Review of Colonial Legacies by Pierre-Philippe Fraiture

African Studies Review, 2018

Necessary Noise by Chérie Rivers Ndaliko is a refreshing addition to the literature on Eastern Congo for one particular reason. It does what no other study has done before, which is to focus on something besides the conflict minerals that have wreaked havoc in the Kivus, the epicenter of Congo's war zone, or its corollary, the abjection of weaponized violence, which includes child soldiering and martial rape. Instead, this well-wrought study, while not eschewing Congo's mineral conflict altogether, shatters the single narrative of war and conflict that has eclipsed so many other topics, from cultural activism through art, to the imaginary, and the quotidian demand for celebration and empowerment. Indeed, war in Eastern Congo is only half of the story or noise, as the author would put it, told by international and local media outlets in self-serving war narratives intended to raise not just outrage in the West but also their own profile and worldview. Through the lens of the Yole!Africa cultural center, an organization operating in Goma, Rivers Ndaliko looks at the ways in which art, as a vehicle of social change, gives voice to the youth and challenges the culture of war that has mobilized so many young people in Eastern Congo. The book also stands as a searing critique of the intervention by international NGOs in Africa, which continues to be redolent with saviorism and dubious do-goodism. The book is divided into four chapters, with the first chapter surveying the hip hop and cinematic scene in Goma, North Kivu's capital city, in the long aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. By the time its co-founder, Congolese filmmaker Petna Ndaliko Katondolo (the author's husband), moved back to Goma, Yole!Africa had become a powerful magnet that attracted scores of young people thirsting for change and ready to counter the way international media and outlets (mis)represented their lives in war-torn Eastern Congo with their own images, noises, and transcripts. The second chapter addresses the other war taking place in Congo, a war over history. Here again the analysis focuses on Yole!Africa's activities.

African Diaspora, 2016

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and in particular the eastern part of the country, is characterized by a protracted conflict situation and is home to some of the world’s most horrific documented cases of sexual violence against women. For many years now Congolese women in the diaspora have been engaged in initiatives to raise awareness of the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) of Congolese women back home, addressing the root causes of the conflict and promoting specific peace and conflict resolutions. This article examines ways of protesting using art as a political tool in addressing SGBV in the DRC. In doing so, it highlights two politico-artistic projects by Congolese women activists living in Belgium: Hearth of a mother, a theatre piece and Stand up my mother, a photographic exhibition. This article aims to analyse these particular projects in terms of Tilly’s ‘repertoires of contention’ (2006) as used by activists of the Congolese diaspora in order to make their v...

BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 2024

Review of Colonial Legacies: Contemporary Lens-Based Art and the Democratic Republic of Congo by Gabriella Nugent

Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, 2020

This article explores the entanglement of Congolese popular painting with photography through the case of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who was assassinated in 1961. Lumumba’s final public appearance was immortalized in a series of photographs and newsreel footage that was disseminated around the world. The author contends that the events thereafter are frequently envisioned by Congolese popular painting, as it takes over from the operations of the camera in an era largely defined by the photographic. The article suggests that photography and Congolese popular painting are enmeshed in the creation of a visual archive around the figure of Lumumba. Furthermore, it examines the indebtedness of popular painting to photographic culture as well as other sources in the “colonial contact zone.”

History and Anthropology, 2013

Based on the scholarship of Frans M. Olbrechts and the changes implemented in the Museum of the Belgian Congo during his directorship (from 1947 until 1958), this article argues that the institutionalization of African artefacts as art served the late Belgian colonial regime in promoting its renewed postwar commitment to the Congolese colony. In their reinvention as art and subsequent re-installation in modernist displays, the objects acquired not only a cultural, but also an economic and political value as resources, which led to their co-option in the mise-en-valeur, or valorization, of the colony and fuelled a colonial rhetoric that replaced an earlier emphasis on the civilizing mission with a construction of cultural guardianship based on the universal value of the objects as art.

Tydskrif vir letterkunde, 2009

His la test research focuses on discursive analyses of African novels and reflections on the imagination of the nation in artistic and literary crea ti(ms of the Democratic Republic of Congo.