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Some visitors head for my website through GOOGLE TRANSLATE. Sometimes the offered translations into English (ou Francais) are still defective or dark in some crucial points (terms or grammar). So I use Google’s propositions as a ‚trampoline‘ to find the right words more or less spontaniously.

Leni Riefenstahl’s „Triumph of the Will“ (1934) – My Opinion

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Original: Riefenstahls Triumph des Willens  LINK: 22.Oktober 2010  
translated with googletranslate 5.11.24

Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will

A stupid film, which I would not have expected. I have to apologize to Eisenstein, whom I detested as a nasty propagandist in „Battleship Potemkin,“ but who was much more sophisticated, more reflective, and a brilliant perfectionist. Here, there was often visible tinkering – and not just because of the damage to the copy. It’s really touching.

A typical PR product in the sense that it is primarily a logistical achievement. Weren’t the events the greater logistical achievement? Flying them in was already a tried and tested method. The film has no character, no point of view of its own, not much like a modern advertising strip for a corporate identity. It doesn’t go beyond the client’s horizon and suits the taste of the tyrant.

Riefenstahl directed a hundred and fifty henchmen, but was the compliant and clever little girl, a horizon she never exceeded in her entire life. She was too stupid or compliant to prevent the regime’s top brass from exposing themselves. And everyone was probably jealously checking with a stopwatch that they were not being shortchanged. The gang of crooks can be viewed up close. A contemporary document, the only credit. But wasn’t that due to the client?

Like Hitler, who at the end even stylized himself as Mephisto, who wanted to seize souls and take them with him, she borrows from tradition: from Faust 1 and German silent film expressionism. The archaic! The lavish use of pitch torches – with no sense of their introduced symbolic meaning. The fairy-tale quality of the national community portrayed, its age and gender stereotypes. I am moved by the old town of Nuremberg. I understand the Allies‘ hateful  zeal of reducing the old Frankish backdrop of German barbarism to rubble and ashes.

P1300947Nürnberg

P1300948HessNSScreenshots  Gv – Oct. 2010 „Arsenal“

The alleged omission of a spoken commentary may have been new in 1934, but it corresponds to the absolute emptiness of the Nazi self-portrayal, which was covered up with increasing difficulty by a sampler of nationalist marching music and occasionally shouted slogans. Hitler then had to appear as a copy of Mussolini. Charles Chaplin’s brilliant parody kept popping up in my head. The fact that the film is said to be ‚the most quoted and given cult status‘ would be a bad sign, also for the state of mind of film buffs and media scientists. It can’t be the fault of the general public that hasn’t seen it for seventy years.

The young expert who gave the introduction was downright enthusiastic. He has been tasked with developing the concept for the „analysis“ by highschool students. Such a piece of crap is not worth the effort, the precious time of education, and is dangerous at best in its hollowness.

What he highlighted about the „famous“ film editing turned out to be hot air. The hundred minutes were very long. We witnessed hour-long marches – as tourists in Berlin are familiar with. Mainly uniformed blocks paraded past the „Führer“, past a bustling audience and again more uniformed blocks. For a change, we saw the „Führer“ and a few loyal followers honoring uniformed blocks a few times. The term „idiots“ fits the film’s appeal. And: despite the vaunted „condensation“ of the party conference, it is only a weak black and white imitation. „If only it gave me the creeps!“ (“Wenn es mich doch gruselte!”)

Again: eternal rest in the archives. Unsalvable!   Berlin, after the visit to the „Arsenal“ cinema on October 16, 2010

Two Comments (translated)

  1. uwe greiner  27.2.2014
    I recently saw a lecture in a small cinema with film examples about the life of Leni Riefenstahl. The American speaker described in detail her technical competence and the means she used to make her films, partly also means of power; she could order as many extras as she wanted. He also knew her love stories, often with her often much younger co-workers. The picture that emerged was of an assertive woman who was only interested in politics insofar as it helped her to make her films and enjoy her life at the same time. The competent and talented opportunist. The mixed audience in a run-down part of London took the film in stride.
    1. dvg 
      18. Nov. 2020
      Arte is broadcasting the exceptionally serious documentary about „Leni Riefenstahl – The End of a Myth“, which is based on research by Nina Gladitz (LINK at wikipedia). The author and her book „Leni Riefenstahl – Career of a Perpetrator“. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2020, ISBN 978-3-280-05730-8 are quoted extensively. (Hopefully she also gets something out of it financially, more than a damp handshake) Balance sheet: fiery ambition with criminal energy, unscrupulous action against competitors in order to be successful, a soul mate of Adolf Hitler, who personally valued and supported her. The appropriation of other people’s creative achievements was not an issue for her, but was the focus of the film feature. Such information should perhaps be translated into foreign languages.

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F. Kramer and G.Marx witnessed lost Festivals of the Southern Luba (Sudan) 1974

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Preliminary translation of the German post from 2015 and 2021 (LINK) with Google and DeepL on October 6, 2024

Fritz W.Kramer und Gertraud Marx : ‚Zeitmarken – die Feste von Dimodonko’ in der Reihe ‚Sudanesische Marginalien’ im Trickster Verlag, 189 Seiten, München 1993 (deutsch)

Fritz W. Kramer and Gertraud Marx: ‚Time marks – the festivals of Dimodonko‘ in the series ‚Sudanese Marginalia‘ published by Trickster, 189 pages, Munich 1993

The essay became a memorial for the people of ‚Dimodonko‘, the ‚Kodenko‘ or ‚Kronko‘ in the south of the Kordofan mountains. ‚Southern Nuba‘ was the term that caught my attention through frequent repetition in his Jensen memorial lecture at Frankfurt University in 2009 and was already a compromise with the language used in Germany, where ‚the Nuba‘ have long been a term. But basically Kramer, as a precise ethnologist, always meant ‚the people of Dimodonko‘.

The authors apologize for a philological approach – it is particularly evident in the introduction in lexical style, the notes and the long list of literature. Already in the first chapter, they give us an idea of ​​how beautiful the book could have been, whose broad foundations we are admiring here. The result is a scientific paperback, with map sketches in irritatingly high resolution, but without pictures.

It is an intimate book, touching in its announcement that from now on the grammatical present tense will be used for past situations. How Fritz Kramer and Gertraud Marx would have loved to have experienced the entire annual cycle that they bring to life in the story, as well as the large and carefree celebrations that they were told about when they were invited to something like emergency editions in 1987. The intensity of the descriptions and discussions suggests that this period of classic field research between two acts of the civil war in southern Sudan was a formative experience, despite its premature end. The authors stayed with the people in 1987 for more intensive research, but the authors‘ first impression dates back to 1974. Back then, in those two decades, there was a great willingness to idealize alternative ways of life in West Germany. The book was published in 1993. Today I find it difficult to read the slim book in one sitting; I have long since lost the ability to tolerate social utopias. Any utopianism has been driven out of me.

The necessarily sketchy depiction offers a model of society and suggests, in summary, a ‚paradisiacal‘ state of ’noble savages‘ or, in Karl Marx’s words, a ‚primitive society‘ that made optimal use of the available resources in a small ecological niche – on the slopes of table mountains in the middle of the vast Sudanese plains. Embedded in nature – even if ‚hunger‘ or ‚malaria‘ had their place in the annual cycle – in general the circular character prevailed in everything. Communal work and enjoyment, the institution of ‚trusteeship‘ and finally an institutionalized ‚friendship‘ based on the inclinations of individuals, generally the consideration of human nature, especially gender and the need for intoxication or the channeling of creative and aggressive impulses in competition. How do you keep young people busy and happy with limited resources? A central question everywhere! All adversities of life, all human passions and peculiarities should be given meaning, made understandable. All possible conflicts should be, if not avoided, then at least embedded. That gave a lot to talk about. Life was never boring.

