Author: Theo Mbemba

A Minister’s Literary Turn in the Heart of Brazzaville The rotunda of the Hilton Towers in Mpila, gleaming above the banks of the Congo River, provided an almost theatrical backdrop on 27 November 2025 as Hugues Ngouélondélé—currently Minister of Youth and Sports, Civic Education, Vocational Training and Employment—stepped behind the lectern to introduce his latest work, “Un maire, une ville: Bâtir, servir, transmettre”. The 206-page volume, published in Paris by Michel Lafon and prefaced by former Beninese head of state and onetime mayor of Cotonou Nicéphore Soglo, signals an unusual convergence of politics and letters in contemporary Congolese public life.…

A commemorative festival bridging generations From 28 to 31 October 2025 the shaded courtyards of the Institut français du Congo in Brazzaville resonated with poetry, stage lights and the discreet crackle of archive film. Thirty years after the passing of novelist, journalist and cultural agitator Sylvain Ntari Bemba, the festival theme – “What has become of the Congolese phratrie?” – set the tone for a gathering focused less on nostalgia than on transmission. In Congolese usage the term “phratrie” evokes the fraternal circles that have historically sustained the nation’s writers when formal structures proved fragile. By reviving the concept, organisers…

Omani Cultural Diplomacy in Focus The soft morning light in old Muscat lent a solemn hue to the wide forecourt of the National Museum as Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, Minister of International Cooperation and Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships of the Republic of Congo, walked past the ceremonial guards on 15 September. Standing barely four hundred metres from Al-Alam Palace and framed by the minaret of Ali Musa mosque, the institution has become a nerve centre of the Sultanate’s cultural diplomacy since its public opening in 2016. By choosing this venue as his first stop in the Sultanate, the Congolese minister…

African book diplomacy on the Ébrié Lagoon Abidjan’s Plateau district, normally animated by the cadence of commercial exchanges, has momentarily shifted its tempo to a quieter yet persuasive wp-signup.php, that of letters and the arts. The eighth Meeting International du Livre et des Arts Associés—better known by its mellifluous acronym MILA—has unfurled its banners along the Ébrié Lagoon, projecting Côte d’Ivoire’s ambition to serve as a regional agora for intellectual cross-fertilisation. According to organisers from the association Qoiquo, more than six thousand visitors, publishers and creators are expected during the three-day conclave, a figure that confirms the festival’s elevation into…