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Congolese writer, Andréa Ngombet, founded the Sassoufit Collective to document human rights violations in the Republic of the Congo: ‘It started as a mobilization against President Sassou Nguesso’s 2015 constitutional change and then evolved into a support structure for local voices.
Congolese writer and author of ‘Africa’s Opportunity in the Trumpian Age of American Transactionalism’, Andréa Ngombet, founded the Sassoufit Collective to document human rights violations in the Republic of the Congo: ‘It started as a mobilization against President Sassou Nguesso’s 2015 constitutional change and then evolved into a support structure for local voices. This vocation also aligns with my historian training: to produce, document and archive so that future generations know we resisted and that another Congo was possible.’
First Draft is our interview column, featuring authors and other prominent figures on books, reading, and writing.
Our questions are italicized.
What books or kinds of books did you read growing up?
The first book I read was the Encyclopædia Universalis in 30 volumes. I flipped through that massive collection throughout my childhood, until the Republic of the Congo Civil Wars of 1993 and 1997 scattered our family library. I cannot really say I read like a normal child. I was passionate about maps and globes. Occasionally, I read comics at the French Cultural Centre in Brazzaville. But mostly, I browsed through my father’s esoteric books, image-less Shakespeare, the Quran and the Bible. It was not a parental expectation. I was the third child, with two older brothers, and I was a somewhat invisible, feral child.
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About the Author
Andrea Ngombet is a civil society leader and founder of the Sassoufit Collective, which advocates for democracy and the rule of law in the Republic of the Congo. He is a member of the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal and has been recognized as both a Reagan-Fascell Fellow and a Stanford Draper Hill Fellow. He is a finalist for the 2025 Allard Prize for International Integrity, honoring his work against corruption. Ngombet holds a bachelor's degree in history from Sorbonne Paris IV University and has written various works, including a book on how China facilitates Congo-Brazzaville's kleptocratic regime.
Nigerian novelist, poet and author of Graceland, Chris Abani, does not believe ‘Nigerian literature’ exists as a category: ‘It is a common misconception that there is a fixed category that can be read as essentially “Nigerian literature”. Nigeria has 500 nations, 500 languages and about 2,000 dialects. While culture and language can overlap, the level of diversity is such that Nigerian literature cannot be easily narrowed down.’
For the co-founder and publishing director, of Cassava Republic Press, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, it is telling that African literature is often pronounced dead in recent years, when more women and queer voices are becoming more prominent: ‘The loudest obituary writers about African literature tend to be men. These elegies seem to come from a tacit sense of personal or generational displacement rather than from the actual state of the field.’
Nigerian poet, novelist and author of Madame Sosostris and the Festival for the Broken-Hearted, Ben Okri, argues that Nigerian literature doesn’t always have to be about Nigeria: ‘Nigerian literature limits itself to Nigeria and then limits even the ways in which the country can be written about. What we want is a vast literature, a great literature…that speaks to all humanity.’
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