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Sony Labou Tansi
Biography
Sony Labou Tansi was born in 1947 in Kimwanza in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where his father was from) as Marcel Sony. His family move to the Republic of Congo (where his mother was from) when he was still a child. He studied in what was then the French Congo and later at Brazzaville. In 1971 he became a teacher of English and French. In 1979 Labou Tansi founded the Rocardo Zulu Theatre and published his first novel – La Vie et demie (Life and a Half). He wrote several plays for the theatre and his theatrical group toured Europe on several occasions. He became involved in the political life of the Republic of Congo, joining the Mouvement Congolais pour le Développement de la Démocratie Intégrale which opposed the Congolese single party system. In 1992 he was elected a parliamentary representative. However, in 1992, his passport was withdrawn because of his political activities. He contracted AIDS but was unable to travel abroad to obtain the medical assistance he needed, dying in 1995, two weeks after his partner, Pierrette. His novels are bitter satires on the political situation in both Congos and incorporate elements of magic realism, the baroque and the fantastic.
Books about Sony Labou Tansi
Celine Gahungu : Sony Labou Tansi, la naissance d’un écrivain (in French)
Other links
Sony Labou Tansi
Obituary
Sony Labou Tansi
Sony Labou Tansi
Sony Labou Tansi: The Artist The System Could Not Hold Back
Sony Labou Tansi (in French)
Sony Labou Tansi (in French)
Sony Labou Tansi (in French)
Labou Tansi, Sony. – L’Atelier de Sony Labou Tansi (in French)
Hommage à Sony Labou Tansi (in French)
L’écrivain congolais Sony Labou Tansi a-t-il eu un «nègre»? (in French)
Interview (in French)
Bibliography
1971 Le Bombardé (drama)
1972 Le Ventre (drama)
1973 Conscience de tracteur(drama)
1979 La Coutume d’être fou (drama)
1979 La Vie et demie (Life and a Half)
1981 La parenthèse de sang (Parentheses of Blood) (drama)
1981 L’état honteux (The Shameful State) (novel)
1981 Je soussigné cardiaque (drama)
1983 L’anté-peuple (The Antipeople) (novel)
1985 Les Sept solitudes de Lorsa Lopez (The Seven Solitudes of Lorsa Lopez)
1985 Cinq ans de littératures africaines: 1979-1984 (literature)
1986 Un citoyen de ce siècle
1986 Antoine m’a vendu son destin (drama)
1987 Moi, veuve de l’empire (drama)
1988 Le coup de vieux (drama)
1988 Les Yeux du volcan (novel)
1989 Qui a mangé Madame d’Avoine Bergotha? (drama)
1990 La résurrection rouge et blanche de Roméo et Juliette (drama)
1990 Monologues d’or et noces d’argent pour douze personnages (drama
1990 Le banquet rêvé (drama))
1992 Une chouette petite vie bien osée (drama)
1992 Une vie en arbre et chars…bons (drama)
1995 Poèmes et vents lisses (poetry)
1995 Qu’ils le disent, qu’elles le beuglent (drama)
1995 Théâtre
1995 Le commencement des douleurs (novel)
1997 L’autre monde : écrits inédits
1997 Antoine m’a vendu son destin (drama)
2005 La Rue des mouches(drama)
2005 Paroles inédites (drama)
2005 L’atelier de Sony Labou Tansi. Volume 1, Correspondance cCorrespondance)
2005 L’atelier de Sony Labou Tansi. Volume 2, Poésie (poetry)
2005 L’atelier de Sony Labou Tansi. Volume 3, Roman (novel)
2005 Machin la Hernie (novel)
2014 Qu’ils le disent, qu’elles le beuglent (drama)
2015 Encre, sueur, salive et sang (selected works)
2015 Une vie en arbre et chars… bonds (drama)
2015 Poèmes