Author: Mboka Ndinga

Pamelo Mounk’A, a Brazzaville-born figure of rumba In the dense and inventive landscape of Congolese popular music, few names retain the same immediate resonance as André Mbemba-Bingui, better known under his stage name Pamelo Mounk’A. Born on 10 May 1945 in Brazzaville, he belongs to a generation that helped give Congolese rumba its enduring authority: a music at once urban and poetic, anchored in dance rhythms yet attentive to narrative, melody and social observation. Pamelo Mounk’A died on 14 January 1996 in the Congolese capital. The calendar makes the passage of time particularly striking: three decades after his death, the…

Brazzaville Book Signing Highlights Congolese Fiction In Brazzaville, Congolese author Henri Djombo held a public presentation and signing session for his newly published novel, “Une semaine au Kinango,” turning the encounter into a sustained exchange with readers attentive to the work’s social resonances. The gathering, described by participants as both warm and intellectually demanding, underscored the place that literary events continue to occupy in the cultural life of the Republic of the Congo. Beyond the ritual of dedications, the meeting functioned as a forum in which questions of interpretation, character construction and moral perspective could be discussed without haste. In…

Brazzaville hosts a strategic briefing on OIF prize At Les Manguiers bookshop, within the premises of Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, the Culture Elongo Association (ACE) convened a public presentation devoted to the Five Continents Prize of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF). The declared objective was twofold: to familiarise Congolese cultural stakeholders with a major francophone literary distinction, and to encourage Congolese publishers and authors to position more works for consideration. According to ACE, the initiative forms part of its 2025 programme of activities, designed to promote the prize among publishers, writers and a broader ecosystem that includes booksellers…

Paris Book Event Highlights Congolese Literature Brazzaville, 8 January (ACI) – Congolese writer and statesman Mr Henri Djombo is scheduled to present and sign his new novel, Une semaine au Kinango, on 17 January in Paris, France. The work was published in October 2025 by Éditions Net, and the Paris meeting is expected to bring the book to a wider francophone readership, particularly within cultural circles attentive to Central African literary production. The announcement positions the event less as a mere promotional appointment than as a moment of encounter between author and audience. In the Parisian context, where debates on…

A farewell to a news-packed 2025 As the clocks edge toward midnight, the editorial offices of Les Echos du Congo-Brazzaville hum with the familiar year-end ritual: reading rooms strewn with marked-up press releases, analysts still debating exchange-rate trends, culture reporters finalising exhibition notes. The sense of completion is palpable. Over the past twelve months our pages chronicled the adoption of the revised hydrocarbons code, the launch of the National Digital Strategy and the successful organisation of the All-Africa University Games in Brazzaville. Each event, large or small, has been examined with the combination of factual rigour and contextual depth that…

A Press Luncheon Illuminates a New Managerial Creed On 26 December the airy courtyard of the École supérieure de gestion et d’administration des entreprises in Brazzaville filled with the quiet clatter of cutlery and the hushed expectations of journalists. At the end of the luncheon, Professor Roger Armand Makany, founder and director-general of ESGAE, rose to introduce his ninth book, eloquently entitled “Le management par les détails: les clés de la performance managériale à travers l’attention aux détails”. Published by Hemar, the 148-page volume is at once a practical guide, a philosophical reflection and a gentle provocation aimed at policy-makers,…

A Confluence of Verse and Values in Brazzaville In the early warmth of December, the riverside capital witnessed an encounter between poetic cadence and civic commitment. From 8 to 10 December 2025, the Centre d’actions pour le développement (CAD) joined forces with the Bana Moyi Cultural Centre to host a festival devoted entirely to slam poetry and the universal language of human rights. For three evenings, the small amphitheatre of Bana Moyi filled with rhythms, rhymes and a public eager to rediscover, through art, the intrinsic dignity of the human person. Organisers positioned the festival as an “alternative front” for…

High-profile premiere honours youth innovation The vaulted auditorium of the Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza Memorial filled early on the evening of 13 December 2025. On the screen, an hour-long documentary by British-Congolese filmmaker Dan Scott unfolded, portraying young Congolese who cultivate market gardens outside Pointe-Noire, design fine carpentry in Dolisie or plate haute cuisine in Brazzaville. Produced under the aegis of Katia Mounthault Tatu, president of the Horizon Foundation, “Jeunes 242. Une génération, un combat” reached the capital following a first showing in Pointe-Noire. The premiere took place under the patronage of Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, whose presence alongside…

A ubiquitous filler across dialects Walk along the arcaded avenues of Brazzaville, weave through a Kituba market in Dolisie or scroll through a family chat room, and one connective particle returns with metronomic insistence: “really”. Rendered in French as « vraiment », the term migrates with ease into Lingala, Kongo, Téké and the hybrid urban argot often called frangala. It punctuates laments about rising prices, excites approval for a football dribble and cushions disagreement in political debate. Its frequency is such that many speakers admit, with an indulgent smile, that a sentence lacking the adverb feels unfinished. The phenomenon is…

Slam Poetry Becomes a Civic Resonator In a city where traditional orchestras and contemporary rumba long defined the sonic skyline, the Centre d’Actions pour le Développement is betting on the sparse cadence of a single voice. From 8 to 10 December 2025, the Bana Moyi Institute will throb to the syncopated rhythms of the first Human Rights Slam Festival, a project honoured earlier this year with the Nelson Mandela – Graça Machel Innovation Award conferred by the global civil-society alliance CIVICUS. “We want every stanza to echo the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” explains Guerschom Gombouang, alias Guer2mo, who doubles…