Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem

Ndaywel launched a call to protest against incumbent Congolese president Joseph Kabila who tried to stay in power despite the end of his mandate, together with the committee of catholic laymen with intellectuals such as Jonas Tshiombela, Thierry Nlandu and Léonie Kandolo in December 2017. This call took place on the eve of the signing of the New Years Eve Agreement on 31 December 2017. Several laymen, priests, and other Catholics responded to the call. The governor of the city of Kinshasa banned these protests. The security forces were deployed in the early morning of 31 December 2017 all throughout Kinshasa, and at least eight protesters died. Ndaywel then went into hiding after rumours circulated of an arrest warrant against him and his colleagues of the committee of laymen.

In France, Ndaywel presided over the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) from 1993 to 1997 and worked as a researcher at the Centre d'études des mondes africains [fr] (CEMAF) of the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne. In Belgium, he is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences.

Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem (born 7 February 1944, Ipamu), is a Congolese historian and linguist. He is the author of several essays, studies and other publications about the history of the Congo, including the overview work L'histoire générale du Congo: De l'héritage ancien à la République démocratique.

Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem was born in Ipamu in 1944 in modern-day Kwilu Province. He presided over the society of Congolese historians, and teaches history at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences at the University of Kinshasa. He taught at the University of Lubumbashi, the Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville (from 1977 to 1978) and at the Université Laval in Québec (from 1984 to 1985).