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Africa, China, and the Global South Novel: In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc.

Africa, China, and the Global South Novel: In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc. The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) presence in Africa has fundamentally changed globalization patterns. Most scholarship interrogates whether the Chinese presence is either a “new colonialism” or a “win-win” for development by focusing on economic or social scientific factors. In contrast, this article examines China as a trope in Congo Inc. (2014) by In Koli Jean Bofane. Congo Inc. is one of the first African novels to take the Africa-China relationship as central theme, depicting how Congolese actors negotiate the PRC’s presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The article examines the unexpected partnership of a trickster, Isookanga, and a stranded Chinese national, Zhang Xia, analyzing their partnership according to the relationship between time and globalization. The argument uses the concept of the postcolony’s durées to demonstrate how the narrative creates a global South temporality, which differentiates Africa-China patterns of globalization from previous instantiations. These durées include Isookanga’s digital consciousness enabled by a PRC-built cell tower; allusions to Chinese history; and Isookanga and Zhang Xia’s collaboration on Eau Pire Suisse. In sum Congo Inc.’s innovative temporality, embodied by the term mondialiste, signals a shift in type of postcolonial narrative toward the global South novel. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

Africa, China, and the Global South Novel: In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc.

Yoon, Duncan M.
Comparative Literature , Volume 72 (3) – Sep 1, 2020
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24 pages

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Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-8255350
Publisher site
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Abstract

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) presence in Africa has fundamentally changed globalization patterns. Most scholarship interrogates whether the Chinese presence is either a “new colonialism” or a “win-win” for development by focusing on economic or social scientific factors. In contrast, this article examines China as a trope in Congo Inc. (2014) by In Koli Jean Bofane. Congo Inc. is one of the first African novels to take the Africa-China relationship as central theme, depicting how Congolese actors negotiate the PRC’s presence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The article examines the unexpected partnership of a trickster, Isookanga, and a stranded Chinese national, Zhang Xia, analyzing their partnership according to the relationship between time and globalization. The argument uses the concept of the postcolony’s durées to demonstrate how the narrative creates a global South temporality, which differentiates Africa-China patterns of globalization from previous instantiations. These durées include Isookanga’s digital consciousness enabled by a PRC-built cell tower; allusions to Chinese history; and Isookanga and Zhang Xia’s collaboration on Eau Pire Suisse. In sum Congo Inc.’s innovative temporality, embodied by the term mondialiste, signals a shift in type of postcolonial narrative toward the global South novel.

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2020

References

  • C’est un Pygmée qui figure la grande Afrique
    Bofane, In Koli Jean Steinmetz, Muriel
  • Genres of the Global South: The Picaresque
    Elze, Jens West-Pavlov, Russell
  • Temporality and Postcolonial Critique
    Ganguly, Keya Lazarus, Neil
  • When Was ‘the Postcolonial’? Thinking at the Limit
    Hall, Stuart Chambers, Iain Curti, Lidia
  • Periodizing the ’60s
    Jameson, Fredric
  • Introduction: The (Post)Global South
    López, Alfred J.
  • American Imperialism Is Closely Surrounded by the Peoples of the World
    Mao, Zedong Cheek, Timothy
  • Uneasy Returns: The Literary Turn to the South
    Murthy, Pashmina West-Pavlov, Russell
  • L’altermondialisme, version moderne de l’anticapitalisme?
    Plihon, Dominique
  • Marxism and the Political Legacy of Mao Tse-Tung
    Starr, John Bryan
  • Gondwana from Top to Base in Space and Time
    Torsvik, Trond H. Cocks, L. R. M.
  • Breaking Discipline, Integrating Literature: Africa-China Relationships Reconsidered
    Thornber, Karen L.
  • A Literary Approach to Afro-Sino Relations: Ufrieda Ho’s Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing Up Chinese in South Africa and Ken N. Kamoche’s Black Ghosts
    Vasser, U. P.
  • Participatory Cultures and Biopolitics in the Global South in In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc.
    West-Pavlov, Russell
  • Toward the Global South: Concept or Chimera, Paradigm or Panacea?
    West-Pavlov, Russell West-Pavlov, Russell
  • C’est un Pygmée qui figure la grande Afrique
    Bofane, In Koli Jean Steinmetz, Muriel
  • Genres of the Global South: The Picaresque
    Elze, Jens West-Pavlov, Russell
  • Temporality and Postcolonial Critique
    Ganguly, Keya Lazarus, Neil
  • When Was ‘the Postcolonial’? Thinking at the Limit
    Hall, Stuart Chambers, Iain Curti, Lidia
  • Periodizing the ’60s
    Jameson, Fredric
  • Introduction: The (Post)Global South
    López, Alfred J.
  • American Imperialism Is Closely Surrounded by the Peoples of the World
    Mao, Zedong Cheek, Timothy
  • Uneasy Returns: The Literary Turn to the South
    Murthy, Pashmina West-Pavlov, Russell
  • L’altermondialisme, version moderne de l’anticapitalisme?
    Plihon, Dominique
  • Marxism and the Political Legacy of Mao Tse-Tung
    Starr, John Bryan
  • Gondwana from Top to Base in Space and Time
    Torsvik, Trond H. Cocks, L. R. M.
  • Breaking Discipline, Integrating Literature: Africa-China Relationships Reconsidered
    Thornber, Karen L.
  • A Literary Approach to Afro-Sino Relations: Ufrieda Ho’s Paper Sons and Daughters: Growing Up Chinese in South Africa and Ken N. Kamoche’s Black Ghosts
    Vasser, U. P.
  • Participatory Cultures and Biopolitics in the Global South in In Koli Jean Bofane’s Congo Inc.
    West-Pavlov, Russell
  • Toward the Global South: Concept or Chimera, Paradigm or Panacea?
    West-Pavlov, Russell West-Pavlov, Russell