Didier Kassaï

Illustrator, watercolourist and self-taught caricaturist, Didier Kassaï was born in 1974 in Sibut, Central African Republic. He is known for his humorous watercolors and his active involvement in the drawing of the Central African press from 1994 to 1997, notably in the biblical press of the Baptist Mid-Mission and in the satirical daily Le Perroquet. In 1998, he participated in several residencies and festivals in Africa, Europe or the United States. He is the co-author (with Olivier Bombasaro) of Gypépé the Pygmy and Adventures in Central Africa with the Editions Ivoiriens Classic, he has also signed with several collective albums, some of which are in France. In 2006, he won the Africa and Mediterraneo Prize in Bologna for his work: Azinda and The Forced Marriage as well as the "Vues d'Afrique" contest at the Angoulême Festival with Bangui la coquette. His first solo album, The Odyssey of Mongou was published in 2014 by Harmattan BD. The following year, he published Storm Over Bangui, published by La Boîte à Bulles (of which excerpts were previously published in La Revue dessiné), an album soon to be followed by Pousse-Pousse (L'Harmattan), which won the Best Project Award at the festival Algiers in 2009.