Public Lecture: The Politics of the Punchline: Elections, Ebola and the Power of Laughter in Goma, DR Congo; Speaker: Silke Oldenburg (University of Basel)

Abstract

In Goma, a provincial capital in Eastern DR Congo, the urban and the catastrophic have long been intertwined purveying analytical power to punchlines as indicative of everyday absurdity. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and social media analysis, this lecture reveals the ‘Power of Laughter’ by illustrating how Goma’s comedians turn the incongruity of expectation and reality into a politics of the punchline offering entertainment, solace and social critique.

Silke Oldenburg is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Basel. She works at the intersection of political, urban and environmental anthropology and has more than three years of research experience carrying out fieldwork in DR Congo and Colombia. Her research interests coalesce around diverse dimensions of urban life in the Global South addressing aspects such as displacement, political violence, infrastructure, and humour in research, writing and teaching.