There were no formal hierarchies, not even those based on individual achievement. There was no more or less centralized rule. It was a culture in which the seasons were honored with festivals as ‚time markers‘ and social ties were thus periodically renewed. Corresponding motifs in ‚time markers‘ act like incantations: „…and celebrate their festivals, at which they hold wrestling competitions, play drums or lyres, dance and sing songs.“ (78). But there were people who left the nest, neighbors and, finally, supra-regional ‚modern‘ conflicts.

To see such a society collapse while efforts were being made to gain access and understand it must have been very painful. After a stopover with ‚Nuba‘ refugees stranded in Khartoum, they set about scientific reconstruction – on the shoulders of a few informants – with all the relevant literature in mind. There was too little space in the paperback for the ‚making of‘. The series of publications provided a sparse framework.

In the following two decades, Fritz Kramer has repeatedly illuminated and reflected on the culture of the people of Dimodonko in his publications, but from a rather increasing distance, as in his most recent book publication: Art in Ritual – Ethnographic Explorations on Aesthetics“ (in German), the elaboration of the 2009 lecture, published by Reimer Verlag in 2014.

Documentary photos from Dimodonko are missing in ‚Zeitmarken‘. Visual experiences have to be obtained from elsewhere (literature list), but they are also from elsewhere. Even powerful literary prose cannot replace them.

The authors thus avoid a dilemma when they use strong metaphors alone to convey the cult of athletic, supple bodies and relaxed sensuality among the people of Dimodonko. Can attractive photos even successfully distance themselves from the suspicion of a ‚voyeuristic‘ gaze or a body cult labelled as fascistoid by a Leni Riefenstahl (‚Nuba‘)? I thought that the public scandal they caused thirty years ago (“SPIEGEL”, “STERN”) was exaggerated and I was curious to see the photos by George Rodger, which are referenced in the bibliography of “Zeitmarken”.

 

Image from G. Rodger, Le Village des Noubas, Paris 1955, Robert Delpire Editeur

 

See George Rodger: “On the road 1940-1949 – diary entries of a photographer and adventurer”, Hatje-Cantz 2009

See “Magnum Opus”, Nishen 1987, Colin Osman (ed.)

I can’t really see a relevant difference in the photographs, apart from the enormous step in the development of photographic and printing technology towards large-format color illustrated books. Image technology has generally become both more „voyeuristic“ and more „stylish“. To what extent does our judgment depend on the upgrading or downgrading of photographers?

In the case of Leni Riefenstahl, the unscrupulous perfectionist who achieved worldwide success with her maximization of sensual effects – staged for Hitler’s propaganda – and who, as an eighty-year-old photo tourist, only uttered platitudes about „Nuba“, a devaluation is obvious. In contrast, the documentary photographer of „Life“ and co-founder of the photo agency „Magnum“ (LINK) Rodgers has our sympathy, who after 1945 sought inner distance from traumatizing encounters such as that with the victims of the concentration camp „Bergen-Belsen“, when he undertook a long adventure trip with his wife through Africa in 1949, which his diaries openly recount. Who would think of „voyeurism“ in his recordings?

The book by Fritz Kramer and Gertraud Marx is thirty years old. They write in their foreword: „The state in which we last saw the Kodonko was one of anxious waiting, in which the hope for a return of peace prevailed. (….) For the Kodonko distinguished between good and bad times, which alternate, and for them the present war was not the one-off event that might put an end to their world, but a moment in the return of the same. The good time was the time to celebrate the festivals as they fall, the bad time their forced suspension. ….“ (p.9, January 1993)

George Roger shows and describes a local disaster in the village of a neighboring Nuba group: a fire caused by an overturned cooking pot, which, with flying sparks, turned two hundred and thirty houses into a pile of charred ruins within thirty minutes and destroyed the grain supplies for the next year. (“On the road…” p.105, March 3, 1949, Kau)

The connection to the people of the Nuba Mountains has long been severed. Their state of “forced suspension” continues. Even after “South Sudan” forced its separation from “Sudan” in 2015 after twenty years of war, war is still raging in the Nuba Mountains north of the new state border. This story of burned villages, resettlements and violent expulsions is summarized in Wikipedia “Nuba” and described in a recent interview in the Catholic weekly newspaper for the diocese of Berlin with the striking name “Tag des Herrn” (https://www.tag-des-herrn.de) from January 2nd, 2019

Text excerpt:

Interview with doctor and missionary Tom Catena – The forgotten conflict in southern Sudan

Conflicts on all sides, but forgotten internationally: The people in the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan are poor, their needs receive little international attention. Aid organizations rarely venture into the region. The doctor and missionary Tom Catena built a hospital there around 10 years ago. In the interview, the award-winning doctor from the USA talks about the difficult situation and health care in the region.

Mr. Catena, your hospital is in the Nuba Mountains in southern Sudan on the border with South Sudan. What is the situation like there?

Officially, the Nuba Mountains belong to Sudan. But the area is controlled by rebels, the Sudanese Liberation Army. They are fighting against the Sudanese government in Khartoum and demanding independence. We in the Nuba Mountains live in limbo. It is currently quiet, but nobody knows in which direction the political situation will develop and whether fighting will break out again. (….)

The hospital is the only one for around a million people.

Yes. Our catchment area is roughly the size of Austria. Some patients come from refugee camps in South Sudan, others scattered from the mountains. Many travel for several weeks to reach us.

Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world. Can people even afford treatment?

The patients pay a symbolic contribution of 45 cents. This is basically a flat rate for the entire treatment. However, this does not even come close to covering the costs. By comparison: an HIV test alone costs 60 cents. Most of it is covered by donations. The hospital’s operating costs are around 660,000 euros. We employ 230 people, 80 of whom are nurses. Many of them have no proper training, but were trained on the job.

Where do you get medicine and what else you need?

It’s complicated. But at least since the peace agreement between Sudan and South Sudan in 2015, goods have been reaching us fairly reliably. We buy the medicine in Nairobi in Kenya. It is then driven to South Sudan. There is a single road there that brings everything – goods, food or medicine – to us in the mountains. If there is trouble there, we are cut off from supplies.

Do you feel forgotten or left alone?

Sudan and the Nuba Mountains are a forgotten conflict. The United Nations has left the region and no longer has a foot in the door. But when governments and institutions fail, individuals have to fill the gaps and look after the people. That is exactly what happened in Nuba. I see it as part of my job not only to provide medical help, but also to draw attention to the conflict.

The people there have no one else to speak for them and stand up for them.

Why not? In times of migration, Africa already plays a strategic role for Europe… Sudan was demonized internationally for a long time and was considered a terrorist state. The migration crisis in Europe has changed that, but one-sidedly. Many refugees from Eritrea are moving to Libya via Sudan and want to go from there to Europe. The EU pays Sudan a lot of money to stop migrants on their way. The regime often acts brutally.

What do you expect from the EU?

The EU should think about where money can be used sensibly. Because in large parts of Sudan, nothing is currently reaching the people themselves. Most people there have only known war for years and are fed up with it. A peace agreement between Sudan and the rebels in the mountains would help them. This is something that should be promoted internationally. Sudan is officially a Muslim state and you belong to the Christian minority – does this affect your work? The coexistence of Muslims and Christians in the Nuba Mountains is unique. Christians form a fairly large minority there. There is not really a religious divide. Some Muslims are married to Christians and vice versa. For fundamentalists in the north, however, the Muslims in the Nuba Mountains are therefore considered infidels. (….)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLIO, SORCERY AND ARTS IN THE CONGO (Pende,Yansi and Kinshasa)

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: „Die Macht einer ‘Polio’-Puppe (Pende)“ Revised and translated : July 26th 2024

Pende-Polio-Flohmarkt

Our first encounter May 6th, 2017

At the flea-market I come across a strong and bizarre figure of the classic African cripple, not even on one of the folding tables, but kneeling on a simple blanket on the ground, solid upright in a realistic position, frighteningly naturalistic, which brings to mind my own experiences, and at the same time a good classic Pende carving.

The materials are: wood, fabric stretched over wood, cane/reeds, resin, and fresh banana straw; 42 cm high ( 17 inch; with straw 45cm), weight 2 kg.

