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Fifi Mukuna (born 1968) is a Congolese
Fifi Mukuna was born in
Portrait de Fifi Mukuna, la première femme caricaturiste du Congo
, ''Africultures'', 2009-12-11 After graduating, Mukuna began contributing political caricatures to various newspapers and magazines including ''Le Palmarès'', ''Le Phare'', and ''Le Grognon'', working closely with popular Congolese artists and graphic designers. Of her work as a caricaturist for ''Le Phare'', she has said, "It was dangerous, but I enjoyed it a lot." Some of this work was published under a pseudonym, and many readers assumed she was a man, which protected her when authorities on one occasion came to the newspaper office to pressure the artists not to draw. She also published comic strips in the journal of the Franco-Congolese Alliance, a Congolese nonprofit association operating in partnership with the Alliance Française in Paris. Mukuna received further training through workshops organized by the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles. In 2001, she contributed to a collection of work by African authors, ''À l'ombre du baobab'', in which she focused on the lives of
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
and caricaturist.
Biography
Fifi Mukuna was born in Kinshasa
Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...
in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1968. Her father was a diplomat. She attended elementary school in Belgium, where her father was assigned, and became a fan of ''Bob et Bobette
''Spike and Suzy'' (British title), ''Willy and Wanda'' (American title) or ''Luke and Lucy'' (in a 2009 film and video game) (Dutch: ''Suske en Wiske'', french: link=no, Bob et Bobette) is a Belgian comics series created by the comics author Wil ...
'', a comic
a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...
series created by Willy Vandersteen. She became interested in drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...
, and on her return to Zaire she studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa in 1989.Christine Avignon,Portrait de Fifi Mukuna, la première femme caricaturiste du Congo
, ''Africultures'', 2009-12-11 After graduating, Mukuna began contributing political caricatures to various newspapers and magazines including ''Le Palmarès'', ''Le Phare'', and ''Le Grognon'', working closely with popular Congolese artists and graphic designers. Of her work as a caricaturist for ''Le Phare'', she has said, "It was dangerous, but I enjoyed it a lot." Some of this work was published under a pseudonym, and many readers assumed she was a man, which protected her when authorities on one occasion came to the newspaper office to pressure the artists not to draw. She also published comic strips in the journal of the Franco-Congolese Alliance, a Congolese nonprofit association operating in partnership with the Alliance Française in Paris. Mukuna received further training through workshops organized by the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles. In 2001, she contributed to a collection of work by African authors, ''À l'ombre du baobab'', in which she focused on the lives of
street children
Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids or street child; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policym ...
.
Concerned about increasing backlash to her caricatures after the government discovered her identity, Mukuna left her country in 2002 and settled in France. She received political refugee
The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another entit ...
status, and her children were able to come live with her in France, but her husband who had stayed behind in Kinshasa died before he was able to join her.
In France, Mukuna resumed her work as a comic book author. She contributed to the third issue of ''Afrobulles'', the publication of the collective of the same name led by another Congolese cartoonist, Alix Fuili, as well as three other collections: ''Une journée dans la vie d'un africain d'Afrique'', ''Là-bas ... Na poto'', and ''New Arrivals''. She also contributed to the Italian magazine ''Linus'', in collaboration with the writer Christophe Ngalle Edimo, and participated in the exhibition ''Matite africane''. She also collaborated with Edimo on an adaptation of a story by Carl Norac on the theme of water and ecology. In 2005 she published the comic ''Si tu me suis autour du monde.''Saâd-Edine Fatmi, ''La bande dessinée africaine : de l’imitation à l’affirmation?'', Université de Mascara, agence universitaire de la Francophonie. She published her first solo graphic novel, ''Kisi le Collier'', in 2013.
Beyond producing her own work, Mukuna teaches, including at the Higher Regional School of Visual Art in Tourcoing. She is also a cultural ambassador for the Alliance Française and the Red Cross.
References