Albert Mongita
1916–1985 · Congolese playwright, actor and theatre director, also a painter and filmmaker
Albert Likeke Mongita, also known as Mongita Likeke (Irebu, Belgian Congo, 8 March 1916 – 1985), was an actor, playwright, theatre director and filmmaker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Sources also list him as a painter, though they do not describe his paintings. He is regarded as one of the leaders of the national theatre movement in the decades after the Second World War.
He moved to Léopoldville, now Kinshasa, at the age of one. After his schooling he worked for the postal administration and in 1949 joined Radio Congo Belge as an editor and announcer. Drawn to theatre, in the early 1950s he joined the alumni association of the Scheut Fathers (ADAPES) in Léopoldville, where he became its theatrical driving force. With André Scohy he organised national popular theatre festivals and tours by foreign companies. He wrote plays in French for his troupe, among them Soki Stanley (1954) and Mangengenge (1956).
In 1951, under Belgian instruction, he helped shoot La Leçon de Cinéma. After independence he held cultural posts and directed the national theatre.