Emmanuel Dongala at LEAF Academy
Meet Emmanuel Dongala, our visiting professor and professor emeritus at Bard College. Emmanuel is also an author whose books have been translated into over a dozen languages.
Popis
Meet Emmanuel Dongala, our visiting professor and professor emeritus at Bard College. Emmanuel is also an author whose books have been translated into over a dozen languages, and we are organizing a special event with him on Thursday, May 15, at the Academy. You are welcome to bring a guest, too. Please register here: https://forms.gle/Z8E48nR7mzUf6b2N6
O autorovi
Emmanuel Boundzéki Dongala was born in 1941 in what was then a French colony — the Republic of Congo. In 1997, when war broke out in Congo, he was serving as the Dean at Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville, the capital of Congo.
Later, Dongala moved to the United States, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Oberlin College and a master’s degree from Rutgers University. He then pursued a PhD in chemistry at the University of Montpellier in France. After completing his studies, he returned to Congo to teach polymer chemistry at Marien Ngouabi University.
He held the prestigious Richard B. Fisher Professorship in Natural Sciences at Bard College at Simon's Rock until 2014.
Dongala is the author of numerous award-winning books, including Johnny Mad Dog (adapted into a film: http://www.csfd.cz/film/260844-johnny-mad-dog/) and Little Boys Come from the Stars. His works often highlight the harsh conditions in which children grow up and how societal attitudes are reflected in their behavior.
His writing is featured in the Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, and he is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship. The film adaptation of Johnny Mad Dog — a French-Liberian production released in 2008 — was directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire and starred Christopher Minie, Daisy Victoria Vandy, Dagbeh Tweh, Barry Chernoh, Mohammed Sesay, and Joseph Duo.
He won the Grand Prix Littéraire de l'Afrique Noire in 1988 for his novel Le Feu des origines, which also earned him the Charles Oulmont Prize from the Fondation de France the same year.For his book Les Petits Garçons naissent aussi des étoiles (Little Boys Come from the Stars), he received the Prix RFI-Témoin du Monde in 1998.