UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview #1348
SONGOLO, ALIKO

SONGOLO, Aliko (1945-)
Professor of African Languages and Literature
At UW: 1991-

Interviewed: 	2013 (1 session)
Interviewer: 	Crawford Young
Index by: 	Stephen A. Pierce
Length: 	1 hour, 20 minutes

Abstract: In his July 2013 interview with Crawford Young, Aliko Songolo details his academic journey from his father’s dream of him becoming a doctor during his childhood in eastern Congo to his prominence as a scholar of Francophone African literature at the UW-Madison from the 1990s to the late early 2010s. Songolo explains the formative influence of his multilingual upbringing, political conflict in Congo, and the experience of education in rural America.  He also chronicles his efforts to teach in Africa and his ultimate move to study Francophone literature, in particular the work of Aimé Césaire.  This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.

Key Words: Democratic Republic of Congo; World War II; Bujumbura, Burundi; Patrice Lumumba; Joseph Kasa-Vubu; Pierre Mulele rebellion; Goshen College; University of Iowa; Francophone African literature; Aimé Césaire; University of California-Irvine; University of Wisconsin-Madison; African Studies Program; African Languages and Literature; Caroline “Biddy” Martin; African Studies Association (ASA); African Literature Association (ALA); family; Partnership for Congo-basin Forests.

First Interview Session (July 25, 2013): Digital File

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:14	Question: Early influences? Answer: Songolo, having been born into an eastern Congolese family with not many opportunities, was early taught to type at the behest of his father. He talked about his father’s deep belief in education, having taught himself to read and write French, and wanting Songolo to become either a doctor or a director. Songolo felt fortunate to have survived WWII.

00:04:46	[no question] He explained the political situation at the time of his birth, when the borders between Congo, Rwanda and Burundi didn’t exist. Thus while he was born in Uvira in what is now Congo, by his youth they were living in Burundi.

00:05:14	Question: You grew up knowing several languages? Answer: Yes; he said that the first language he learned was Swahili, which was a lingua franca for people in the cities of different ethnicities.  He learned French later in school, but learned several languages simultaneously “without thinking about it.” He also noted that his father didn’t want him to learn his ethnic language, Ibembe.

00:07:23	Question: Other role models? Answer: He said that while his mother was an important influence, it was of a different kind, emphasizing community. His uncle was also influential when his father died, while Songolo was in HS.

00:09:40	Question: Talk about coming of age during the independence period in Congo. Answer: He remembered hearing a lot about Lumumba and Kasa-Vubu, who visited the Congolese communities living in Burundi while his family was there. Thus when Lumumba was assassinated, HS students staged demonstrations. 

00:11:52	Question: The second phase of political rebellion? Answer: Songolo felt fortunate not to have experienced the violence that swept Congo from 1963 to1965, because he left in 1963 just before the Mulele rebellion and the invasion of Bukavu. With his whole family having fled Congo, he was then unable to return after a year of exchange study. His host family made it possible for him to come back to the US for another year, and he was finally able to make contact with his family. He recalled the shock with which he heard the stories of the horrors of those years when he returned in 1969.

00:14:52	Question: Exchange study? Answer: Songolo talked about the International Christian Youth Exchange program that had brought him to a rural Iowa farm from 1962-1964. He explained its origin and aim to foster international understanding. 

00:16:14	Follow up: Culture shock? Answer: He quipped about arriving in mid-July to 90 degree temperatures, more severe than weather in Congo, and being picked up in the largest car he’d ever seen. He related other anecdotes about his amazement at American life—going to a tractor pull and softball game, blue jeans, etc.

00:20:24	Question: Why did you choose Goshen College? Answer: He said he didn’t consider one of the Congolese universities because, having attended Belgian HS, he expected to go to Belgium for university, and then when he finished HS conflict was underway in Congo. He explained why he “finally” ended up at Goshen after going to junior college in Kansas where his host family had contacts. He also enjoyed playing soccer at these two schools.

00:22:45	[no question] He reminisced about how his father’s dream of him becoming a doctor died due to the mistaken assumption by his advisors at Hesston College that his difficulty with scientific English was a general difficulty with science or English. But he easily transitioned into literature, and began considering getting a PhD in Romance philology, partly because his Belgian teachers in Congo had studied this field.

00:26:23	Question: Were you thinking about staying in the US permanently? Answer: No; he didn’t finally reconcile with staying until he got tenure at UW—it was always that at the “next step” he would go home. He explained how he decided to go to graduate school if someone supported him financially, hence he went to Iowa, which offered him a TAship in French.

