Kama Sywor Kamanda
Kamanda Kama Sywor, writer, poet, novelist, essayist, playwright and storyteller was born on November 11, 1952, in Luebo, Democratic Republic of Congo, from father Malaba Kamenga and mother Kony Ngalula.
Nevertheless, he always stays a great leader of opinion in the world and his works are impregnated with his fight for liberty and justice and real democracy in this country.
Living in perpetual exile, this universal writer has gained worldwide notoriety that has seen him travelling constantly for conferences, poetry readings and festivals.
It's a poetry of life, of love, of hope and of the exaltation of values that encourage the blossoming of the individual within a community where harmony depends upon the contribution of each member.
Kamanda has breathed new life back into contemporary poetry and restored its grandeur, thanks to the wealth of his language and mastery of metaphor.
Critics and some of the greatest poets of his time, including Mario Luzi and Léopold Sédar Senghor, have emphasised the power of his verses and the richness of his imagery.
529, entry 150655, Jan. 1990): "The poetic cry of Kamanda touches us and overwhelms us all the more because it is truly poetic.The suffering of uprooted lives and dualisms, the quest for love and hope.
Elegiac poetry where the plaint takes speech as a fertile source, to speak of the dry land, the indifference of the other, the dead end.
But the most heartbreaking cries right through this African tradition take on the warm bright colors of childhood, of a past the exiled poet finds within himself.
His writings reveal him to be a genuine résistant against totalitarian powers, but he also comes to the aid of men and women fighting in silence for their rights or their survival, and that of their children.
He highlights the contradictions of the black people of all continents who both serve exclusively the interests of their tormenters, over those in their own community that struggle for their rights and resist predation, and are victims of racist, ideological and religious issues that overwhelm them.
L'Insondable destin des Hommes expresses a deep and original reflection on bad governance, political violence and economic predation as the main reasons for the migration of African youth condemned to death in the desert and at sea.
The Pharaohs and Queens of ancient Egypt finally have a new literary life and an author who pays them a long-awaited tribute hoped for a thousand times over.
Ramsès II, Candace 1ère, and Toutankhamon are Kama Sywor Kamanda plays that testify to Africa's contribution to universal civilization.
