Abstract: In his July 2013 interview with Crawford Young, Aliko Songolo details his academic journey from his father?s dream of him becoming a doctor during his childhood in eastern Congo to his prominence as a scholar of Francophone African literature at the UW-Madison from the 1990s to the late early 2010s. Songolo explains the formative influence of his multilingual upbringing, political conflict in Congo, and the experience of education in rural America. He also chronicles his efforts to teach in Africa and his ultimate move to study Francophone literature, in particular the work of Aim� C�saire. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.