Congolese Mathematics - In Koli Jean Bofane
In a Kinshasa shaken by all sorts of turmoil, Célio could have dragged his galley for a long time, had it not been for his meeting with the director of an office with very confidential activities, attached to the presidency of the Republic. Hunger gnaws at stomachs enough for the debate on good and evil to be seriously considered. The city does not give gifts, the young man knows it, and he has here the opportunity to join the very closed circle of modern sorcerers who manipulate beings and daily life.
Orphaned since one of the wars that ravaged the country, Célio keeps like a bible an old school textbook, found in the bag of his father killed by chance on an escape route. It is thanks to theorems and definitions that Célio Mathématik hopes to influence the destiny of which he says he is only the plaything. From there to burying all moral sense, the temptation is real...
320 pages
Editions: Editions Actes Sud
Bibliography and information
Guinean franc prices
Nationality: Democratic Republic of Congo
Born in: Mbandaka, 10/24/1954
Biography:
In Koli Jean Bofane is a Congolese cinema writer.
He arrived in Belgium in 1960 during the independence troubles. After going back and forth between Congo and Europe, a few adventures and studies in advertising and communication, he returned to Zaire in 1983.
He worked in advertising (Factuel-Média) which was emerging at that time in Kinshasa, until Marshal Mobutu set up a democratic process in 1991, which allowed him to create a publishing house (Publications de l'Exocet).
The looting of 1991 and 1993, as well as the repression in the press and publishing world, complicated matters and Bofane left Zaire in June 1993 to join his children whom he had caused to flee during the looting of September 1991. He was followed by his wife who, deprived of a visa, had to travel a complicated route.
Arriving in Belgium, he launched into literature by publishing with Gallimard editions "Pourquoi le lion n'est plus le roi des animaux" in 1996, a parable on the dictatorship which announces, one month before the arrival of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, the end of the Mobutu regime. He won the Critics' Prize of the French Community of Belgium. The book is published in half a dozen countries.
A second work was published in 2000, entitled, "Bibi and the Ducks" which talks about migration. His novel "Mathématiques congolaises" was published by Actes Sud in 2008. It earned him the SCAM literary prize in 2009 as well as the Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire the same year.
The 2014 Grand Prix du roman métis was awarded to him for "Congo Inc.", published by Actes Sud, as well as the 2015 Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie.
His works have been translated into around ten languages.
Source: www.babelio.com