In the 2016 Abiola Lecture, Mbembe argued that “the plasticity of digital forms speaks powerfully to the plasticity of African precolonial cultures and to ancient ways of working with representation and mediation, of folding reality.” In her commentary, Pype tries to understand what “speaking powerfully to” can mean. She first situates the Abiola Lecture within a wide range of exciting and ongoing scholarship that attempts to understand social transformations on the continent since the ubiquitous uptake of the mobile phone, and its most recent incarnation, the smartphone. She then analyzes the aesthetics of artistic projects by Alexandre Kyungu, Yves Sambu, and Hilaire Kuyangiko Balu, where wooden doors, tattoos, beads, saliva, and nails correlate with the Internet, pixels, and keys of keyboards and remote controls. Finally, Pype asks to whom the congruence between the aesthetics of a “precolonial” Congo and the digital speaks. In a society where “the past” is quickly demonized, though expats and the commercial and political elite pay thousands of dollars for the discussed art works, Pype argues that this congruence might be one more manifestation of capitalism’s cannibalization of a stereotypical image of “Africa.”

在2016年的Abiola演讲中，姆贝贝认为“数字形式的可塑性与非洲前殖民文化的可塑性以及古老的处理代表和调解，折叠现实的方式有着强烈的联系。” 在她的评论中，Pype试图理解“强有力地说话”的含义。她首先将Abiola讲座设置在一系列激动人心且持续不断的奖学金中，以期了解自从无所不在地使用手机及其最新化身为智能手机以来非洲大陆的社会转型。然后，她分析了亚历山大·昆古（Alexandre Kyungu），伊夫·桑布（Yves Sambu）和希拉尔·库扬尼科·巴鲁（Hilaire Kuyangiko Balu）的艺术项目的美学，在这些项目中，木门，纹身，珠子，唾液和指甲与互联网，像素以及键盘和遥控器的按键相关。最后，Pype询问“前殖民地”刚果的美学与数字语言之间的一致性。在一个迅速“妖魔化”的社会中，尽管外国人和商业和政治精英为讨论的艺术品付出了数千美元，但皮佩认为，这种一致性可能是资本主义蚕食“非洲”陈规定型形象的另一种体现。 。”