Local author is inspired to inspire

Local author Hubert Kabasu Babu Katulondi hopes to inspire others and tell the stories of Congo with a Congolese-African spirit.

In his latest fictional release US Marines in the Congo-Beni War, which was set to be launched at Sandton Library on July 2 but was postponed due to lockdown regulations, Katulondi tells the story of a US marine sent to the Congo by the Pentagon to be part of a team of military instructors selected to train a battalion of Congolese Special Forces.

The marine is met with a number of obstacles and traumas which speak to the stark realities which many Congolese people have faced and continue to face today.

“As a Congolese national who has been living in South Africa since the early 1990s, when the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC] was embroiled in wars [which still continues to devastate the eastern region of the country] and political crisis, I felt compelled to grasp and shed light on dimensions and realities of our societies that are not often elucidated by the general public,” he said.

Katulondi added that his passion for writing was triggered by reading illustrious Congolese writers such as Lomami Tshibamba and the much-admired leading Congolese-Pan African scholar Valentin-Yves Mudimbe.

“As a political scientist, I grappled with the challenge of understanding and explaining the contradictions inherent in the deployment of African intellectuality in the postcolonial state.

“In Tshibamba’s novel titled Ngando [the very first novel in French in DRC published in 1948] and in Mudimbe’s novel Le Bel Immonde [1973], both authors display literary ingenuity in posing and describing, with powerful prose, the drama of the duality of African intellectuality in a context predominated by African traditions, politics, rebellions, and underdevelopment.”

While non-fiction is factual, argumentative and analytical, Katulondi believed that fiction was more powerful as it drew the reader in with the action and narration.

He looks forward to sharing his latest release with the world. “Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 Level 4 lockdown restrictions, the event had been postponed to a date to be determined. At this stage we are marketing the book online.”

Katulondi’s US Marines in the Congo-Beni War is available on Amazon.

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