The 2nd Signatures Day The Harmattan, 2020 edition, was held on October 08, 2020. The author Richard Ossoma-Lesmois presented, on the occasion of the Conference and Meeting-Dedication, the book entitled Antoine Ndinga Oba: Homme de terroir, éducateur, diplomate, africanité au Congo-Brazzaville. A book whose preface is signed by the Congolese head of state, Denis Sassou Nguesso. Richard Ossoma-Lesmois presented his book entitled Antoine Ndinga Oba: Homme de terroir, educator, Antoine Ndinga Oba: Homme de terroir, diplomat, africanity in Congo-Brazzaville.
The author describes the history of the best moments of the reform of the Congolese education system from 1977 to 1990 in the difficult balance to be found between the school of the one party, authoritarian regimes and the adaptation of education and culture programmes to the demands of modernity and socio-economic development. Congo-Brazzaville’s involvement in the struggle of the oppressed peoples of Southern Africa with the creation of the Africa Fund, support for the Swapo movement and active participation in the Pan-African action for the release of Nelson Mandela, the withdrawal of British troops from Namibia. Finally, at the international level, the entry of the Republic of Congo as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and the establishment of the Permanent Delegation at UNESCO in 2000, in order to enable the country, participate in the design of education, research and culture programmes for the Central African sub-region.
Opening the Conference, the author Richard Ossoma-Lesmois explained that the book in the spotlight was made thanks to the testimony of ministers, ambassadors, including private missives belonging to Antoine Ndinga Oba. Far from a political book, this book is rather a life story. It satisfies a vow, alleviates a moral burden borne by children heirs or orphans by the fact of nature, witnesses and preservatives of the leaves struck by the blow of time, lines honouring the memory of Antoine Ndinga Oba; to the point that it appears in the prestigious Collection Graveurs de Mémoire des éditions L’Harmattan, Série Récit de vie l’Afrique subsaharienne.
The writer Juriste Richard Ossoma-Lesmois wanted to bring the world of books to life during this difficult period linked to both the crisis of values and the Covid-19 health crisis. The author thus expresses his commitment to maintain the need to understand, to learn, but also to escape, to entertain us with books.
Richard Ossoma-Lesmois is a Congolese author, born on 30 December 1976 in Macouria, residing in Fontenay-sous-Bois, a peaceful city in the east of Paris in the department of Val-de-Marne. He is married and father of two boys. He has published several books of novel, theater, essay, novel. His writing style, without literary excess, is clear and airy, in a pleasant French, mixing escape and proximity.
