Dear Faculty, Staff, Students and Friends:

San Francisco State University will honor Malonga Casquelourd on September 25, 2003.  Professor Malonga has been teaching BLS/DANC 617-(African and Black Dance Experience) for twenty-six years on our campus.  The Department of Black Studies, the College of Ethnic Studies, the School of Dance and Music, the College of Creative Arts and the BSS African Area Studies Program would like to invite you to join the Procession starting at the College of Ethnic Studies (Psy Bldg) at 12 noon, then, in remembrance, and performance with his own Congolese Ensemble Fua Dia Congo at McKenna Theatre around 12:30, followed by a reception at 2 p.m. at Jack Adams Hall.   Your presence will be highly appreciated as we honor the life and work of this dynamic and vibrant artist, internationally famed dancer, choreographer, drummer, director/educator, and community oriented scholar.

Malonga Casquelourd died in a car accident, on Sunday morning, June 15, 2003.   He was a veteran of the National Congolese Dance Company, Tanawa (the first Central Africa Dance Company in the USA), the Ethnic Dance Festival in San Francisco and the founder of Fua Dia Congo.

Professor Malonga Casquelourd has introduced a lot of SFSU students to the traditional dances, songs and drum rhythms from his native Republic of Congo and other Central African countries of Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, etc.  He has tremendously contributed to enhancing many SFSU students and San Francisco Bay Area residents' awareness of the interconnections of songs, dance, drumming, ritual and community and the culture and life of people of Africa and the African Diaspora (Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, North America, etc.)

Malonga comes originally from Congo-Brazzaville, a highly politicized nation-state with a strong tradition of intellectual and ideological debate, but which has had a bloody experience since 1997.  While the Congolese domestic economy has been severely depressed throughout the 1990s, because of a combination of financial crisis and political upheaval, the oil industry has continued to expand because of offshore exploitation.  In a country where ethnic and regional loyalties have been the main determinants of political loyalty for the past seven years, Malonga and his intellectual and artistic friends have been working silently but effectively first, towards reconstruction efforts, and second, for a democratic and pluralistic legitimacy, which will not only include all the groups, but also will provide them equality and social justice.  That is Malonga 's intellectual legacy.

San Francisco State University and Malonga Casquelourd's own family and very talented 25 member-Cultural and Artistic Group, FUA DIA CONGO, have lost a real messenger of the African culture in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Professor Malonga Casquelourd, who was 55, and who brought so much happiness and fun to SFSU students and many SF Bay Area residents, is leaving behind a household of children and relatives.  Any assistance to Malonga Casquelourd 's family could be addressed to the Malonga Trust Fund at Wells Fargo Bank.

Sincerely,

A. Y. Yansane

Professor of International Relations
& Black Studies
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132

Phone: (415) 338 2495
Fax:   (415) 338 2880
E-mail:aymouke@sfsu.edu
Website: http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~aymouke