At first I try to put the seller K.K. off by pointing him to museums, but I am not yet sure whether he would not find another ‘curiosity’ lover at the market. He does not find one that day. I contact him a week later at his home and, with my heart pounding, I buy it.

I can’t ‚live with‘ this figure like I do with others – I would have to ‚change my life‘ – but I can put it online and advertise for ‚real‘ help. And I want to know more about it. At some point it will have to go to an institution.

Pende-Polio-ProfilPende-Polio-Gelenke

 

 

The Aesthetic Aspect

The artist ingeniously designed the crucial angles of the hands and feet. I am looking again and again in disbelief at the bamboo tubes connected by cloth and resin. The angles – including those of the rigidly spread fingers and toes – are ‚real‘.

I don’t even wonder about the upper body/torse, an angular wooden body made plausible by a shirt. And a face that simultaneously shows the „realistic“ expression of repeated physical exertion and the typical facial traditions of northern Pende masks.

As  William Rubin wrote in ‚Primitivism…‘ (MOMA, N.Y. 1984):

„The artist only had to transfer the traditional stylization of his people to physical phenomena. Picasso’s distortions, on the other hand, were an invented projection…„

(Munich 1984, p. 274)

What is more ‚violent‘? For me, it is still reality. Aesthetics is, after all, an illusion.

The aesthetic quality of the carved face particularly moves me. The power of tradition is not diluted by coquetry. One should focus on the Polio puppet as intensely as on the context, but this would need experienced researchers perhaps in the future.

A Mobilizing Power

A few days later. Her strength is evident in my donation to the Unicef program, which is atypical for me. Admittedly, I had already seen the moving documentary „Benda Bilili“. and copied the subtitles of two lyrics by the beggar band from Kinshasa. ( LINK to en.Wikipedia)

 

Staff Benda Bilili. Papa Ricky is the father of the street kids….

I once slept on cardboard boxes Bingo
Soon I’ll be able to afford a mattress
That can happen to you too
To you, him, anyone
A man is never finished
Good luck comes unexpectedly
It’s never too late in life
One day we’ll make it I once slept on cardboard boxes….
No one has the right to judge others
Life comes and goes
No one has the right to judge a street child
No one chooses his life
The children from the Mandela Roundabout are big stars
They sleep on cardboard boxes
The disabled people from Plateform are big stars
They sleep on cardboard boxes We have cardboard boxes!
You have no right to laugh at me ….

 

Papa Ricky was filmed at the Centre for the Care of Physically Handicapped People in Kinshasa. During a recording session at the zoological garden of Kinshasa following YOUTUBE was recorded :

 

I was born as a strong man but polio crippled me
Look at me today, I’m screwed onto my tricycle
I’ve become the man with the canes
The hell with those crutches!
Parents, please go to the vaccination centre
Get your babies vaccinated against polio
Please save them from that curse
My parents had the good idea to register me at school
Look at me now: I’m a well-educated person
Which enables me to work and support my family
Parents, please don’t neglect your children (don’t throw anyone on the side)
The one who is disabled is not different from the others (why should he?)
Treat all your children without discrimination
Who among them will help you when you’re in need? God only knows who.

Screenshot 024-07-27     2024 : youtube.de CrammedDisks plays the song „Polio“ by Staff Benda Bilili with English subtitles: Staff Benda Bilili – (LINK)

 

“Vaccination information from door to door” by UNICEF

Then I google ‘polio’ and go to the relevant UNICEF page. I am ashamed – of my ignorance and my social hardship. Such fates can be prevented without us having to ‘bleed’! I have doubts as to whether ‘children’s lives’ in such environments ‘must’ be ‘saved’ in any case, but if a child survives, it should also have functional limbs. I met such beggars 1985 in Côte d’Ivoire. They shocked me. I also feel sorry for their wives and their children, whom they can at least feed. I spontaneously find this economy perverse, although it documents a particular humanism of these societies.Extracts from the report of July 13, 2012 by Beatrix Hell “Vaccination information from door to door” (original UNICEF page LINK no longer accessible)

“ Obstacles to vaccination campaigns -Just one look at the map makes it clear to me: In a country that is six to seven times larger than Germany, many regions are hardly accessible. (…) Transporting any medication is complex and expensive. This is especially true for the oral polio vaccine, which is very sensitive to heat. Due to the remoteness of many villages, it is also difficult to inform all residents about the medical services available and to encourage them to get vaccinated. There is often no electricity, no television or radio. In addition, one must not forget that Congolese parents are also worried about harmful side effects of vaccinations.
However, resistance to vaccination in some regions is based primarily on cultural and religious reservations. Marco Kiabuta, a religious leader in a village in northern Katanga, preaches: „We don’t need vaccinations because we only have one doctor and that is God.“

To increase the willingness to be vaccinated, UNICEF and its partners are placing more emphasis on education. To this end, UNICEF is working with aid organizations, local initiatives and communities and offering training courses. Traditional and religious leaders such as village chiefs and priests are also being persuaded to work with them. Because they have easier access to the population due to their recognition as authorities. Their words are believed. Personal communication has proven to be the most effective. Trained community workers, health and vaccination assistants go from door to door, from family to family as so-called „mobilizers“ and explain the dangers of and protection against polio….”

The presentation sounds conventional in the original. Political and social problems in particular are only hinted at, in the manner of Aid organizations.

 

Into the world behind one-dimensional presentation of Sickness

The question of the possible use of the puppet does not leave me alone. The seller waves it off. The figure has passed through too many hands. I speculate randomly: When health workers go through the villages, as UNICEF reports, such a figure could have supported them. But could the terrifying doll really be suitable for that situation?

 

The ‘traditional’ African horizon of interpretation

 

I read in Frank Herreman: To Cure and Protect, Museum of African Art 1999, p.19:
“Many objects which show disease are used to caution against antisocial behavior. This is especially true of masks which are danced in performances teaching or reminding the members of the community about adult rules and responsibilities. Images of deformation are also considered representations of the negative forces ort malvolent spirits that are activated when moral values are transgressed….“

So the victims themselves are responsible for the serious illness that struck them? Is this perhaps a motive for elders to resist vaccinations, to give a big threat out of hand?

2024 : I would like to refer you to the blog „An expressive Mbangu Mask“ of the Pende (LINK)

 

Anecdotes

Telephone conversation with Prof. Joseph Franz Thiel (1932-2024), former missionary, academic and director of the Weltkulturenmuseum in Frankfurt. (Aug. 18th 2017)

Thiel is once again incredibly balanced. His relationship to the world of spirits, masks and figures is relaxed. He says that sleeping sickness is at the forefront of people’s interest. He talks about the medical teams that come to discover swellings in the ganglia. At this first stage, sleeping sickness can still be treated with injections. But since independence there are hardly any wards left and certainly no medication.

I describe the puppet.

Thiel: Yes, Pende, that is typical of them. They show the illnesses that others hide because they represent everyday life in a very concrete way. He starts talking about highly distorted illness masks. They dance them.

Me: but what about puppets?

He doesn’t know exactly: Dance or set up at certain times. He hasn’t heard of them being used by healers. He starts talking about literature, remembers an illustration, but can’t find it.

I say: the figure is solid, I estimate it to be half a century old.

Thiel: it could also be a whole century.

And he tells an anecdote: The last time he was in the villages of ‚his‘ Yanzi’, in 1971, neighbors of the Pende in Bandundu Province, he once sat with some elders, when a young, formerly beautiful woman crawled in. Of course, according to the people, she was bewitched and possessed by evil spirits.  She had also been impregnated by a married man, he learned on that occasion. Thiel was at least surprised: That’s not possible, she can’t look after the little one like that, the grandmother will have to do that! The old men’s answer: You can’t leave a fertile field fallow.

„The fertile womb“ among the Pende (Sept. 9th)

I come across the „fertile field“ argument again without this metaphor – in Zoé Strother’s „Inventing Masks“ (University of Chicago Press 1998).

