The French connection here should surprise no-one familiar with the book market in France, where comics (bande dessinée) make up 16% of all book sales, and comics are reverently referred to as the Ninth Art.
Running January 27 through September 26 2021 at the Cité internationale de la BD d’Angoulême in France, this nine-month long display of African comics should, Covid-19 regulations permitting, finally elevate the art of comics in Africa to somewhere achieving the international recognition the continent’s comics artists and authors deserve.
My go-to source for francophone-Africa lit’ news, Actualitté, has the story, so I’ll defer to their report, loosely translated:
The exhibition, Kubuni, les comics d’Afriques saw its curatorial work entrusted to Joëlle Epée Mandengue, author and director of the Bilili BD Festival in Brazzaville (Congo), and Jean-Philippe Martin, scientific advisor at the Cité internationale de la BD d’Angoulême (France).
African comics, rich in the many cultures represented on the continent, have been a reality for years. This is evidenced by the names of authors increasingly known internationally: Marguerite Abouet from Côte d’Ivoire, Barly Baruti from Congo DRC, Didier Kassaï from Central Africa, Adjim Danngar from Chad, Gaspard Njock, Christophe Ngalle Edimo, Reine Dibussi or Annick Kamgang from Cameroon, Joël Salo from Burkina Faso, or Loyiso Mkize from South Africa.
Productions from nearly fifty countries in sub-Saharan Africa are evoked in the exhibition, where a joyful mix of influences from the clear line, super-heroic comics and manga come together to end with totally original creations, like Afrofuturism, an aesthetic that combines science fiction and claim to black heritage.
The French connection here should surprise no-one familiar with the book market in France, where comics (bande dessinée ) make up 16% of all book sales, and comics are reverently referred to as the Ninth Art.
