Lukah Katangila

Lukah Katangila is a choreographer, dancer, interpreter, and performer born in Goma, North Kivu/Eastern DR Congo. He aims to meet people, share dance styles from different cultures around the world, and bring a united Africa from central to east and west, from south to north Africa and Europe. His passion for hip-hop, contemporary, and traditional African dance originates in his native country. From the age of six, he was introduced to the arts within the Mboka Dance Family in his grandfather’s kingdom, where he learned dance and the play of African instruments like the djembe, likembe, kalumbatini, marimba, dungu, and kinubi.

Lukah is a co-founder of Busara Dance Company, Goma; founder of Lil Saint Dance Cie, Goma; b2k Family, Goma; and Black Magic Dance Company, Congo and Rwanda. After the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in 2002, he founded the project Ndoto Mchezo za Watoto (Engl. Dream of Child Dancers) with his brothers and friends. Children are often nicknamed Kadogo (Engl. Little unimportant thing) by armed groups in Kivu/Eastern DR Congo. This project, active between Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi, claims the rights of children, speaks up against ethnic conflicts, and opposes the enrollment of children in armed groups. Their message is clear: STOP the abuse of children on the front lines of war. The dancers and the children call each other Shege (Swahili for street kid).

Dance, for Lukah, works as a heavy weapon, a means of education, shared empowerment, and political messaging. Choreography and movement provide a safe collective space, a moment of stopping the violence. From 2012 to 2018, he worked with several cultural centres and orphanages for street children and child soldiers in the African Great Lakes region. Some of these are Yolé!Africa Goma, Centre des Jeunes Don Bosco Ngangi (DBNG), Centre Gahinja, and Maison des Jeunes Gisenyi.