She reports an incident from 1963-65, when, in response to a narrowly limited rebellion by Pende against the new regime in Kinshasa, soldiers plundered and set fire to numerous villages in the Pende region as a reprisal.
“Families fled into the forest. The mother of an acquaintance became separated from her family and was fleeing alone down a road with her young son strapped to her back. All of a sudden, she spied a soldier coming in her direction down the road. Fearing robbery or rape, she threw down her young son and fled off into the bush. Later, she was able to collect the boy and rejoin her family. The young woman no doubt reasoned instantly (and correctly) that the child was in little danger from the soldier. Nevertheless, there were witnesses. Some time later, when order was restored, the woman was called before the chief and elders to account for her actions. With a self-possession unusual in Pende women, who are not accustomed to speaking in public, she stood. She is reported to have answered with disdain: „Would you have me, a fertile woman, risk my life to defend a boy? … A boy who will never add a person to this lineage? (…) The woman’s bald statement scandalized the crowd. Her behaviour did not conform to the idealized love that a mother that a mother owe a child in Pende society. All the same, after hemming an hawing the chief could only dismiss her, saying weakly: Well, next time, try to take him with you.” (pp.3-4)

The Pende are organized on the basis of matrilineal rights, and women sometimes blame their husbands if they only give birth to sons and not daughters. (p.4)

The fertility of women means, socially speaking, the obligation to give birth. This is of course closely linked to the duties of a ‚mother‘, familiar from the Bakongo people in Kejsa Ekholm Friedman’s essay „Catastrophe and Creation“ (harwood academic publishers 1991, ISBN 3-7186-5186-6; chapter ‚A Modern Clan Society‘, section: „Duties of a woman“ ).

“They use us like brood hens…”die tageszeitung, Berlin 4.4.2012

taz 4.4.2012- Polio-Junge NOKongo

A reportage from Northeast Congo, Dungu district, in the rebel territory of Joseph Kony and his „LRA“.

First of all, this photo catches my eye. His family has left behind the paralyzed boy  in the village. Like the Pende boy, he was later found unharmed – The staged press photo seems to prove that. What thoughts and emotions was the picture to trigger in the European viewer?

A young  mother interviewed by reporter Simone Schlindwein  in a UNHCR camp 2012 fared worse. She and hundreds of classmates had been kidnapped from their school 2008 and enslaved. “They tied us together like slaves with a rope and dragged us into the bush.” The sexually mature girls were given to the fighters as wives. She was assigned to a Ugandan fighter and gave birth to her son ten months later. “They use us like brood hens to give birth to their children.”

 

J.F.Thiel :  “The Song of Antoinette Bukibi” in the Chapter „LITERATURE WITHOUT WRITING“

I finally got around to reading Josef Franz Thiel’s book, a unique book: „Jahre im Kongo“, Lembeck Verlag Frankfurt/Main 2001. It can be a foil that links all possible aspects of the society and thinking of the peoples of Central Africa. (2024 See Blog  Links, in German)

  • It is an introduction to ethnological thinking,
  • A field study and research report (between 1961 and 1971),
  • An activity report and analysis of the institutional framework of Catholic ’pagan mission’ in the 20th century (See Blog : „Josef Franz Thiel. Anekdoten beim Spaziergang an der Nidda erzählt“ (LINK)
  • An autobiography of a totally unpretentious and, for the most part, entertaining story-teller.

The Song of Antoinette Bukibi

On the pages 100 to 104, we meet the crippled woman Antoinette Bukibi again, performing her song in a traditional style in a convivial village setting. As a singer, she amazes the audience.

Thiel: „One evening I drove with my secretary Tanzey Bruno to his home village of Shie, which is only about seven kilometers from Manzasay. We had announced ourselves to some of the old people the day before. I took kola nuts, palm wine and cigarettes with me. If a younger person gives an old person these gifts and he accepts them, he is also obliged to give honest answers to his questions. Kola nuts and palm wine in particular are not just material gifts, but also express recognition of the older person’s higher status. They are therefore also popular offerings to the ancestors.
We sat down in a circle and began our conversation. Bruno managed the tape recorder so that I could be completely free for the conversation. At first we were almost only a group of men, but later more and more women and children joined us.

A young, crippled woman came crawling along on her hands and knees. She was holding a little block of wood in her hands and had a cloth wrapped around her abdomen. Her legs were completely bent. From crawling on the ground her knees resembled the hooves of an animal. But she had a beautiful face and her eyes looked intelligent and sharp-sighted. She sat down on the ground in front of me and asked me if she could recite something to me. I held out the microphone to her and she began to sing in a beautiful and firm voice. She sang in Kiyansi and only occasionally mixed in Kikongo expressions.

1.

Mother, the man of books has come this night. I had already seen him yesterday.        E ngo ya!

2.

When a child cries, you calm it down with lullabies. The fire also attacks the wood of the  Mpier tree.      Engo ya!

3.

The marten steals chickens, but Nzambi [God] steals people.      E ngo ya!

4

Last night I had an obscene dream, I didn’t dare tell my brothers-in-law.     E ngo ya!

5

I saw a strange thing: a rooster had horns on its calves.       E ngo ya!

6

The sorcerer is God’s little brother. When the white man passes by, you see him. When God passes by, will you see him too?          E ngo ya!

As is customary, I put a banknote in the singer’s mouth and gave her my full palm wine glass so that she could drink and I lit her a cigarette. She crouched at my chair for a while, smoking the cigarette in a womanly manner, i.e. with the fire in her mouth, then she slid out into the night on all fours and disappeared.
Her performance had impressed me, and everyone else too; there was a long silence. They had obviously not believed she had the courage to sing such a song. I had heard some of the content; the language was OK, but I had not understood the meaning.
When I had transcribed the wording together with Bruno over the next few days, I sat down with Bruno to discuss the background of the woman’s situation and her song.

The singer’s name is Antoinette Bukibi. She was a pretty young girl when she became ill. When she had been crippled for several years, a married man from the village impregnated her. She gave birth to a healthy girl who was about two years old in 1967. I made a disapproving remark about a man impregnating a woman who can only move with difficulty. But Bruno had a different opinion: „It is good that she gave birth, so she has not lived in vain and her name will not die.“ „But who will take care of the child? The man is married and has other children,“ I objected. „The Zum will take care of the child, as he is already doing for Antoinette. You yourself heard the old Sandukumpampa say last night: ‚A fertile field – you don’t let it lie fallow.'“ (101)

 J.F.Thiel transcribes, translates and interprets the text over the next few days with the help of his local assistant. Not only does the Bayansi poetics and their transformation of everyday realities come to light, but Antoinette Bukibi is also presented to us as a suffering and proud person, similar to Papa Ricky.

About the song’s content:

1. Antoinette incorporates my arrival in the village into her song. I was actually in Shie the day before with Bruno to register with the old people Kiana and Sandukum- mpampa for the evening.
2. Antoinette compares herself to a small child who is soothed with songs when it cries. The people in the village also talk to her in this way: her illness is a fate that nothing can be done about. She has to endure it. Even the large, shade-giving tree of the savannah Mpier (also called Lupier) is caught in the fire during fire hunting in the dry season and turns black; however, it does not burn. She should also be happy that she did not die. As soon as the rainy season begins, the tree sprouts again. She too has given birth to a daughter and, like Lupier, has brought forth new life.
3. Here Antoinette shows the typically traditional attitude of the Bayansi towards God: she compares him to a marten that catches chickens. The Bayansi often address God as chief. In the past they called God Nziampwu muil minawa in Kiyansi; today they like to say Mfumu Nzambi in Kikongo. Mfumu and Muil means chief. Perhaps they call God chief because, like him, he is uncontrollable and always gets his way. They have a fatalistic attitude towards God. One proverb says: „We are God’s bananas – he cuts some when they are green and others when they are ripe.“ And another says: „God has set a trap – the animals he catches with it are us humans.“ In this third verse, Antoinette seems to blame God for her situation. She will argue differently in verse 6.

