Chamí Emberá  (2024)

This project was made possible by the Alliance française de Medellin.

Here's what Yvan, one of its members, had to say about the book launch. The Medellín 2024 Book and Culture Festival was a wonderful opportunity to talk about the Embera Chamí culture and language (unfortunately little known, even though it is an indigenous culture found in the department of Antioquia) and to present The Little Prince.

In all, we ran 11 one-hour workshops on The Little Prince (Chi Charcheke), attended by 191 people: 139 teenagers, 20 children and 32 adults. We handed out 122 copies (one per person or one per family) to the workshop participants, who were able to learn a little French and Embera Chamí and express their creativity. All thanks to the participative and interactive workshops designed by two of our teachers: Valentina Sancler and Pablo Pareja.

Young and old alike were delighted and grateful to receive a copy of Chi Charcheke. A large number of passers-by and visitors asked us questions about the project and were very interested and receptive. One of the most memorable encounters was with a young girl from Embera Chamí who was delighted to see The Little Prince translated into her language. There was also one of the founders of the ‘Licence en Pédagogie de la Terre Mère’ (a degree course promoting recognition of ethnic and linguistic diversity at the Universidad Pública de Antioquia) who was moved to tears to discover the project.