Didier Lalaye alias Croquemort at the Institute of History, Leiden University

Didier Lalaye Fonong-Ta (1984) will be in Leiden from 3 June to 1 September 2015. Didier lives in N’Djamena, Chad. He is a medical doctor (graduated 2015) and artist (writer and musician). His artist name, Croquemort, refers to the person who shocks the dead to see if they are really dead. He wants to waken up society.

Didier won several prizes, both for his essays and for his music/slam (urban poetry). He is director and coordinator of an e-medicine programme in Southern Chad. He developed a method by using mobile telephony to reach out to villages where health provision is still very poor. This project is targeted at the treatment and eradication of Bilharziose, one of the important causes of health problems among children in Chad. Didier is co-founder of a social entrepreneur association ‘Tchad plus’, based in N’Djamena.

Didier is related to the research project coordinated by ASC researcher Mirjam de Bruijn (www.Connecting-In-Times-of-Duress.nl) in different roles. His writing and music are commentaries on the main themes of this research programme. Didier has also become part of one of our film projects as the main actor. He was in Leiden in November 2014 to launch the Voice4Thought project (www.voice4thought.org).

Didier and the members of the research group will present their shared experiences in research and art during the three months of his stay on several occasions: a presentation is planned on 26 June, and a masterclass on 4 and 5 July. Didier will also perform his art, during a spectacle week ‘Voice4Thought: Chad’, late August in Leiden.