film

Katanga: The Dance of the Scorpions is a gripping, politically charged documentary that revisits one of the most turbulent episodes of post-colonial Africa: the secession of Katanga in the early 1960s and the web of international interests that fuelled the crisis following Congolese independence. Directed by Dani Kouyaté, the film draws on archival footage, testimony and a sharp sense of historical inquiry to reconstruct the power struggle between Moïse Tshombe and Patrice Lumumba, situating it within the broader pressures of the Cold War. 

The film’s title evokes the deadly dance of political betrayal, which took place as foreign governments and corporations circled, vying to control the country's mineral wealth. Clear-eyed and urgent, it resists neat conclusions and instead exposes how colonial legacies and economic exploitation shaped the fate of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Part of Wallay! Festival de Cinema Africà de Barcelona. The screening on May 13th includes a presentation by filmmaker Mamadou Khouma Gueye.