3 Writers You Should Know From The Republic of Congo

Alain Mabanckou, © Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons

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Alain Lab’ou Tansi, Courtesy Le Marche aux Pages

A prolific novelist, playwright and poet who also won the Grand Prix Liittéraire d’Afrique Noire, Sony Lab’ou Tansi was a practitioner of the ‘New African Writing’ who also became a leading left wing politician in the Congo before his tragic early death. Born in 1947 in the former Belgian Congo, thus – perhaps surprisingly, for a Francophone writer – only began to learn French at the age of 12, when his family moved to the Republic of Congo. After studying literature, he began teaching French and English in Kindauba whilst writing his first plays under the penname Sony Lab’ou Tansi.
He went on to work in government office, before becoming involved in the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development. His strong political bent was intrinsic to his writing, too, such as his first play,Conscience de Tracteur. An allegorical fable of an epidemic that strikes a small town in the tropics, it was an exploration of corrupt politics that was a continued vein throughout his oeuvre. An allegorical fable of an epidemic that strikes a small town in the tropics, it was an exploration of corrupt politics that was a continued vein throughout his oeuvre.
His first novel, Life and a Half, was a response to the death of his close friends as a result of military strife in Congo; a lucid representation of the potential consequences of the political chaos and violence which have blighted the region in the decades since the end of the colonial period. In 1995, Sony Lab’ou Tansi died aged 47 of AIDS, 14 days after the same disease had killed his wife. His death tragically cut short his burgeoning literary career, but his work remains a potent symbol of the suffering of ordinary Africans. In 1995, Sony Lab’ou Tansi died aged 47 of AIDS, 14 days after the same disease had killed his wife. His death tragically cut short his burgeoning literary career, but his work remains a potent symbol of the suffering of ordinary Africans.

Emmanuel Dongala, © Rama / Wikimedia Commons

Holding a number of diverse career titles, Emmanuel Dongala is a chemist, novelist, poet and playwright. Born in 1941 in the Congo, he studied Chemistry in the USA, then gained a PhD in Organic Chemistry in France. He returned to his native country to fill the post of Dean of Marien Ngouabi University, yet in the late 1990s the violence in the Republic of Congo forced him to flee the country, and he was offered refuge and a teaching position in Bard College, New York.
Writing in French, he has published four novels, a play, and a collection of short stories. Additionally, his essays and articles have appeared in a number of newspapers and journals including Le Monde and The New York Times. His writing tends to interrogate the violence within his home country through the lens of the traditions and myths of the Congo, looking scathingly of the consequences of European subjugation and the various failures of postcolonial Africa. The novel The Fire of Origins (Le Feu des Origines) follows this pattern and won Dongala the Grand Prix Liittéraire d’Afrique Noire and the Prix de la Fondation de France. His latest novel,Johnny Mad Dog (Johnny Chien Méchant), is a coming-of-age tale about a sixteen year old member of a rebel faction in Republic of Congo. A film adaptation of the book by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire was released in 2008.