Democratic Republic of the Congo / All works
Novel
Ngando
Not translated into English
Paul Lomami-Tshibamba · 1948
Synopsis
In Léopoldville, in the aftermath of the war. Musolinga, an only son, plays truant and steals fruit from the garden of Mama Ngulube, a witch. A crocodile, servant of the sorcerers, then carries him off and drags him under the waters of the Congo River. His father, Musemvola, wages a relentless struggle against the water spirits to snatch his child from death, and the narrative moves from one world to the other: the colonial city, with its shipyards, its prison, its schools and its market, and the kingdom of the river spirits.
Context
The narrative was awarded a prize in 1948 at the first literary competition of the Colonial Fair in Brussels, open to authors from the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, with the support of Gaston-Denys Périer. It appeared in Brussels from Georges A. Deny, preceded by a letter from the author about his life, was reproduced in facsimile, then reissued in 1982 by Présence africaine, in co-edition with Lokolé in Kinshasa, with two other narratives and a preface by Mukala Kadima-Nzuji. A translation into Lingala appeared in 1989.
Who it is for
A narrative of about a hundred pages in French, which blends the tale and the marvellous into the novel. The reader must accept that the crocodile is the instrument of sorcerers.
Prizes and reception
First winner of the colonial competition of 1948, it is regarded as the starting point of prose fiction in the Belgian Congo.
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