Kubuni. Comics from Africa

The Kubuni. Comics from Africa exhibit is a roadmap built around three focal points and dedicated to the discovery of comics from Sub-Saharan Africa, from the past, the present and the future.

Given that comics from the African continent are the fruits of multiple and very different historical and cultural heritages, is it even possible to speak of “African comics” as a whole? Even the status of comics and their authors varies from one country to the next: while they are considered in some regions to be “illustrated literature” for children, in others they are counted among the works of caricature, when not merged into a whole with caricatures, illustrations, animated cartoons and video games.

While this means that one cannot speak of THE one and indivisible African comic with a homogenous graphic style, esthetic and thematic similarities can be found between different works. French-, English- or Portuguese-language colonial heritages, as well as the influence of manga as a result of the worldwide dissemination of Japanese culture, play an important role in this context. These different external influences, combined with a real return to local cultures and Afrocentric themes, have fostered the creation of comics that show a clear belonging to the continent.

This travelling exhibition is a bilingual adaptation of the exhibit in Angoulême’s Cité de la BD which was curated by Joelle Epée Mandengue (director of the Bilili festival in Brazzaville) and Jean-Philippe Martin (Cité de la BD). This adaptation was coordinated by the Office for Books and Publishing of the Institut français in Germany.