4. In the fourth stanza, Antoinette compares her illness to a dream that is so obscene that she dares not tell her brothers-in-law about it. She uses the word buko (in Kikongo Bukilo) for brothers-in-law. This term refers to all in-laws. But it is certainly not the Parents in-law that are meant, because there is a strict taboo against them. However, there are joking relationships with the husband’s brothers and vice versa with the wife’s sisters (called „joking relationships“ in ethnology), as the brothers and sisters are potential marriage partners should the husband or wife die. In ethnology, this form of marriage is referred to as Levirate or Sororate. Joking relationships can also include intimacy and a lewd tone is usually permitted, especially if one party is still unmarried. If the husband goes away for a long time, he entrusts his wife to his younger brother. If a wife becomes ill or has a child, her younger sister or a cousin (i.e. a classificatory sister) often comes into the house to run the household. She is often also sexually available to the man, with his wife’s consent, because the wife is taboo to the man for almost two years after the birth of a child. Only when the father can send the child to fetch a light to light his cigarette or pipe – the child is then about two years old – is his head shaved for the first time and marital relations with the woman can be restarted.

Antoinette wants to say that her illness is as unspeakable as an obscene, even pomographic dream that she does not even dare to tell her brother-in-law, although she can have erotic relations with him. – In other words: she does not want to tell anyone about the suffering that being crippled brings her, because she is ashamed of it.

5. This verse is basically an embellishing  reinforcement of the previous one. Antoinette now compares her illness to a strange, incomprehensible, even never seen event: a rooster never has horns, and if it does, then never on its calves. Her illness is incomprehensible to her. Her life has been destroyed by it.

6. The sixth verse expresses the typical traditional way of thinking: the illness is caused by a sorcerer (Muloki, in Kiyansi Ngaa mu’m). The sorcerer is called „God’s little brother“ because, like him, he causes people to die. But then Antoinette highlights the difference between him and God: the white man is a powerful man; he has everything, can do everything – according to the villagers – and yet you see him when he comes to the village or when he passes by. Perhaps she is also alluding to the previous story, when she saw me but I didn’t see her. Then comes her decisive statement: you see everyone when they pass by, even the white man. But when God passes by, you don’t see him. But if you see the white man, you will definitely see the sorcerer one day. In other words: he will be exposed and punished. She hopes that justice will prevail in the end.

On other Girls’ Songs

Not all of the Bayansi songs are as cryptic and difficult to understand as Antoinette Bukibi’s. The girls‘ songs often take aim at the social misdeeds of the people in the village. When they sing their songs in the villages in the evening, the people affected are pilloried. But the villagers agree with this approach, even if they are occasionally exposed in this way. I received always the answer that the songs help to maintain order. However, it is almost always minor offenses that are socially ostracized in this way. For example, a girl was caught stealing fish at the market. The incident will, however, reduce her bride price. Or a father washes his little daughter in the stream without considering that this could be interpreted as incest (kud’).

On June 12, 1967, I recorded numerous songs by the girls from Shie with Bruno. The most difficult thing about the songs is not understanding them linguistically, but knowing all the details of the surroundings and all the allusions. I have sometimes made recordings and had them copied word for word on the spot. When I then translated them in Europe, I realized that although I understood everything linguistically, I lacked the necessary background knowledge to understand their meaning. Some gaps could be filled in by letter, but it also happened that I took tapes back to Africa, played them to people and asked them what they were trying to suggest. It would be ideal if everything could be worked out on site. But there are often other obstacles to this. (104)

On Childish Witchcraft in Kinshasa – My Postscriptum 26. July 2024

In some aspects Antoinette resembles Papa Ricky. And in my eyes her poetry and courage rises above the singing of the street singer in Kinshasa.

But Ricky’s simple language is also full of allusions, the meaning of which is easily hidden from us Europeans and Americans. The Belgian ethnologist Filip de Boeck, who specializes in West African megacities, has been describing the changes in Kinshasa for decades – in English. I have translated a few of his articles into German and collected them in a blog chapter (LINK)

Filip de Boeck wrote 2004  in his essay ‚The Second World – Children and Witchcraft in the Democratic Republic of Congo‚ – that ‚Child witches‘ have become so numerous in the streets of Kinshasa since the 1980s that even international press agencies and our television stations report on them from time to time. Children between the ages of four and eighteen are accused of witchcraft by family members, they are said to have caused mishaps and accidents, but also illness or death. Numerous local Pentecostal churches pay much attention to the figure of Satan, demons and the battle between good and evil. During holy masses and communal prayers, the children are urged to make public confessions in which they are asked to reveal their true nature as witches and name the number of their victims.
Seldom they succeed to reconcile the ‚witches‘ with their environment, as it should traditionally work.
In general, de Boeck warns against applying Western concepts of childhood and child protection to this situation without thinking. Children in Africa are not always just victims, but are also perceived as active agents, for example in public testimony against adults who allegedly introduced them to witchcraft, as feared child soldiers (who were drafted into Kinshasa with Kabila in 1997), as financially independent young people and finally in the mythology of the big city as „sugar dolls“ who are dangerous for men and are often associated with the mami-wata mermaid, which best expresses and raises awareness of the links between sexuality, gender, age, death, access to modern material goods and the „second world“. (36-37). (…) He draws our attention to the fact that, particularly in the predominantly ‘informal’ economy, young people have better chances than adults because they are often more ‘street smart’. (p.47, note 20 to 40 in  „Africa Screams“ , the catalogue of the Weltkulturenmuseum, Frankfurt 2004, ed. Tobias Wendt, pp.30-47)

In an extensive and passionate essay on the history of Kinshasa (LINK), de Boeck sums up in 2005:
• Kinshasa is getting younger and younger – youth gangs and youth culture
• The rural periphery has regained importance. While the city has become village-like in some respects, the bush is where dollars are generated and villages are transformed into booming diamond settlements.

À Suivre!    Avanti!

 

Begegnung mit einer hölzernen Leopardenmaske der Edo (Bini)

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>>  English Summary at the end

Hochgeladen 25.Oktober 2020, aktualisiert 19.Juli 2023

Drei Wochen im Oktober                 

Mein kongolesischer Händler und Freund auf dem Markt ist immer für Überraschungen gut. Von dem jungen Mann aus Brazzaville, der ihn gelegentlich mit Objekten „aus dem Norden“, wo die zentralafrikanischen Staaten aufeinandertreffen, versorgt, hat er eine Maske bekommen, die er „im Kongo nie gesehen“ hat. Kein Wunder, denn ist zu hundert Prozent ein Leopardenkopf im Stil der Benin-Bronzen. Damit hören die Gewissheiten aber bereits auf und die Irrfahrt durch die Fachliteratur beginnt. Der Kopf ist aus Holz.

Fagg-Nigeria-2000-Jahre-München-1961/62

 

 

 

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„Hommage aux anciens créateurs“ (Chéri Samba) – toujours de nouveaux épisodes!

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Publié le 2 sept. 2020    Dernieère version: le 10 mai 2023

LIEN à la version actuelle en allemand             LIEN au premier Blog sur la peinture de 1999 .

Actuellement au Quai Branly dans „EX AFRICA“ (LIEN)

JUILLET 2020

Une deuxième version du sujet apparaît dans le catalogue de l’exposition «Neue Kunst aus Afrika» de la «Haus der Kulturen der Welt» à Berlin, avec la date 1994.

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Religion et orthodoxie – non-communication au Congo belge – Kimbanguisme

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Religion et orthodoxie – communication coloniale au Congo belge – Kimbanguisme

Wyatt MacGaffey :“Kimbanguism & the Question of Syncrétism in Zaïre“ 1994

Traduction : v.Graeve (LIEN à la version en allemand).   4 Illustrations

Wyatt MacGaffey a publié l’essai dans l’anthologie intitulée à juste titre « Religion in Africa. Experience and expression », ed. Blakely et al., pp. 240-256 – 1994).

