On 27 January, the third lecture in Tokyo Office's "Investigating 'Communication'" series took place with Professor Daiji Kimura of the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS) as the featured speaker. The series was the 20th to be presented under the Office's public lecture program, Tokyo de Manabu Kyodai no Chi ("Ingesting Kyoto University's Knowledge -- in Tokyo").
Under the theme "The World of Voices in Africa and Internet Communications", the anthropologist discussed bonango ( benango ), a distinct form of verbal communication practiced by the Bongando people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, based on extensive research experience in the field. Describing the bonango as utterances that are not directed to any specific audience and do not require any response, he suggested that the industrialized world, where people often feel constrained by the connections they can easily make with anything and everything, might benefit from the techniques of inattention and disengagement that are core to the Bongando's practice. He also drew attention to the similarities between the bonango and social media, such as Twitter, and shared his thoughts on LINE and other communication tools. Finally, he stated that one consequence of evolving information technology might be the return of some of the diverse styles of communication that had existed and been accepted in pre-modern communities.
Professor Kimura
Lecture attendees
