{"id":2401,"date":"2026-07-13T12:31:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T11:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=2401"},"modified":"2026-07-17T13:45:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T12:45:23","slug":"meet-the-author-of-la-danse-du-vilain-event-and-book-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=2401","title":{"rendered":"Meet the author of \u2018La Danse du Vilain\u2019 – Event and book report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet the author of La Danse du Vilain<\/em>: Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Roland Glasser at the Institut Fran\u00e7ais d\u2019\u00c9cosse<\/p>\n

Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Roland Glasser were at the Institut Fran\u00e7ais in Edinburgh in May to talk about Mujila\u2019s book, La Danse du Vilain<\/em>, translated by Roland Glasser as The Villain\u2019s Dance<\/em>. It is Mujila\u2019s second novel and, like his first, Tram 83<\/em>, published in 2014 and also translated by Glasser, it has won prizes in both French and English.<\/p>\n

La Danse du Vilain<\/em> is not a book you\u2019d want to summarise. It is multi-layered, complex and, like its author, prone to go off at a tangent at any moment. It is set in 1990s Angola and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) and features a cast of diamond miners, street children, spies, and an Austrian writer (Mujila now lives in Austria, where he teaches African literature at the University of Graz). The book begins with Tshiamuena, \u2018surnomm\u00e9e \u00e0 juste titre et \u00e0 titre posthume \u2013 la Madone des mines de Cafunfu\u2019, a storyteller, a witch and much more. \u2018Elle n\u2019\u00e9tait pas la m\u00e9moire d\u2019Angola. Elle \u00e9tait l\u2019Angola. L\u2019Angola des mines, de l\u2019argent, des diamants, des \u00e9boulements, de la rivi\u00e8re diamantif\u00e8re de Kwango\u2019.<\/p>\n

As these extracts suggest, Mujila\u2019s language is flamboyant, baroque and poetic. Asked whether he uses different language for novels and poetry, he said no: it\u2019s like cooking utensils \u2013 you reach for the ones you know. But poetry is the source. He also says he uses French as he uses his saxophone, for the rhythm and sound, to create an atmosphere. And music is a catalyst for his writing. When not writing or teaching, he is also a jazz musician.<\/p>\n

The discussion touches on politics \u2013 jazz as a form of subversion, used by the anti-apartheid movement and banned in Nazi Germany; references to other literature \u2013 Tshiamuena is a Mother Courage figure while the mines, of course, recall Zola \u2013 and different concepts of time. Typically, Mujila rounds off a riff on multiple eras \u2013 occupation, colonial, pre-colonial \u2013 with an anecdote about the difference between expectations of the punctuality of trains in Austria, where even a few minutes delay is a source of criticism, and African time where a train may be hours or a day late, or simply never arrive. And how that underpins the resilience shown by his characters.<\/p>\n

Mujila draws deeply on personal experience. He uses notebooks, which, he says, water memory like a garden. Like his characters, he is a migrant. His family are traders (diamond mining exists because of trade) and miners: they did not recognise that he has a proper job until he started to win prizes. Men\u2019s lives where he comes from are focused on the mine, home, football and the bar.<\/p>\n

All of this creates major challenges for a translator. When asked about his approach to the work, Glasser said that he sees it rather like an archaeological excavation. It\u2019s hard work. And joyful. Asking lots of questions is his key to a good translation. At first, Mujila was puzzled by this approach, not seeing the point, but over time, the essential relationship of trust developed. Mujila says that the process of translation changes his relationship to the book: \u2018it\u2019s both my work and not mine\u2019.<\/p>\n

So, not necessarily an easy read, in French or English. But worth the effort!<\/p>\n

By Jo Durning<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet the author of La Danse du Vilain: Fiston Mwanza Mujila and Roland Glasser at the Institut Fran\u00e7ais d\u2019\u00c9cosse Fiston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2428,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2401\/revisions\/2428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}