Village Ki-Yi M'Bock

Village Ki-Yi M'Bock was founded in 1985 in the Cocody district of Abidjan by Cameroonian playwright, novelist and artist Werewere Liking, as both a residential arts community and a working theater and crafts center. The village operates as a compound of workshops, performance spaces and living quarters built in a style drawing on traditional West and Central African compound architecture, with thatch-influenced roofing and open-air courtyards used for rehearsals and performances rather than the proscenium-stage model of Western theater. Liking founded the community around the Ki-Yi M'Bock theater troupe, whose name combines Bassa and Bamileke terms roughly translating to 'ultimate knowledge of the universe,' and the group became known across francophone Africa for productions blending ritual, mask performance, puppetry, music and dance drawn from multiple African traditions rather than a single ethnic repertoire. Beyond performance, the village functions as a training center where young artists live communally while learning traditional crafts including mask-making, weaving, sculpture and instrument-building alongside contemporary performing arts, a pan-Africanist model of cultural transmission that Liking developed explicitly as an alternative to Western conservatory training. Ki-Yi M'Bock's productions have toured internationally, including engagements in Europe, and the compound has hosted visiting artists, scholars and students studying African performance traditions. As a living, working arts village rather than a preserved historical site, its buildings continue to be used, modified and rebuilt as needed for its ongoing artistic programs, and its significance lies in its continuous role as one of West Africa's most influential centers of experimental, pan-African performing arts since the mid-1980s.