Il y présente les développements et les tactiques des églises revivalistes concurrentes dans les pas de Simon Kimbangu (1887 ou 1889 jusqu’ à 1951, mort en prison), disciple «baptiste», prophète visionaire 1921 et martyr. Il explique la communication perturbée dans le contexte de la domination coloniale. Je traduis (en italique) longues passages de son argumentation en espérant de ne pas brouiller la clarté de son concept par mes commentaires courts personnels. >>

Pende Dance Mask ‚Tundu‘ (?) with a Thick Lip – Email + deutsch

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Dear Zoé,

Maybe the email will bring  a little variety in your stressful academic day.

‚Tundu‘ on the left side

After a few random and bulky mask offers, it’s the first piece that can at least dialogue with my red mask made by „Mashini Gitshiola“ (LINK to „Beautiful Dancer of the Eighties“)

 

It wears well, is light (260g), smooth on the inside, a little shiny in the center. Her cap also fits me well and her fine whiskers are braided from the ends of the textile. >>

Encounter with ‚Belle Madeleine‘, a ‚Kifwebe‘ among the south-eastern Luba

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German original, uploaded:   |

On the market

In June 2019, Wardin Wamba, after his annual return from Congo, launches two „white woman“ masks of the kind used in kifwebe dances in south-east Luba.  At first I do not notice the special quality of the version of a mature woman, because of a fresh and oversized bushy beard made of raffia straw. Later, Wardin bravely cuts it off, and the mask instantly transforms into a slender, well-proportioned mask body of the kind pleasing to the eye and depicted in Felix (“Luba Zoo,” see below). So, on the first occasion, I only acquire the version of a young girl who populates the world of traditional Luba female sculpture, one has to say ‚adultimately‘. It is a typical dance mask: light, rubbed to a shine internally through the chin and skullcap of a slim dancer, with a view through three openings, and up to the top of the elaborate coiffure many practical drilled holes on three levels for fastening the costume. Wardin’s comment that the ‚Belle Madeleine‘ mask appeared with the popular animal masks and his reference to „books and the internet“ made me search Google Search and found what I was looking for. Here I quote a number from the random offer at ‚Google Images for …‘, where my uploads also appear – always without being asked: >>

„What is on the pictures in the archive?“ (Anthropology) plus „The Future is Blinking“

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First uploaded: May 28 to July 19, 2018   (Link to the German original); Reference to „The Future is Blinking“ July 13, 2022 >>

Stephen O. Murray on „The Ethnoromantic Temptation“ (1981) – Review

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Source: „The Scientist and the Irrational – Volume I – Contributions from Ethnology and Anthropology“ (1981)  Edited by Hans Peter Duerr” ​​- The title is still appealing. –  Translation : November 8, 2021 | dvg   Review written in German : 11.1.2020 (LINK)

In autumn 2019, while rummaging through an antiquarian bookshop, I came across two thick paperbacks that were published by Syndikat in Frankfurt forty years ago (1981). But as a high school teacher, I looked in a different direction. Its soiled cover still exudes some of its former elegance – bold colored frontispiece surrounded by white. Inside, there is bold black printing in a reader-friendly size, in complete contrast to Suhrkamp’s scientific paperbacks! >>

Fritz Wiegmann Portraits of American G.I.s – Leroy Schauder July 1945

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I wrote in the article about Wiegmann’s years in Hof a.d. Saale (in German,LINK):

Survival  –  In February 1945, Fritz Wiegmann was transferred from Berlin to Hof an der Saale in Upper Franconia for the purpose of a gallstone operation and was overtaken there by American troops in April 1945. The population of the city on the border to the Egerland swelled at times to 55,200 inhabitants due to refugees and displaced persons. At that time he also spoke to Stauffenberg’s widow several times, already behind American lines in the home of a family friend. Explosives for the assassination of Hitler had been supplied by the Secret Service and should have formed a crater. But the barracks had been dug in. v.Trott was the ‚head‘ of the opposition; his request in England for an armistice was answered in the negative: unconditional surrender! (Personal communication in the late 1960s.) Then the Iron Curtain put the region in an extreme peripheral position, cutting it off from the formerly neighboring Bohemia, Vogtland and Thuringia. The borders passed only a few kilometers from the town. For a cosmopolitan free spirit and big city dweller like Fritz, the place with its traditionally pronounced local pride was the most unsuitable cornerWhile he was for a short time prisoner of war, American officers and soldiers became aware of the portrait painter Wiegmann. In the Frankfurt City Archives are four reproductions and sixteen personal letters of thanks of American soldiers, often with home addresses. Wiegmann’s first home, three miles south of Hof, in Oberkotzau, is mentioned there. If we ask what Wiegmann lived on then, his contacts with the American garrison is certainly part of the answer.  (…….) >>

Afrika in Berlin – aktuelle Schlossführung durch GMZ (Gast)

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GMZ betreibt die literarisch–fotografische Webseite „Geschmackstablette – Kunst und Karma“ (LINK). (Warum gerade ‚Karma‘? Vielleicht sollte ich ihn einfach ‚mal fragen.) Die Beiträge über Berlin und seine Eindrücke vom Besuch des Humboldtforum sollten nicht nur die Brüder Alexander und Wilhelm möglichst bald lesen!   Gv

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(9) Duala Model Boats – Traded, stored, damaged, forgotten, rediscovered

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Updates and additions January 8, 2022

1. Work report        2. Case study (Kraków, Poland)

One trendy keyword you may expect  in the headline is missing: „stolen“. And another keyword: „Saved“. >>

Duala-Model Boats … (8): African Art Collectors Owen D. Mort jr. (USA) and Alain Veyret (France)

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Revised 26.9.2021 – Original in German:

*

On the trails of the twenty-seven model boats Leo Frobenius presented in 1897, my inquiries were well received throughout Europe and the USA. In the meantime I have come across the boat beak (‚tange‘) of my boat – described in post (2/3) – on three more models. Two of them are now in museums, two with modern private collectors.

Post (7a) put us back in the year 1925 and we were able to follow a boat model from J.F.G. Umlauff Company in Hamburg to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. We even met the legendary art collector Baron von der Heydt.

The other three canoe models have only reached Europe or America in the last two decades. There is some evidence that they were brought directly from Cameroon. My acquisition history was told in post (2/3).

Owen D. Mort Jr. and Alain Veyret deserve particular interest with their biographies, which are typical for many collectors. >>

Braucht Afrika noch Löwen oder Waldelefanten? (deutsch/englisch)

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„Das Muster des Naturschutzes in Zentralafrika scheitert gerade“  – Bericht von einer Expertentagung in Yaoundé/Kamerun, von Eric Njono Nana

„The pattern of conservation in Central Africa is failing: an analysis of the current situation„Academia Letters, Article 3349 by Eric Njono Nana >>

E/F1.6 Cameroun, plumé par la France / Cameroon, managed by France

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ORIGINAL : „DUALA“ (6) : Kamerun – Vom Treuhänder in die Unterentwicklung geführt – DEUTSCH (24.5.2021)  (LINK)     + 2 acaps „Briefing notes:  21-january-20 and 29 june 2023

Preface

Admittedly, I have a hard time with the political chapters (5) and (6) of this blog. A broad topic that can hardly be seen through from the outside, and which can make you angry or depressed, depending on your point of view. What I, as a contemporary of the 20th century, had noticed from the colonialism of Europe – especially France – shows its ugly face again in the current long-term consequences. Hence the sarcastic headline.

Certes, j’ai du mal avec les chapitres politiques (5) et (6) de ce blog. Un sujet large que l’on ne voit guère de l’extérieur, et qui peut vous mettre en colère ou déprimé, selon votre point de vue. Ce que moi, en tant que contemporain du XXe siècle, avais remarqué du colonialisme de l’Europe – en particulier de la France – montre à nouveau sa grimace dans les conséquences actuelles à long terme. D’où le titre sarcastique. >>

«Douala»(F/E 5): «Étrangers africains» / „African Foreigners“

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L’expression «étrangers africains», qui fait référence aux «Africains» en «Afrique», peut être irritante au début, mais elle décrit le sort d’un nombre infini de personnes en Afrique post-coloniale, pas seulement les réfugiés. Voyons comment les délimitations coloniales et postcoloniales, mais aussi les systèmes juridiques importés, ont créé de nouvelles injustices dans la région des deltas fluviaux communicants.

