On Contiguous Narratives and Poetic Cosmologies

Curatorial Statment by Dzekashu MacViban

 

So many are asleep under the ground,
When we dance at the festival
Embracing the earth with our feet.
Maybe the place on which we stand
Is where they also stood with their dreams.
They dreamed until they were tired
And handed us the tail with which we shall dance.

Excerpt from “Cycle”
Mazisi Kunene

 

 
Reality, is what it is. This suffering truth
advertised in all men’s loveliest histories.

Excerpt from “History as Process”
Amiri Baraka

 

Narratives or how we choose to tell a story are indispensable and in certain cases, cannot be dissociated from stories given that we become the stories we are told. If speech is one of the things that differentiates humans from other species–living and nonliving–storytelling is the harnessing of language skills to tell stories that are passed from one generation to another across visual, oral, performative, written and printed formats. Narratives processed by subjectivity and different forms of knowledge become the stories that make up history. This creates a situation where, for its own relevance, the narratives that make up history need to be re-examined every now and then, otherwise history would fall into obsolescence.

In “The Muse of History”¹ Derek Walcott questions reactions to narratives of historical memory when he contemplates two different responses by writers and thinkers to colonization which he identifies as: the classical, “which rejects history as time in favor of history as myth” and the radical, which “yellows into polemic or evaporates into pathos… as they neither explain nor forgive history.” Beyond the polemic and pathos that arise from these positions, Walcott lays bare the complicated relationship between the past and the present, as well as the power play that shapes narratives. In her experimental novel, Sister Killjoy, Ama Ata Aidoo contemplates a similar view of the complex relationship between the past and the present when a character points out that “we are victims of our history and our present. They place too many obstacles in the way of love. And we cannot enjoy even our differences in peace.”²

The relationship between the past and the present and the narratives that shape this relationship take on more significance when one contemplates the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that is rebuilding itself in spite of crisis and conflict and channels a creative vibrancy that has produced unrivalled singers, poets, performers and thinkers whose work reverberate worldwide. These artists are at the vanguard of deconstructing the stories that make up narratives by telling alternative stories and questioning knowledge: knowledge production, specifically the production of knowledge about DRC and Africa.

Undoubtedly, since the last decade, kontempo stands out when one contemplates the production and positioning of knowledge and art in DRC. Kontempo, as Jean Kamba points out, “est une conception kinoise de l’art contemporain. Une vue particulière de cette tendance artistique avec comme éléments prééminents: la subversion, le spectacle, de l’énergie à dépenser, Ia folie dans Ia creation, l’abstraction, Ia récupération, y compris dans des poubelles, les action spectaculaires dans les rues de Kinshasa appelées « Perf », bref, un esprit libéré de tout académisme, souvent d’une grande extravagance.”³ As a materialization of thought systems in a constantly evolving milieu of artistic and performatory practices, kontempo is inextricable from the self-conscious and philosophical undertones that shape these manifestations. Between the manifestation of the desire to break free from the codification of “African art” through the lens of a foreign canon and the necessity to situate and theorize contemporary artistic interventions in DRC from within, Kontempo therefore emerges as a performative, poetic and philosophical premise.

To understand the relationship between narratives, Kontempo as practice and the philosophies that underpin systems of thought in different parts of DRC and Africa, it is necessary to acknowledge the role of oral traditions in shaping knowledge production. Drawing from Cletus Umezinwa, among others, who posit the use of proverbs as an analytical framework, this project explores the ways in which oral forms of knowledge contribute to the understanding and theorization of art, as well as how these fit into the current discourse on spatiality.

A quote attributed to Papa Mfumu’Eto 1er by Kristien Geenen propounds: “À Kinshasa, quand tu deviens trop logique, tu deviens illogique.”⁴ Though this sentence may not make sense at first glance, a reread through the lens of poetry or an understanding of context and local idioms offers a different perspective highlighting wordplay and paradox that leads to layers of meaning.

