Global Africas: Congolese Literature, Music, and Art in the 21st Century

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, the Florida State University Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and the College of Arts and Sciences will welcome some of the 21st century’s most prominent voices for a two-day virtual symposium exploring Africa’s past and present global interconnections, Thursday, Nov. 5, and Friday, Nov. 6.

“Global Africas: Congolese Literature, Music, and Art in the 21st Century” examines the cultural, linguistic, political, and historical realities of Francophone regions of Africa from a range of academic and artistic perspectives. This event, the initial iteration in the Global Africas series, includes virtual discussions and a roundtable that focus on the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Congolese diaspora and feature internationally renowned author Alain Mabanckou, the Paris-based artist Pat Masioni, and Belgium-based musician and director Baloji.

The Winthrop King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies’ Global Africas series works against the ubiquitous tendency to reduce Earth’s second-largest continent to a single nation by exploring the many ways in which Africa’s countries and peoples have always been globally interconnected.

“This inaugural event highlights the interplay between the local and the global in contemporary literature, music, film, and comics and at the same time explores the twinned legacies of colonization and diaspora,” said series organizer and FSU assistant professor of French Michelle Bumatay.

The events are free and open to the public, but advance registration is required. Visit https://fsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cZpaVB2JznuHHGR to register. Discussion will be conducted in English and French as indicated below. View the event website for full details, and contact Bumatay at mbumatay@fsu.edu with questions.

Events will include:

Thursday, Nov. 5

10 a.m. Discussion with artist Pat Masioni (in French with English translation provided)

11 a.m. Discussion with musician and filmmaker Baloji

12:30 p.m. Discussion with author Alain Mabanckou

Friday, Nov. 6

12:30 p.m. Roundtable with Alain Mabanckou, Baloji and Pat Masioni (in French) Moderated by assistant professor of French Michelle Bumatay and modern languages graduate student Alexis Finet, with French-to-English translations provided in the chat.

About the speakers

Belgium-based musician Baloji works on audiovisual representations of the cultural wealth of his Congolese roots. Made famous with his post-modern 2011 rap cover of the popular rumba classic Indépendance Cha-Cha-Cha, Baloji’s creations also function as a commentary on the current sociopolitical status of Congolese society. He explores linguistic diversity relevant to this region, and his work vibrantly explores sounds and colors of Congolese heritage through the medium of music videos. Baloji’s 15-minute musical epic, “ZOMBIES,” won the Principle Prize at the 2019 Oberhausen short film festival.

Renowned author, professor, and intellectual Alain Mabanckou’s work is richly dense with allusions to world literature, political discourse, comics, music, and fashion, and not only spans space and time, but also literary genres and mediums. Most notably, drawing from his 2009 novel “Black Bazar,” about a Congoloese sapeur in Paris, Mabankcou collaborated with musicians Modogo Abarambwa and Sam Tshintu to generate a 2012 album of the same name that brought Congolese rumba to an international audience. Mabanckou, originally from the port city Point-Noire in the Republic of the Congo, has been a longtime critic of France’s bifurcated vision of the Francophone world and co-authored the famous 2007 “Pour une ‘littérature-monde’ en français,” (For a World Literature).

Paris-based artist Pat Masioni is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and studied painting and ceramics before attending the Académie des Beaux Arts in Kinshasa, where he received a degree in architecture. Since the mid-1980s, Masioni has worked professionally as an illustrator in Congo-Kinshasa, producing comics and textbook illustrations for Kinshasa-based publisher Médiaspaul. His detailed, hyper-real, and dramatic style attracted the attention of French documentarian Cécile Grenier and the pair collaborated on the two-volume graphic novel “Rwanda 1994” about the Rwandan genocide. In 2009, Masioni began working with American Joshua Dysart on the DC Comics/Vertigo series “The Unknown Soldier,” making him one of the only African Francophone cartoonists published in the U.S.