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Chérie Rivers Ndaliko. 2016. Necessary Noise: Music, Film, and Charitable Imperialism in the East of Congo. New York: Oxford University Press. Xiv + 285 pp.
From the initial colonization in the 19th century of what became the Democratic Republic of Congo, proponents of Western interventions have turned to humanitarian concerns to justify their actions. US and European foreign aid propped up Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorship from 1965 until the early 1990s. Particularly in eastern DRC, international development organizations have gained tremendous influence since the civil wars of the 1990s. Necessary Noise is a vital work that celebrates how Congolese artists and musicians have voiced their concerns about their society, even as development and humanitarian organizations have sought to harness and control Congolese performers. Rivers Ndaliko points out the political value of utopian visions within Congolese contemporary art and music.
This study concentrates on Yole!Africa, an artistic collective that formed as part of a growing movement of young artists in the eastern Congolese city of Goma in the late 1990s, just as the DRC was becoming embroiled in civil war. Petna Ndaliko, a youth leader and aspiring filmmaker from Goma, formed Yole!Africa while living in Uganda as a refugee. Though Petna himself was not at...