Society and Culture

Dr. Piet Defraeye Published by Sorbonne

A major study by Dr. Piet Defraeye has been published by the University of Sorbonne.

Department of Drama - 25 March 2024

In a first for the Department of Drama, Dr. Piet Defraeye's expansive study, Lumumba en Chine: Une réponse-appropriation politico-culturelle has been published by the University of Sorbonne-affiliated publication Revue d'histoire contemporaine de l'Afrique.

Dr. Defraeye's article, written in French, explores the cultural significance of African influence — specifically in the commemoration of Patrice Lumumba (the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was assassinated in 1961) — on artistic work produced in China in the mid-1960s prior to the Cultural Revolution, and its impact on foreign policy.

Piet was greatly helped in his research by Graduate students in Drama: particularly, Li Zhuohao (PhD candidate), Zhang Minggao (MFA, 2021), and Wu Chee-Hann (MA, 2016).

Congratulations!

The following are a selection of images that were explored in the study:

1. Peking Review 1961 (Jan. 27): A highly charged cartoon in the English-language Peking Review commenting on the United Nation's role in Congo.

2. Peking Review 1961 (March 3): A cartoon commenting on the Lumumba assassination (Jan. 17) and the role of the West in Lumumba's demise.

3. The front page of one of the many translations of the play Battle Drums on the Equator (1965), which was just one of the many productions on the Lumumba assassination that was touring in China in 1965. The cast counted close to 100 people on stage, including musicians, drummers, actors and dancers, most of them performing in black-face/black-skin.

4. Battle Drums on the Equator (Gao Zhemin et al. (1965)), published in comic format by the famous Tianjin Fine Arts Publishing House in Tianjin, south-east of Beijing. "Stand up, all victims of oppression!" The storm of the world revolution is thundering, Congo is awakening! In June of 1960, Congo became independent! Lumumba, the independence leader, served as the prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.