Imagining the Congo, Performing African History and Culture
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
June 29-August 9, 2008
Faculty: Mbala D. Nkanga, Department of Theatre and Drama and CAAS, and
Nancy R. Hunt, Department of History, both of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Tutors: Theodore Foster, University of Alabama, and Amariah Stepter, University of Michigan
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the second largest country in
Africa (as large as the United States east of the Mississippi), known for its powerful pre-colonial kingdoms, inventive equatorial peoples of
the forest, epic storytellers, talented sculptors, ironworkers, and popular painters, and especially for the infectious beat of its world-famous
dance music, Africa’s most popular from the 1940s up to today.
We will explore Congolese cultures and history, beginning with what
pre-colonial epics, tales, and performative masking and healing traditions tell us about ancient ways of imagining good leadership, spirit
worlds, social relationships, and moral dilemmas. Historical investigations will consider Congolese empires, kingdoms, and societies before
1850, especially how art and healing objects (some in museums in the Ann Arbor/Detroit region) help us comprehend the past. At the same
time, an important theme will be the new forms of violence, wealth, theft, and disease that came into central Africa with an import trade
in guns and cloth and an export trade in slaves and ivory from the sixteenth century. We will try to come to terms with the extreme
and racialized violence and disruptions of formal colonial rule in the Congo, while also exploring how Congolese created
new forms of art, performance, cultural production, and health care during these years through new media and technologies.
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