Mediating Africa Today Through the Cinema of Yole!Africa A Conversation Between Matthias De Groof and Petna Ndaliko Katondolo

This conversation pursues the question of how Africa can be mediated. Through a discussion between the filmmakers Matthias De Groof and Petna Ndaliko Katondolo about their respective works produced at Yolé!Africa—Ndaliko Katondolo’s films Mahere (2023) and Kapita (2017) on the one hand, and De Groof’s film Tantalum (produced by Ndaliko Katondolo, 2024) on the other—a light will be shed on the importance of media-geology and geo-mythology in relation to the ways in which Africa is mediated. YoléAfrica is an educational center located in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, which serves as an empowering hub for film activism, as well as provides a platform for community development through its arts education and agro-liberation initiatives (it houses Yolé!Ekolojia). The center organizes the annual Ishango Encounter, an international film festival, and otherwise gathers Congolese activists and filmmakers to create awareness and healing through film.