Congo’s Literary Diplomacy in Focus
The marble colonnades of Pointe-Noire’s Cercle Africain reverberated with more than polite applause as Bernard Moussoki, a veteran customs administrator and lay theologian, introduced three titles recently issued by France-based Éditions Vérone. The timing was propitious: July’s cultural calendar, bolstered by government initiatives encouraging national cohesion through the arts, has turned the coastal city into a discreet hub of intellectual exchange. Several observers from the Ministry of Culture and international consulates quietly occupied the back rows, attentive to the potential of faith-based literature to complement Congo-Brazzaville’s broader public-diplomacy portfolio.
Faith, Marriage and National Identity in Moussoki’s Corpus
Opening the dialogue, the author presented ‘God Speaks to Us’ volumes I and II, followed by ‘The Duty to Sit: Building Marital Unity’. The first volume seeks to familiarise readers with the differentiated, yet inseparable, roles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit—an exposition echoing African Trinitarian catechesis dating back to the nineteenth-century missions. Volume II ventures further, offering succinct hermeneutic notes on each of the 150 psalms, a feat that required, as Moussoki confessed with a smile, “more nights in prayer than in the archives” (Radio Congo, 21 July 2023). His third work addresses conjugal harmony, advocating dialogue, sexual reciprocity and spiritual companionship as paths to restore what he calls “the Edenic splendour of marriage”.
Critical Voices Around the Table
Well-known literary critic Arnaud Mitamona praised the methodological clarity of the psalm commentaries, noting their capacity to “democratise exegesis without diluting doctrine” (Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 20 July 2023). Olive Makosso, herself a sociolinguist, interrogated the gender assumptions embedded in the marriage treatise, prompting a measured discussion on how biblical counsel intersects with contemporary Congolese family law. Audience members—pastors, magistrates and students—alternated between theological minutiae and personal anecdotes, underscoring the participatory ethos that has characterised Pointe-Noire’s literary cafés since their revival in 2015. The exchanges remained courteous yet probing, aided by moderator Yvon Wilfrid Lewa-Let Mandah, whose insistence on “academic rigour married to pastoral charity” steered conversation away from polemic.
From Customs Desk to Pulpit and Pen
Moussoki’s professional trajectory lends the books unusual gravitas. Trained first in economics and later at Brazzaville’s École normale d’administration et de magistrature, he spent three decades safeguarding customs revenues before accepting pastoral responsibilities within the city’s interdenominational Bible League. Diplomatic observers see in such hybrid profiles—civil servants versed in theology—a distinctive asset for the Republic’s quest to promote ethical governance. As one French cultural attaché whispered after the seminar, “A state’s credibility abroad is reinforced when its public servants exhibit moral literacy; literature becomes a mirror of institutional conscience.”
Culture as Soft Power under Stable Governance
The Pointe-Noire session dovetails with President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s broader agenda to amplify cultural diplomacy. Recent allocations to provincial museums, combined with tax incentives for small publishers, have encouraged authors to root universal themes in local experience while projecting a favourable national image. Scholars from the University of Kinshasa noted that Moussoki’s integration of biblical ethics with republican civic duty aligns with regional efforts to position Central Africa as a reservoir of reconciliatory thought. In this reading, his trilogy functions less as devotional literature than as a strategic gesture: reminding foreign partners that Congo-Brazzaville cultivates social stability through the moral imagination of its citizenry.
Prospects for Future Interreligious Scholarship
As dusk settled over the Atlantic, conversations in the museum’s courtyard turned to translation rights and academic partnerships. Representatives of the Anglican Missionary Society expressed interest in a bilingual edition of the psalm volumes, while a delegation from the Catholic University of Central Africa proposed a comparative seminar on African exegesis. Moussoki, ever the conciliator, accepted both overtures, asserting that “theology flourishes where nations dialogue.” His remark captured the evening’s diplomatic subtext: in an era where faith can divide, carefully curated literary discourse can just as readily unite—reinforcing Congo-Brazzaville’s reputation as a convening power along the Gulf of Guinea.