The phrase “African foreigners”, which refers to “Africans” in “Africa”, may be irritating at first, but it describes the plight of an endless number of people in post-colonial Africa, not just refugees. Let us see how colonial and postcolonial boundaries, but also imported legal systems, created new injustices in the region of the communicating river deltas.  >>

My Special Duala War Canoe Model – (E 1.2)+(1.3) Acquisition etc.

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For wider distribution,  parts (2) and (3) of my first attempt a year ago are now available in English. I’m currently working on a sequel with additional sources and a slightly different perspective, but the earlier texts retain their introductory value.

v.Graeve February 26, 2021

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‘Making History – African Collectors and the Canon…“) Review

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German original: August 27, 2015 plus Supplement Sept. 03,2018  (LINK); revised translation November 13,2020

Some Nigerian entrepreneurs in Lagos collect works of art from African cultures. Due to their geographic location, their collections do not have access to the international cartel of influential museums, auction houses and collectors. The art historian Sylvester O. Ogbechie presents the collection of Feti Akinsanya as representative.

Sylvester Okwonudu Ogbechie: ‚Making History – African Collectors and the Canon of African Art‘: The Femi Akinsanya African Art Collection. (Five Continents 2011)

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„From Russia With Doubt“ (Russian Avantgarde) – Review

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  German original LINK: 13. August 2015 | dvg     Translation: 13. November 2020

(RON AND ROGER)

A friend has been collecting images of the Russian avant-garde and has been fighting for their recognition over years, which means the quest to authenticate would be masterpieces. That is the subtitle of an American museum publication (on the exhibition at MCA Denver 2010) that also could come to his aid as it happened to the two collectors Ron and Roger: >>

Popular paintings from the Congo on their way to the bin!

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deutsch : June 19, 2020 | dvg (LINK)

PRESENTATION OF MATERIAL AND SIDE VIEW ON JOHANNES FABIAN “REMEMBERING THE PRESENT –  PAINTING AND POPULAR HISTORY IN ZAIRE ”(1996)

When five tattered and dirty canvases appeared at the flea market last year, it was clearly their last stop. The trader didn‘t give up his inflated price; he preferred to use the scraps a few more times for decoration. Now the flea market is dead and the trader is being stuck in Africa. Will that be their end? >>

Chéri Samba rend hommage «aux anciens créateurs» et à Han Coray

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      10 mai 2020 | 7 juin 2020  traduction: dvg                 version allemand: LIEN

 

Dans sa revue d’exposition de «Fiction Congo» au Rietberg, Maria Becker (NZZ, 29 janvier 2018) spécifiquement attire l’attention sur le numéro 1 dans le catalogue. Dans un texte manuscrit sur le carton, le peintre «folklorique» kinois Chéri Samba décrit sa rencontre avec des sculptures traditionnelles africaines dans les salles du Musée Ethnologique de l’Université de Zurich.

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Douala (3) – Description et interprétation de la maquette

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Version francaise du 6. juin 2020 –  version actuelle

LIEN > Part (2) et LIEN > Part (1) en francais.

Compétition héraldique:

Le drapeau commercial de l’Empire allemand avec une décoration allégorique sur le bec de bateau – et à la poupe le drapeau encore plus grand du Roi Akwa. Sous le parasol se trouve un dignitaire vêtu de blanc, un représentant de la maison de commerce Woermann? À quelle occasion? La décoration de la pirogue répond certainement au souhait du «roi» d’une forte représentation en concurrence avec l’Empire.

«Pirogue de Guerre des Douala au Cameroun» 1884 >>

Les Douala ont façonné l’histoire du Cameroun – version française (F 1.1)

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21 avril – juin 2020  version allemande LIEN|  traduction de l’auteur 2 juin 2020

La raison de cette présentation de l’histoire est l’achat d’une maquette de bateau du Douala en novembre/décembre 2019 (LIEN 2, LIEN 3)          PRINTS: 92% = 15 PAGES

Avant-propos

La compilation des textes est expérimentale. J’ai lu divers études et j’ai repris leurs perspectives. Plus je lis, plus il y a clairement des lacunes et des écarts entre les représentations. Des traductions étaient inévitables, parfois des traductions inversées aussi. Des images historiques ont beaucoup aidé mon imagination.  Vous pouvez les agrandir en cliquant dessus. Vous trouverez une bibliographie annotée à la fin de cette première contribution. >>

Marie-Alain Couturier (*1897) and the destroyed fetishes (1951)

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May 25, 2016 |GERMAN (LINK) dvg

Brother Couturier regrets the role of the Catholic mission in the destruction of pre-colonial culture, but has more to say. >>

Delcommune vs. Boma – Storms vs. Lusinga (Tervuren, ARTE)

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18 mai 2020  |  VERSION FRANCAISE  |  Version allemande > LINK

DEUX ASPECTS D‘ UNE „ARTE “ RÉPORTAGE  SUR LA «DÉCOLONIALISATION» DU MUSÉE TERVUREN >>

Hans Himmelheber im Kongo (Rietberg) – plus Version en francais

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Upload   7.April, Version francaise (darunter angefügt)  2.Mai 2020

Was kann aus dieser zwiespältigen historischen Figur Himmelheber in einer durch „Kolonialismus“-Debatten bestimmten Zeit noch werden?

Die Frage bildete wohl den unausgesprochenen Hintergrund des Ausstellungsprojekts  „Fiktion Kongo – Kunstwelten zwischen Geschichte und Gegenwart“ im Museum Rietberg in Zürich von November 2019 bis März 2020 (Katalog CHF 49.-)

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Tightly Wrapped Healer (‘LUBA?) on a ‚Soul Journey‘

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A provisional translation from German original (LINK), by DvG

object documentation (c dvg)

Origin ( LUBA?) and significance were unknown to the trader. Origin might be of minor relevance, he said.  But the person has a strong charisma, regardless of the feeding marks, so it’s a work of art! Care and abrasion over a long period of time let the undamaged parts of the surface shine discreetly. So it has been a cult object! >>

depot number EO.0.0.0.7943 from Boma to Tervuren (Review)

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September 7, 2018 | dvg   Original in German (Link)

For those who want to know the whole story, they have BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review, vol.133-2 (2018) pp. 79-90) in their June No. uploaded (LINK). Good to read, vivid, not too long      Translation has to be revised!  6.3.22

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„The Whites hold our Spirits !“- Submission, Sorcery and Alienation

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READER  of  three reports  which offer views from additional perspective. They demand and invite to further reflexion. Please, take your time with your own print-outs (9 pp. 97% PC) as I will do.

     Jan Vansina: Paths in the Rainforests (1990) chapter 8 (overview)  
     Pierre Petit: Power and Alienation among the Luba of Katanga (1996)
     Zoé S. Strother: Suspected in sorcery (1996)

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Francfort sur Main. Brocante en 2019 – Illumination spontanée du Moine

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Écrit le 12.2., rédigé le 8.3.2019  (2nd version d’un Allemand)   Original allemand :LINK

 

La pièce devant moi serait-il authentique? Incroyable.
Je ne comprends toujours pas le marché mondial. Comment les biens matériels peuvent-ils migrer si indétectables? La richesse, incroyablement concentrée dans notre région, les suce irrésistiblement.

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MATALA: Beautiful Dancer of the Eighties (Mask, Pende)

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NEW EDITION  07.03.2019  (First edited 31.12.2018) WITH DEBATE AND 4 PHOTOS BY MARVIN GOERTZ              Link to the German Version (since 28.12.18)

Preliminary Note

„There is so much malnutrition in the Bandundu Province that people have not been dancing much since 1990“ (Z.S.Strother, 2007) „Although the masking situation in the Bandundu was unhealthy in 2007, in 2017-18 there were a number of (large) mukanda camps in the Kasai“ (Z.S.Strother, Jan. 2019)

Once upon a time …. The Pende liked dance performances like crazy. Social event! >>

Charles Ratton et la Question de «Provenance»

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 Ma plus belle version francaise – Des citations en anglais en version originale!

