Papa Mfumu’eto 1er is the pseudonym (his personal brand) of Jaspe-Saphir Nkou-Ntouala.
Born in Matadi on February 26 in 1963, Papa Mfumu’eto 1er is a comic book author and painter. In his comics and paintings, this majesty and self-proclaimed emperor offers a glimpse of the disorderly order that reigns in the city of Kinshasa. According to him, it is the second world that is decisive in daily life, the parallel and nocturnal world where the ancestors and the spirits reign supreme. And the more one rationalizes this world, the less one grasps it. His own notoriety is part of his stories. He speaks and writes about himself in the third person, referring to himself as “the first” or “your beloved” when addressing his fans.
In this video, Papa Mfumu’eto 1er opens one of his many secret doors. He shows us the definition of his work space, where he produces his comics and paintings. For him, it is very important to have an isolated place that allows him to dive into his memories, to recall the daily life of his family or the public of Kinshasa that he knows well.
