DESCRIPTION
In the 1990s the self-declared "bedeaste and high priest of painting mystico-African religio-secret," Mfumu'Eto (Mfumu'Eto Nkou-Ntoula) established a one-man guerrilla publishing empire on the streets of Kinshasa. His arsenal of little comic books, written in Lingala, Thiluba and French, made on low-quality paper, self-produced using stencils and photocopying machines and distributed informally in the market place, quickly gained notoriety for their virulent attacks against the political powers-that-be. Along with other low-cost and locally distributed magazines such as Fula Ngenge, Mfumu'Eto's comics inaugurated the era of author as producer DRC's literary world. Like other comics produced in Kinshasa at the time they were heavily influenced by urban culture, and smeared with local indiscretions known as "kinoiseries". Mfumu'Eto however also drew inspiration from local traditions, combining black magic and religion, pulp fiction and politics, irony and attitude in a wild display of interdisciplinary bravado that directly contested dominant colonial systems of knowledge.
His most famous series includes the politically propulsive A Nguma Meli Muasi Ya Na Kati Kinshasa, first published in 1990 and finally banned by the authorities and his devilish Satan Mobutu series which re-imaged former dictator Mobutu as a contemporary Beelzebub. Mfumu'Eto work was recently exhibited in Europe and the US, following the international success of popular painters such as Cheri Samba and the growing interest in African comics.
PEOPLE
Mfumu'Eto Nkou-Ntoula
FAMILY TREE
- Antilope (1959)
- Jeunes pour jeunes (1968) which became Kake (1971)
- Bede Afrique, Magazine panafricaine de la BD (1985)
- Afro BD (1990)
- Fula ngenge
- Africanissimo
- Bleu-Blanc
- Yaya
- Disco-magazine
- Bilenge
RE/SOURCES
- Mfumu'eto on Wikipedia
- The Africa Comics project.
- French wikipedia.
- Africa e Mediterraneo.
- "L'artiste solitaire des rues de Kinshasa", Africinfo.
- Lumbala, Hilaire Mbiye. "An inventory of the comic strip in Africa," Africultures.
- Hunt, Nancy Rose. "Tintin and the Interruptions of Congolese Comics", Images and Empires: Visuality in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa, Paul Stuart Landau, Deborah D. Kaspin (eds), University of California Press, 2002. p p90.
- Mfumu'eto. "Nguma ameliu Musai na Kati ya Kinshasa." Menseul de Bandes dessinees 1, no.1 (April 1990) Kinshasa Editions Mpangala Original and Offest MGS.
