Célestin Désiré Niama

The Problem of the Independence Concept in The Woodcutter Célestin Désiré Niama

Franklin Boukaka was a committed Congolese musical artist. In 1970, he released an album entitled Le Bûcheron (The Woodcutter), in which he sings of the distress of Africa, a mistreated continent in which one cannot raise one's head at the risk of being felled like a tree by woodcutters dressed in presidential costume. On this laudatory album, Le Bûcheron, he denounces the iniquities raging in Africa after independence. He calls on Africans to become aware of this, while at the same time demanding that everyone be mobilised for the full independence of African nations. His political reflections were equal to the debate. He sang of Africa's unconditional freedom and forcefully illustrated the pan-Africanists who marked their presence on the political scene throughout the world. This album, with its nationalist and pan-Africanist content, calls on leaders to become aware of the precarious situation on the continent. Franklin Boukaka is thus the voice of the voiceless, such is the formula of Aimé Césaire in Cahier d'un retour au pays natal. This is what we have endeavoured to demonstrate in this brief.