enchantment of photos – on this ”one-hundredth part of a second which makes a blink of an eye eternal”, as American poet Hart Grane described the essence of photography in 1923.

I can’t imagine that any of you who read this article would travel to Africa without a camera, not even painters whose predecessors in the …

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KAKA

KAKA-KAKA. Félicitations !! félicitations !! is the single french word pronounced by a great audience to congratulate Janne Storm, Felix Agossou and Gabriel Teiko, three resident artists in Villa Karo who performed wonderfully on the stage of the French Cultural Centre in Cotonou on Friday 30th September.

They preceded the main event of the night LA NUIT DE LA PAROLE by association KATOULATI. Same scenario took place in Grand-Popo on the red terrace stage of Villa Karo …

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World Music System at Feeniks club

Next Thursday (October 6th) is a great occasion for lovers of really good music around Helsinki. Camilla Heidenberg (FINLAND, former scholarhip holder of Villa Karo) and Georges Abgazahou (BENIN) are giving a concert at Feeniks club.
As the artists put it, prepare yourself ”for a soulful mixture of afro, pop, jazz and classical music with piano, vocals, djembe, percussion”.

The group has been performing all over Finland and in France this past summer. As George’s stay in Europe …

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