00:28:18	Question: Did you consider that the 1960s might be a time of unusual opportunity for you as a university graduate in Congo? Answer: No; partly because he didn’t have the Kinshasa connections it would take. But he did go back in 1969 after his MA from Iowa, and was offered two jobs, but these were rescinded and he was left at a crossroads.

00:31:44	[no question] This crossroads led him to Tanzania, where he’d been offered a job at a new private school in Bukoba and submitted an application at the University of East Africa. But when Nyerere nationalized all schools in Tanzania, and after a short stint at Ukulima wa Kisasa and being labeled “a security risk” he was forced to live on a laborer’s wage in Dar es Salaam for several months. Finally, he observed, in a “stroke of luck” he met an American who encouraged him to return to Iowa for a PhD, which he’d need to teach. 

00:37:10	Question: Mentors at Iowa? Answer: Songolo cited a French professor who wasn’t a great scholar but a spellbinding teacher. He then discussed why he’d moved into French studies rather than Romance philology when the Romance languages dept split into two departments—French, he thought, would lead him back to Africa. 

00:39:31	[no question] He thus pursued Francophone African literature, but through the “normal path” of learning all Francophone literature. This to the point that while he initially wanted to write his dissertation on Sembene Ousmane, he was forced to change to Aimé Césaire when no one could advise a dissertation on an African writer.

00:41:34	Question: Talk about going to UC-Irvine. Answer: He attributed this job to good luck; having seen some fellow graduate students struggle getting jobs, he decided to start applying as soon as he started writing his dissertation. Through a UC-Irvine contact he’d met through Swahili teaching, he learned about the job, interviewed (in a very relaxed way) and got a job offer partly due to a competing offer from CSU.

00:46:11	Question: Administration at UC-Irvine? Answer: He said that as part of his university service, he’d been appointed to head up efforts to encourage diversity among the faculty as special faculty assistant to the executive vice chancellor. He said he was able to double the number of African-American faculty in 2 ½ years, and in this time, “the University of Wisconsin came calling.” He quipped that since this work took so much time, he left his administrative stints out of his CV for the next 10 years.

00:50:23	[no question] He related some administrative work he’d done at UW—3 years as director of African Studies, chair of French and Italian, and chair the African Languages and Literature dept. He observed that different departments had different personalities, citing differences between French and Italian and AL&L.

00:53:32	Question: Continue talking about your research, especially Aimé Césaire. Answer: He expressed his own surprised at his continuing interest in Césaire, partly because of his “weight” in Francophone literature and African literary perceptions. Even in 2013 he was slated to participate in a conference in Paris celebrating Césaire’s 100th birthday, giving a paper on Césaire’s influence on film.

00:58:30	[no question] He reflected on his hiring at UW, expressing surprise at the offer of what he thought was an unusual second position in African Francophone literary studies. This confirmed his opinion about the power of UW’s African Studies program, though he didn’t know at the time that the French & Italian Dept into which he was hired was the biggest one in the US.

01:02:17	Question: Major search committees? Answer: Songolo recalled search committees as being “eye-openers,” teaching him what was important to different people around the university. He remembered competing interests, especially on the committee that chose Caroline “Biddy” Martin. Young and Songolo discussed the Regents’ opinions about the search and Martin’s qualifications.

01:07:36	Question: Association leadership? Answer: He remembered coming into the presidency of the African Studies Association (ASA) at a difficult time, both physically and personally. He related some difficulties he encountered during that his vice presidential year, expressed the importance of the board, and talked about financial difficulties ASA faced during his presidency.

01:10:56	[no question] Continuing to talk about association leadership, he talked about being president of the ALA twice. A much smaller organization, it was natural for Songolo to be president of it. But it had grown since its creation.

01:12:41	Question: Talk about your family. Answer: Songolo talked about meeting his wife Emilie in Cameroon in 1983 while he was there as a Fulbright scholar, but it took some time for them to get married, in 1988, for professional, family, and cultural reasons. They had 3 children.

01:16:25	Question: Anything else? Answer: He noted looking forward to retirement, though he remained active. Thus he talked about his activities outside scholarship—he’d become interested in the conservation of Congo-basin forests, and had been able to link UW to the Partnership for Congo-basin Forests.

01:19:32	End of First Interview Session

End of Oral History #1348