Charles-Didier Gondola: Matswa vivant

To follow in Matswa's footsteps between the wars is to gain insight into the itinerary of an actor who was both mysterious and little-known, yet essential if we are to grasp the contours of the rebellion against the colonial order that took shape in the four corners of France from the 1920s onwards. The author guides the reader through the complex landscape of the anti-colonial struggle, from the cafés of the Ville-Lumière to the Quatre Communes côtières of Senegal, the rebel villages of the Moyen-Congo and the detention camps of the Chadian Sahel. His career as a militant is matched by a posthumous destiny that occupies a disproportionate place in the collective imagination of the Congolese people. It is a life created from scratch, a life of legend in which Matswa appears dressed in Promethean garb. This biography of Matswa sets out to distinguish between the world of beliefs and the world of knowledge, drawing on a plethora of sources.