The underlying “illogicality” in this quote is in fact a different kind of logic, arrived at spontaneously, in circumstances where a clearly thought-out logical plan doesn’t work. Thus, the perceived illogicality of spontaneity, when logic fails, is in fact the exploration of a different epistemology. Using poetry as an example to expound on the importance of context and audience in shaping meaning in art, and by default life, V. Y. Mudimbe reminds us that “Le poème a besoin de moi pour exister en tant que tel. Comment dès lors peut-on prétendre codifier le mouvement d’une parole qui, à chaque lecture, vient à la vie ?”⁵ Furthermore, Cletus Umezinwa argues that “etymology as analytic instrument, when compared with proverbs, does not achieve much in terms of philosophical elucidations. This is because the meaning embedded in proverbs does not easily change over time. Hence proverbs are of paramount importance in the substantiation of philosophical claims.”⁶ Drawing examples from ancient Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, as well as contemporary philosophers like Damian Opata and Olusegun Oladipo, all of whom use proverbs to support political and ethical theories, Umezinwa argues that proverbs can be used as an essential part of critical discourse.

The use of proverbs (from Latin proverbium “a common saying, old adage, maxim”) in art theory can thus be positioned as a continuation of the exploration of the philosophical and cultural elements in proverbs that underpin their usage in conversations or to support arguments. If one considers critical theory as “a philosophical approach to culture… that considers the social, historical, and ideological forces and structures which produce and constrain it.”⁷ then proverbs, which draw as much from philosophy as from poetry and the epistemological arsenal of oral traditions are arguably a framework through which art can be theorized. It is important to point out that context is very important when one considers proverbs as an analytical tool in situations where, more often than not, art theory is conceived and passed on orally in contexts like conversations, open discussions and presentations in local cultural centers or informal encounters, which do not always make it to print and therefore necessitate other epistemic approaches.

In his reflection on proverbs as secret and a sacred language, Kimbwandènde Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau points out that the proverb is among the most important sources that best explain the complexity of different African communities. This view is supported by John Mbiti who points out that “it is in proverbs that we find the remains of the oldest forms of African religious and philosophical wisdom”⁸ In addition to simultaneously aligning itself with and drawing from cosmologies, philosophies and poetry, the adaptive nature of a proverb that allows it to provide insights into different epistemologies based on its usage in conversations, arguments or narratives, positions it as a paradigm with which to reflect on artistic production.

The Lingala proverb “Kokende Liboso Eza Kokoma Te” (to go ahead doesn’t mean you have arrived), which shares a similar philosophy with the African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” becomes an entry point through which to explore the dialectic relationship between narratives and temporalities as well as how these can be questioned and expanded by offering narratives that draw from different epistemological positions. Kokende Liboso Eza Kokoma Te: On Contiguous Narratives and Poetic Cosmologies is a continuation of Laboratoire Kontempo’s mission which questions existing power structures and attempts to develop new spatial strategies for artistic creation and discussions. To this end, this project gathers artistic positions that reflect on, re-signify and expand narratives, philosophies and cosmologies through visual, performative, sonic and poetic interventions that will take place in different parts of Kinshasa, from public spaces to art centers.

 

 

 

 

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¹ _{Derek Walcott. The Muse of History. What the Twilight Says: Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998.}
²_{Ama Ata Aidoo. Our Sister Killjoy. London: Longman, 1977.}
³_{Jean Kamba. Laboratoire Kontempo: Catalogue d’exposition. Kinshasa: Laboratoire Kontempo, 2019}
⁴_{Kristien Geenen. “The much celebrated unknown”: the popular artist Papa Mfumu’Eto. Unpublished draft, 2014.}
⁵_{V. Y. Mudimbe. Réflexions sur la vie quotidienne. Kinshasa: Editions du mont Noir, 1972.
6Umezinwa, Cletus (2005). Proverbs as sources of African philosophy. In Theophilus Okere, J. Obi Oguejiofor & Godfrey Igwebuike Onah (eds.), African Philosophy and the Hermeneutics of Culture: Essays in Honour of Theophilus Okere. Distributed in North America by Transaction Publishers.}
⁷_{Oxford Languages Dictionary.}
⁸_{Mbiti, JS. African Religions And Philosophy. London, Heinemann, 1982.}