This presentation presents the preliminary findings on the use of memory of the violent past in popular artistic expressions, performances and plays in Central Africa. It explores the use of myths such as the Mvett of the Fang people of Gabon and historical figures like Lumumba and Mulele, along with the violent events surrounding their existence.

Mbala Nkanga is a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and comes to U-M with extensive experience as a teacher, director, and scholar. Since 1979, he has taught directing, scenography and dramaturgical analysis at the Institut National des Arts in Kinshasa (DRC).He specializes in theatre history, performance theories, and world drama. His research interests include: interculturalism and the performance of memory in world theatre and performance; the study of Jean Genet’s aesthetics of profanation and its relation with black theatre (object of a manuscript in progress); and the Mvett epic and its performance (book in preparation: Mvett: Performance, Cultural Memory, Identity Among the Fang). He is preparing the upcoming publication of his Performance, Rumor, and Audience: The Theatre of Resistance in Central Africa, 1990-2000, and an anthology of francophone African plays in translation.

He is a former Fulbright scholar and winner of Northwestern University’s Gwendolyn Carter Award for Academic Excellence.