Courtesy Studios Kabako Dorine Mokha is a Congolese citizen, dancer, choreographer, and author. His multidisciplinary performances have often dealt with struggles of identity, social rejection, homophobic violence, and the overcoming of adversity in an unwaveringly autobiographical and intensely introspective way. Both his solo work and collaborations with the likes of rapper Franck Moka are a testament to a process of self acceptance despite the psychological and physical barriers that certain sectors of Congolese society have built around difference in the name of religious beliefs, moral laws and traditional customs.

Letters from Congo (2020) is a film project initiated in collaboration with dancers from Lubumbashi and Kinshasa, including Didier Ediho and Jeannot Kumbonyeki. It is growing into a collection of personal statements from artists and collectives from Congo, and ultimately 17 other African nations. The collective talks and dances in response to the multiple crises and emergencies that the Democratic Republic of the Congo has gone through in the last two decades. From outbreaks of the Ebola virus, through escalations of political violence, numerous armed conflicts, governmental instability, and economic weakness, crisis seems to have become a permanent state of affairs in the country. Despite the troubles of this place, artists still live their daily lives, creating survival strategies and hope, Letters from Congo declares. Each of the contributions defends the urgency to create, in the here-and-now, against all odds, while Mokha’s letter in particular reaffirms his commitment to fight against the further emergencies and violence suffered by LGBT people.