Paul Lomami-Tshibamba was a Congolese journalist and author, acclaimed as "the first giant of Congolese literature".
Life and career
Paul Lomami-Tshibamba was born on 17 July 1914 in Brazzaville, French Congo to father from Kasaï-Occidental and a Ngbandi mother from Ubangi, Belgian Congo. In 1921 he moved to Léopoldville, Belgian Congo to join his father. He studied at the Minor Seminary of Mbata-Kiela, in the Mayumbe in Bas-Congo. Although the school was run by Belgian missionaries who encouraged their pupils to join the priesthood, he did not become a priest. Five years after leaving school he was struck by deafness, an illness from which he never fully recovered despite the good medical care that he received. After various jobs including as a clerk with the "periodical for Christian natives," La Croix du Congo published in Kinshasa and as a typist at the Direction of Aeronautics Works of Kalina, under the central government, he became a journalist with La Voix du Congolais. He published articles critical of Belgian colonization for which he was tortured and imprisoned by the colonial administration. He went into exile in Brazzaville from 1950 to 1959. There he became one of the main forces behind the magazine "Liaison". At the same time he had success as a writer in Leopoldville in the Belgian Congo. Lomani first garnered public attention in 1945 when he published an article in the March/ April edition of La Croix du Congo entitled, "Quella sera notre place dons le monde de demain?" It discussed controversial issues surrounding the social status of évolués and press freedoms in the Congo. Comparing the Belgian Congo to the French Congo and other African colonies, he argued that the colonial administration was not adequately preparing to grant the Congo independence while similar efforts were underway in the other territories. In response to the article, the colonial administration censored Lomami and had him flogged. He sought refuge in the French Congo to avoid criminal prosecution. In 1948 he was awarded in Brussels the first prize at the "Foire coloniale" for his novella Ngando. The work, which in many ways marks the beginning of Congolese national literature in French, depicts traditional beliefs during the colonial period in a story set on the banks of the Congo River. Its themes of alienation and cultural conflict are further developed in his subsequent works. Lomami-Tshibamba returned to Congo-Zaire after independence and held several government posts. In 1962 he started a newspaper, Le Progrès, later known as Salongo. He published further stories and novellas.
