Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow

Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow

Didier Gondola is a Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, USA. He earned his Ph.D. from Université Paris VII, France. His scholarly work spans popular cultures, masculinities, and the African Diaspora, with a specific focus on the 20th century and the socio-cultural impacts of Chinese commodities in urban Africa. His extensive research engages with youth cultures, interstitial groups, and postcolonial identities, with publications that highlight his interdisciplinary approach to African studies. 

Gondola is the author of several influential works, including Matswa vivant: Anticolonialisme et citoyenneté en Afrique-Équatoriale française (Éditions de la Sorbonne, 2021), a comprehensive biography of Congolese anticolonial activist André Grenard Matswa, and Tropical Cowboys: Youth Gangs, Violence, and Masculinities in Colonial Kinshasa (2016), which explores how Hollywood westerns shaped local expressions of masculinity in mid-20th century Kinshasa. His earlier works include Africanisme: La crise d’une illusion (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2007), where he critically examines African studies in France and its ties to "Françafrique."

In addition to his monographs, Gondola has co-edited Frenchness and the African Diaspora: Identity and Uprising in Contemporary France (Indiana University Press, 2009) and continues to contribute to the global conversation on African and diasporic studies. His ongoing research includes co-editing a trilingual volume on the provenance and restitution of Central African art and cultural heritage.

Gondola is a recipient of the Ali Mazrui Senior Fellowship in Global African Studies at The Africa Institute (GSU). During his residency, he is developing three articles on gender ventriloquism in Congolese rumba lyrics, the objects of China Africa, and the intersection of public transportation, sociality, and religious discourse in Kinshasa.

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