Ezchial Wendtoin Nikiema from Burkina Faso is a 2018 TU Dresden DAAD award winner

Anne Vetter

There is a documentary on YouTube about Ezchial Wendtoin Nikiema’s time at Ohio State University and in Columbus (USA). It gives an insight into what drives him: communication and understanding with and between other people through music and movement; building bridges between cultures. “It’s great to see this young man from Burkina Faso, a Master’s student of German studies who is a musician and works with immigrants in Germany. Who is creating a special atmosphere through his music, and following so many different paths. It makes you think differently about the world, and shows you just what is possible,” says one of the lecturers.

In Dresden, Ezchial is better known by his nickname Ezé. The actual pronunciation is “é,” but most people say his name like the word “easy.” Perhaps because this fits so well with Ezé’s joyful personality. Yet what the young man from Burkina Faso has accomplished in the past few years is enough to leave you dizzy. In the 2016 summer semester, the 27-year-old started studying for a Master’s degree in linguistics, literature and cultural studies at TU Dresden’s Institute of German Studies. Ezé Nikiema graduated with top grades in July 2018. He developed the theory for his Master’s thesis, “Zur Arbeit mit Musik im DaF-Unterricht: Möglichkeiten und Potenziale anhand einer Fallstudie in Burkina Faso” (“Working with music in German lessons: Possibilities and potential based on a case study from Burkina Faso”), in Germany in the fall of 2017. The field work in the West African country followed in December 2017. During his visit to the US in the early summer of 2018, he gave talks and ran workshops about his work.

A passion for music and language

As if that weren’t enough of a challenge, Ezé Nikiema is committed to improving education in Burkina Faso. In Germany, he runs workshops on intercultural education for children and adults and is an advisor for the PASCH mentoring program, a German Foreign Office global initiative connecting schools with a strong focus on the German language. But Ezé Nikiema is best known in Dresden as a passionate musician who plays in Banda Internationale, a world music band popular for its commitment to respect, tolerance, and solidarity.

Now, Ezé Nikiema is to receive the 2018 TUD DAAD award in recognition of his outstanding academic achievements and sociocultural work. The prize, worth 1000 euros, is awarded to international students who make an exceptional contribution to their universities.

He was nominated by Dr. Ulrich Zeuner, an instructor at the Chair of German as a Foreign Language (Institute of German Studies). “I was and am consistently impressed by how Mr. Nikiema managed to combine strong academic performance with great social and intercultural work,” says Dr. Zeuner. “I had the pleasure of supervising his Master’s thesis. And I mean ‘pleasure’: On the one hand, it was great to work with such an intelligent, enthusiastic, and well-rounded student. At the same time, Mr. Nikiema was investigating a new area of foreign language teaching, making his work of considerable academic interest.”

A dream of singing in German

“When you get an opportunity abroad, you need to seize it with both hands,” says Ezé Nikiema. Ever since he started learning German in 11^th grade in his native Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, he had dreamed of singing in German as a musician in Germany. “The language made such a deep impression on me that I kept going at home, searching for words and writing lyrics for my music.”

The hypothesis of his Master’s thesis, that music facilitates foreign language learning, was something that Ezé Nikiema had experienced himself. After graduating from school, he decided to study German. However, those studies came to an end when he gained his Bachelor’s degree in 2013, because there was no Master’s program at the university. “I worked as an interpreter, but also and above all engaged with music,” he says. And it was indeed music that ultimately took him to Germany. On a tour of Europe in 2013, the young musician visited a family in Dresden whom he had met in Burkina Faso. After his return, he gradually formed the idea of applying to study in Germany. “A long process with a lot of forms,” he tells us. Even back when he received the “Afrika-Sonderpreis” (“German Africa Prize”) for his Eine-Welt-Song (one-world song) in Berlin in 2015, he would have liked to stay. However, German bureaucracy does not move as fast as Ezé Nikiema. “Things finally worked out in 2016. I was so incredibly happy!” Since then, he has firmly believed that “you will achieve your dreams if you keep working at them.”

Although at first he knew almost no one in Dresden except his host family, that soon changed. By a happy coincidence, he had met the Dresden artist Anna Mateur through Facebook, and she put him in touch with Banda Internationale. “The first rehearsal went so well that I stayed with them,” says Ezé Nikiema.

Starting at university was more difficult than getting into the Dresden music scene. “At the beginning, I was very worried about not coping. It was pretty tough. But I really wanted to complete my degree in two years.” He succeeded thanks in part to the support of his Master’s thesis supervisors Dr. Ulrich Zeuner and Dr. Claudia Oechl-Metzner, he tells us.

A vision: Laugh, man!

The enthusiasm with which Ezé Nikiema talks about his Master’s thesis reveals how much he himself enjoys teaching. “Project development was a long process. One of my goals was to avoid front-of-class teaching and put the students at the center of learning, and to test whether activities like music and dance increase motivation.” He decided to write a song that students would then help arrange. With exercises on pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary worked into the process. The title is typical for him: “Lach mal, Mensch!” – “Laugh, man!” “As the teachers had told me beforehand that the task was too difficult, I was pleasantly surprised by what came out of the performance.” By the New Year, Ezé Nikiema had begun his evaluation, which confirmed what he had observed: that “music, movement, and drama are great motivators, even for students who do not otherwise like participating.”

But Ezé wouldn’t be Ezé if he hadn’t also used his stay in Burkina Faso for social projects. In 2014, he founded an association promoting education, arts and crafts with the aim of setting up a school. “Over 70 percent of the population is illiterate. I want to give disadvantaged children the chance to learn to read and write, and the skills of a trade so that they can be independent.” He organized a whole series of benefit concerts to raise money for a well, and was there on the ground to supervise its construction.

Now that he has completed his Master’s, Ezé Nikiema is facing the tough question of what to do next. The school project takes up a lot of his energy, and he has also recorded a new CD. But he is still drawn to research: “I do want to do a doctorate, and I’d like to do it in Dresden,” he says. For even though Ezé arrived at the height of the Pegida movement and had some bad experiences, he feels for the most part comfortable in the city thanks to his many friends. “I got so much love back. That’s what keeps you going.” Or, as one of his songs says, “Nu, nu, Dresden, ich liebe dich” – “Dresden, I love you.”

The 2018 DAAD award will be presented to Ezé Wendtoin Nikiema at 4:30 p.m. on November 28 in the Dülferstrasse Festsaal at the event to welcome DAAD scholars. 

This article was published on November 27, 2018, in the 19/2018 Dresden Universitätsjournal. You can download the full issue as a PDF for free here. You can also order the UJ in print or as a PDF from doreen.liesch@tu-dresden.de. More information is available at universitaetsjournal.de.