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Tram 83
Fiston Mwanza Mujila
Novel, 2014. Translated from French
A jazz-fuelled nightclub in a mining boomtown shows the violence, hustle and corruption of the southern Congolese mineral economy.
Books set in DR Congo
Three books that put you in DR Congo. Two are by writers from DR Congo and set there: Tram 83 and Congo Inc.: Bismarck's Testament. The other is a wider pick, by someone who knows the place well.
About the literature of DR Congo
Few books by writers from DR Congo have been translated into English, so readers often meet the country through a few novels and a good deal of outside reporting. Much Congolese literature is written in French, the official language, though Lingala, Swahili, Kikongo and Tshiluba are national languages. Writers return to colonial rule, Mobutu's Zaire and the wars of the east. Congo Inc.: Bismarck's Testament by In Koli Jean Bofane sends a young man from a forest village into Kinshasa's globalised schemes, while Fiston Mwanza Mujila's Tram 83 unfolds in a jazz-fuelled nightclub in a mining boomtown.
David Van Reybrouck, a Belgian historian, built Congo: The Epic History of a People on hundreds of oral testimonies from ordinary Congolese. Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, by an American novelist, places a missionary family in a Kwilu village around independence.
By writers from DR Congo
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Congo Inc.: Bismarck's Testament
In Koli Jean Bofane
Novel, 2014. Translated from French
A young man leaves his forest village for Kinshasa and is drawn into globalised schemes, showing the capital's hustle, the legacy of colonial partition and the scramble for resources.
Wider picks
By long-time residents and outsiders who know the place well, or folk tales, poetry and history with a strong feel for DR Congo.
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
Novel, 1998
Wider pick: American novelist; fiction by an outsider with researched detail
A missionary family's life in a Kwilu village around independence and the Lumumba crisis, vividly evoking daily life and politics.
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