Alain Mata Mamengi, also known as Al’Mata, was born in Kinshasa. After his studies at the Académie des Beaux-Arts there, he worked as a press illustrator. He was co-founder of the OAR (Organisation des Artistes Réunis pour la Défense et la Promotion de la Bande Dessinée, an association of comic artists) and established the Studio Béd’Art together with Asimba Bathy in 1993. Al’Mata also published the magazine MAK BD from 1994 and was the co-founder of the magazine Bulles et Plumes in Kinshasa and the Association G7. In 1998, Al’Mata won the “Calque d’or” prize, which honours the best press caricaturists in Kinshasa, and in 2000 he received the press prize at the 3rd Salon africain de la bande dessinée à Kinshasa, SABDAM. In 2001 he was invited to the Angoûleme Festival in France and the Musique Métisse Festival in Belgium to present the exhibition “A l’ombre du baobab” (“In the Shadow of the Baobab”). He finally emigrated to France in 2002. In 2003 he won first prize in the comic strip competition organised by the Italian NGO Africa e mediterraneo and the Lai Momo publishing house in Bologna, and two years later he won second prize in the pan-African press cartoonist competition organised by the Dyonisa Centre in Rome. Since 2002 he has been a regular contributor to Tourcoing’s Afro Bulles magazine. In his comic strips he often addresses the theme of integration in the context of African culture, as in “Le retour au pays d’Alphonse Madiba, dit Daudet” (“The Return of Alphonse Madiba alias Daudet”), which was produced in collaboration with the scenic artist Christophe Ngalle Edimo and published by Harmattan. The album was awarded first prize for the best African comic strip at the 2011 International Festival of Comics in Algiers.