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028 52 1139727|bKanopy
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245 00 Pieces D'Identites (Pieces of Identity).
264 1 [San Francisco, California, USA] :|bKanopy Streaming,
|c2015.
300 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 93 min.) :
|bdigital, .flv file, sound
336 two-dimensional moving image|btdi|2rdacontent
337 computer|bc|2rdamedia
338 online resource|bcr|2rdacarrier
344 digital
347 video file|bMPEG-4|bFlash
500 Title from title frames.
518 Originally produced by California Newsreel in 1998.
520 The fable of an old African king and his wayward daughter
is updated to present day Brussels to make provocative
points about racism, tradition, class struggle, cultural
identity and corruption. More than a decade ago Mweze
Ngangura delighted the cinema world with one of the most
accessible and entertaining African films ever made, La
vie est belle, the rags to riches story of a Congolese
musician played by soukous super star Papa Wemba. Now he
returns with a modern fairy tale set in the vibrant
African emigré demi-monde of contemporary Europe. It was
the winner of the most prestigious award in African cinema
the Etalon de Yennenga at FESPACO '99. At first glance
Pièces d'Identités is the timeless story of an old king,
his beautiful if wayward daughter, a dragon of sorts and
the prince charming who rescues them; it even has a happy
ending. At the same time, Ngangura's simple fable raises
some of the most troubling issues of identity facing
people of African descent in the ever-widening Diaspora of
the late 20th century. Mani Kongo, the venerable king of
the Bakongo, sets out alone on a quest for his long-lost
daughter, Mwana, whom he sent to Belgium to study medicine
many years before. As soon as he leaves his village and
enters the Westernized world he finds his identity
challenged. At the travel agency in Kinshasa, young urban
trend-setters mistake the king's royal fetishes as the
latest fashion statement while customs officials try to
confiscate them as imported art objects. Eventually,
robbed, homeless and penniless, Mani Kongo is tricked into
pawning his royal regalia, literally his "pieces of
identity," to an unscrupulous art dealer. (Ironically the
authentic headdress used in the film had to be borrowed
from a Belgian antique shop.) The villain of this tale
will be Europe itself, an economic and cultural dragon
grasping Africa's children, art and spiritual vitality.
Europe is represented by a group of recrudescent white
mercenaries and freebooters who meet at the Katanga Bar to
reminisce about the good old days of colonial
exploitation. Their leader Jefke, a former colonial
administrator in the Bakongo district, now a police
commissioner, continues to harass Africans politically and
sexually in Matongue, the Congolese district of Brussels.
The film is unflinching in showing the daily indignities
Africans face at the hands of racist police and ordinary
citizens. But it is also nuanced enough to show some
decent white people in the working class boarding house
where Mani Kongo finally finds refuge. If Mani Kongo,
symbolizing Africa itself, is ever to recover his ID he
must first free himself from that uncritical trust of the
West which led him to send his daughter there in the first
place. The old king continually contrasts his fond
recollections of participating in a delegation of
Congolese notables to the Belgium king in 1958 with the
shabby treatment he receives there now. Ngangura cleverly
represents Mani Kongo's memories of Belgium through '50s
newsreel footage so that the only non-fiction footage in
the film is actually shown to be propaganda or at least as
misleading. While Mani Kongo has only temporarily lost his
ID, the younger generation in the film finds itself adrift
in Europe without ever having had one. Mwana (aka Amanda)
has just been released from jail for drug-running and is
forced to take a job in a strip club where Africans act
out Europeans' lurid fantasies of the other. She was
seduced and is still pursued by a small-time, designer-
clad hustler or sapeur, Viva wa Viva, whose motto is "the
brand makes the man." Mwana's eventual rescuer, Chaka-Jo
is a mulatto cabdriver, trapped between white and black,
the son of an unknown Belgian father abducted from his
Congolese mother and placed in a Belgian orphanage. In his
frustration, he holds up white bars like a Robin Hood
dressed as a Congolese warrior proclaiming himself the
"Savior of Humanity." He is played by Jean-Louis Daulne,
composer of the film's infectious soundtrack which
includes a cameo by Papa Wemba. All these young African
characters share a confusion about identity reflected in
the fact that each has invented or been given additional
names. This generation is symbolized by a young woman who
appears to Mani Kongo in the midst of his despair, not so
much a character as an apparition. She tells him her name
is Noubia and she was born in Belgium though her heart is
in Africa and she represents an African Renaissance. She
shows Mani Kongo what Europe really does to Africans by
taking him to the forgotten graves of Congolese brought to
Belgium a century ago to amuse the King. She raps (an
urban idiom with African roots) about her need for the
"true African vibration," and she sees Mani Kongo as a
"messenger" calling not just Mwana but all of Africa's
prodigal children back to their father's house. Ngangura
seems to be suggesting here that an African Renaissance
could be catalyzed through the return of educated young
Africans, disillusioned with the West yet equipped with
modern skills, who would rebuild the continent. Indeed, it
is primarily through the know-how and daring of Chaka-Jo
that Mani Kongo, representing traditional Africa, survives
his stay in Brussels, recovers his regalia and is reunited
with his daughter. In return Chaka-Jo avoids becoming the
stereotype of the "tragic mulatto" by discovering in Mani
Kongo a friend, a father figure, a new identity and a
concrete mission for himself in Africa. As the film draws
to a close, Ngangura ingeniously ties together his
colorful cast or characters through a series of outlandish
coincidences. These coincidences do not reflect blind
chance or narrative desperation, but, as in any myth, an
ineluctable underlying moral force restoring the
characters to their proper identities. This gravity is
Africa, an invisible actor throughout the film drawing the
characters back to itself - and themselves - from the
powerful centrifugal forces of the West. As director
Ngangura has said: "I am a modern African. But I still
believe in my culture and my ancestors. So I am very
interested in making popular African films." Africanists
might feel compelled to note that the Africa represented
in Pièces d'Identités is more an ideal than a reality, a
place of purely constructive traditions and supportive,
welcoming communities. (The film does genuflect in the
direction of feminism by suggesting these traditions might
need to be broadened to include women.) The path toward
development is presented as clear; the characters
unhesitatingly leave a decadent Europe to set up their
self-reliant clinic in the village. The disagreeable truth
is that in many places like the Congo young Africans are
fleeing brutal civil wars and economic collapse not
returning to their countries. Although critics might label
Pièces d'Identités as "escapist" entertainment, we might
ask why Africans should have to see only "militant"
political films? More importantly, can't "escapist" films
hold open the possibility of escape from seemingly
intractable social realities by imagining a more hopeful
vision of Africa's future? "A multi-cultural romp which
has already proved an audience favorite...Rich in multi-
level meaning; flawlessly navigating provocative points
about racism, tradition, class struggle, cultural identity
and corruption without sacrificing entertainment value." -
Variety. "A dash of gentle Congolese / Belgian charisma,
part comedy, drama, thriller and romance." - Los Angeles
Times.
538 Mode of access: World Wide Web.
650 0 Kongo (African people)|zAfrica|xKings and rulers|vDrama.
650 0 Fathers and daughters|zAfrica|zCongo|vDrama.
655 7 Feature films.|2lcgft
700 1 Ngangura, Mweze |d1950-.,|efilm director.
710 2 Kanopy (Firm)
914 kan1139727
