Pius Ngandu Nkashama: Sixty Years Of Existence And Dissidence

Alexie Tcheuyap

L’EMPIRE DES OMBRES VIVANTES

Deux circonstances importantes ont inspiré ce texte : le meurtre sauvage des étudiants, égorgés sur le Campus de Lubumbashi dans la nuit du 11 au 12 mai 1990, par les brigades présidentielles. Et les convulsions qui continuent à secouer, en 1991, un grand nombre de pays en Afrique. Soudain, dans la terreur du matin, des enfants ont surgi pour saccager le sanctuaire des nantis. Ils ont brûlé les palais de marbre et les cadillacs étincelantes. Les despotes barbares, pris au piège de leurs propres iniquités, s'éparpillent avec des criailleries de corneilles dans la brousse incendiée. Un temps de rupture totale s'est ainsi insinué dans le cycle des saisons.

C'est en pensant aux millions de jeunes élèves en train de brandis leurs poings pour affronter la soldatesque des tyrans, que le poème se découvre comme un cantique d'espérance

(Two important circumstances inspired this text: the savage murder of students, whose throats were cut off on the campus of the University of Lubumbashi in the night of May 11 and 12, 1990, by the presidential brigades, and the agitations that affected, in 1991, a large number of African countries.

Suddenly, amidst the dawn of terror, children emerged to ransack the sanctuary of the rich. They burned down the marble palaces and the sleek Cadillacs. Trapped in their own iniquities, the cruel despots, with the shrill cry of the crow, spread their presence in the burnt bush. For this reason, the cycle of seasons was completely upset. By alluding to the millions of young students who lift up their fists to face the army of the tyrants, the poem unfolds like a canticle of hope.)

LE DOYEN MARI

Les mutations les plus importantes de l'histoire africaine sont dues aux révoltes répétées des jeunes élèves et étudiants, ceux qui ont osé braver les monstres de l'ignominie, souvent au sacrifice de leur propre vie. Loin des légendes épiques qui magnifient les héros sans rappeler la conscience des humains, le récit de Pius Ngandu Nkashama est centré sur le personnage de Sadio Mobali, un jeune étudiant produit par les aberrations des dictatures imbéciles, et qui se retrouve empêtré dans les arcanes complexes de toutes les contradictions sociales.

(The most important changes in African history are caused by the repeated revolts of young pupils and students, those who dare to face the monsters of ignominy, even at the expense of their own lives. Far removed from the epic legends which magnify heroes and undermine human conscience, Pius Ngandu Nkashama in this book, concentrates on the character, Sadio Mobali, a young student nursed and nurtured by the aberrations of imbecilic dictatorships, and who finds himself disoriented amidst the complex mysteries of social contradictions.)

If Ngandu’s writings always tend to have a radical tone, it is because he has witnessed and has been victim of one of the most insane dictatorships that have been inflicted on the African continent since 1961. In a review of my book Esthétique et folie dans l’oeuvre Romanesque de Pius Ngandu Nkashama (Paris, L’Harmattan, 1998), Claire Dehon (Kansas State) wrote the following, which does not have to do with the content of the document she evaluated: "It is not surprising that the novelist addresses the subject of mental derangement. He lived under the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko, witnessed his corruption, turpitude, arbitrary violence and was imprisoned and tortured to have criticized the authorities. Like many of his fellow citizens, he suffered a great deal. But because he had received university education, he could reflect on their common experience better than his co-citizens.” (1999)

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