On Black Bandes Dessinées and Transcolonial Power by Michelle Bumatay is the first book in English to explore the work of Black francophone artists of bandes desinées and their responses to colonial legacies and racialized stereotypes.

Bandes desinées, –literally “drawn strips”–are French artistic objects that are like graphic novels and comics, considered similar to literary texts in the Francophone world. Bumatay reframes bandes dessinées not as a fixed genre, but as a tool for resistance and transformation when used by Black francophone artists. Bumatay demonstrates how the work of, for example, Congolese artist Barly Baruti, Ivorian artist Marguerite Abouet, and Cameroonian artist Japhet Miagotar challenges colonial stereotypes and critiques ongoing racial capitalism.

Bumatay uses the term Black bandes dessinées to address the material, textual, and aesthetic strategies of Black artists, revealing how race shapes the creation and reception of their work. She chooses the term “Black” in order to reflect the fluid, transnational identity of Black artists in the francophone world, and positions Black artists as key figures in global discussions about race, representation, and power.

Bumatay points to the historical role of bandes dessinées in supporting French colonial narratives, as early comics were deployed as tools for justifying empire and reinforcing racist ideologies. The book contends that Black artists in the francophone world engage in reparative work—creating comics that not only deconstruct harmful stereotypes but actively transform the way Blackness is represented. By reworking visual tropes inherited from colonial-era popular culture, these artists disrupt the racialized imagery that has long defined bandes dessinées, especially within mainstream French and Belgian comics.

Bumatay argues, “When we privilege the mechanism of racialization rather than geography, we see Black artists throughout the francophone world advancing a range of narratives and countervisualities, to use Nicholas Mirzoeff’s concept, that not only challenge Western visual imperialism but also critique the necropolitics of the postcolony and of neocolonialism, advance correctives to Western epistemologies, and offer decolonial ways of seeing and being in the world.”

Recent years have seen an increased interest in Black comics, which Bumatay links to the Marvel film adaptations of the Black Panther series in particular. On Black Bandes Dessinées and Transcolonial Power provides important context on the long history of the work of Black comics in contributing to global discussions of representation and power.

Michelle Bumatay is Assistant Professor of French at Florida State University. Her research has appeared in Francosphères, Research in African Literatures, and Alternative Francophone.

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Buy a copy of On Black Bandes Dessinées and Transcolonial Power here!