Axes of Hope: Flights of Fancy in Recent Work on Urban Congo

Abstract

This article explores the question of hope in dystopian urban spaces as represented in recent work from the Democratic Republic of the Congo by developing the concept of ‘the hole’ used by Congolese people to comment upon the quality of their lives. The more literal reading of ‘le trou’ in Sinzo Aanza’s 2015 novel Généalogie d’une banalité, set in the mining community of Lubumbashi, is compared to the vertical aspiration of ‘la tour’ in The Tower, a 2016 film by Sammy Baloji and Filip De Boeck, set in Kinshasa. The two works, representing a unique landmark and the excesses of extractive economies, provide the opportunity to reflect on fanciful ventures that, despite the material conditions that thwart dreams of a better life, have not foreclosed all spaces of hope.