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An expressive Mbangu Mask, Central Pende

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Translated from the German Original (Link)

26cm high (visible 23) , 17.5 cm wide, 460g

26cm high (visible 23) , 17.5 cm wide, 460g – Click to enlarge the icons

 

 

The mask is sweepingly generalized, inside coarse, but functional, e.g. with its wide channel between the eye openings. My face fits in perfectly, the view slightly downward is good. The edges are slightly rounded and show some shine. Willy knows the wood from Pende masks,

The front of the mask shows no superfluous cut or smoothing. So the the area covered by the cap was treated only with the chisel. On the black right side, slight blade marks give additional dynamics to the surfaces.

From the beginning I associate the performance of an excited dancer who is set to play the role of the cursed but militant man. >>

Zwischen Stilleben und Landschaft – Taschenalbum 1932 (aktuell!)

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f-wiegmann-taschenalbum-1930er_xx

Hochgeladen am 14.12.2016

English Translation and a wonderful painting dated 1932 and signed Wiegmann – like emerging out of the fog!  

>   AT THE END

Ein kleines Taschenalbum von 11 cm Breite und  6 cm Höhe, in rotes Kunstleder gebunden, enthält heute noch sechzehn fotografische Reproduktionen von Bildern Wiegmanns vom Beginn der dreißiger Jahre. Die kräftigen Hochglanzfotografien von 6 x 4 cm  bis 8 x  5 1/2 cm  sind auf hellgraues oder grünes Papier geklebt, passend für die Zellophan-Taschen. Wir blicken auf sie wie aus großer Entfernung. Sie wirken in ihren kräftigen Schwärzen wie Miniaturen. Man ahnt mehr als man sieht. Details gehen unter, aber das scheint den Benutzer nicht zu stören. Die Bilder sind einfach da. Ikonen. War dies ein Album für die Westentasche, für das Reisegepäck zur eigenen Rückversicherung oder als künstlerische Visitenkarte für unvorhergesehene Gelegenheiten? >>

Social Defense in Northern Ivory Coast 1990 – 2011 (Blog version)

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I published a Short Report of the Study in my Blog (in German)   Here is an English Translation in a provisional version!   21.5.2018  v.Graeve  (Revised 6.8.2018)

TILL FÖRSTER: LA PAX DANS AND ZONE DE GUERRE.
Politique africaine no.148 – décembre 2017, p.109-129

The term ’social defense‘  may be not as common today as it was in the seventies and eighties (Link: Wikipedia), but it fits to the features of the crisis and activities described in the essay. 
The title of Till Förster’s dossier says freely translated: „Peace in a War Zone. The Ivorian crisis viewed from below and over a long period“. The focus lies on ‚Islands of peace‘ in the area around Korhogo and Boundiali on the Ivory Coast. The author has done extensive fieldwork ever since 1979 to the present. >>

Songye – Belande -Luba: miniature de Nkishi

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Publié le 14 février 2017

Version originale : 10 février 2017

Quel genre de figure?

Songye Miniatur IMG_8314 Fétiche (Nkishi) : ouvertures dans le dos et le nombril

Esclave : ses mains liées ensemble – Felix (100 Peuples) mentionne le statut traditionnel des esclaves.

Belle femme : coiffure noble élaborée avec le front rasé, le cou droit et assez long avec trois rouleaux; La femme porte 11 minuscules clous de cuivre comme ornement: 3 du nez à l’arrière, 2 aux yeux, 6 à la droite et à la gauche des tempes; elle a des yeux haricots expressifs (élévations plus ongles) et un sourire désarmant comme un visage souriant. Elle regarde directement le spectateur avec les sourcils levés et marqués et les yeux perçants, son sourire transmet la sérénité. Elle est très enceinte avec un ventre attrayant, creux inférieur dos et belles fesses. L’attitude est impeccable. Le maître n’a rien fait de superflu.

Style, design, soin et condition – Une miniature parfaite de 21 cm

Proportions: classique et vitale: Vue frontale: tête et cou plus d’un tiers (8,5 cm), le tronc des clavicules au  clitoris (8,5 cm), genou,  pieds et  piédestal (4 cm). Et par derrière: les mains liées forment un centre abaissé : 8 cm en dessous et au dessus de 13 cm.

Design: Contours clairs et encisions fortes: cheveux, oreilles, sourcils, yeux, ailes de nez, bouche, clitoris, pieds

Polissage : Le visage apparaît plus poli que le corps, où les coupes fines sont encore visibles d’une manière agréable. Les coupes sont beaucoup plus petites que celles du cavalier Mbala.

Soin et entretien: Soin-patine sombre comme celle de mes plus anciens Ibedjis. Le front, le nez et la bouche, les seins hauts, les avant-bras, les mains attachées et les pieds montrent une abrasion brillante et reflètent la lumière, de sorte que la figurine semble toujours intéressante. Les petits défauts du bras et du bas du corps apparaissent comme des défauts du bois. Odeur fraîche très discrète.

Provenance

Qui aime douter si le fournisseur propose une provenance! Dans ce cas, c’était Zela en premier lieu, ou Luba-Katanga, Hemba, Luba-Shankadi , qui signifiait une origine à l’est de la Lualaba vers les lacs.

D’où est-ce que je connais la coiffure? De deux miniatures de médecine, de l’est du Congo à la Tanzanie. La forme en croissant de la bouche me rappelle les masques de singes des Hemba. Je cherche des arguments plus formels et les trouve dans Nooter / Roberts Memory (Luba) p.213 cat.90 : chef masculin de Kusu (bouche); p.181 cat. 75 Luba masque considérablement allongé (la bouche); p.158 fig. 149 Luba chef photo 1916 (sourcils), ainsi que dans Nooter Secrecy chat. 36 L’arc luba se dressait : cou, seins, lèvres, pieds vifs – mais l’impression générale ne souligne que les différences typiques entre les figures luba et lubaized d’un côté, et les fétiches Songye de l’autre.

Dès le premier moment j’étais convaincu d’une origine Songye-Belande-Milembwe !

Neyt: Songye p.380-81 Style I caractérisé par le sourire Makishi, dans une région à 100 km à l’ouest de la Lualaba et aujourd’hui à environ 200 km au nord-ouest de la proposition, Zela.

Les meilleurs exemples sont cat. 4 et 8 , les deux 58 cm de haut:

Neyt-Songye, Tf. 4 style I

Neyt-Songye, Tf. 4 style I

Neyt-Songye, Tf. 8 style I

Neyt-Songye, Tf. 8 style I

 

Arguments pour une origine des Songye-Belande dans la région de transition vers Luba!

  • Pas de fille Luba timide avec des yeux baissés et des mains-à-ses-seins, mais sûre d’elle.
  • Pas de tatouage du ventre, mais un petit tatouage cloué au visage qui pourrait tout aussi bien avoir la fonction de médicaments.
  • L’ouverture dans le crâne aurait pu loger une corne ou un bouchon sur certains médicaments
  • Le corps hautement enceinte avec le dos creux typique, l’agilité physique, le sourire effronté et l’ouverture
  • en particulier les pieds et le piédestal: la bande de séparation droite entre les pieds et leur adaptation active à la base hémisphérique
  • Je ne vois nulle part dans le livre cette solution technique pour les yeux, mais le même effet peut être atteint différemment, par exemple par des globes oculaires également bossu.

  • Neyt_Miniatures Zaire Songye Titel

    Neyt_Miniatures Zaire Songye Titel

    Neyt_Miniatures Zaire Songye 21 cm

    Neyt_Miniatures Zaire Songye 21 cm

Resolution par Palaver (or Brainstorming )

Maintenant W. entre la scène. Il est congolais aussi, et il confirme son collègue: la coiffure est purement Luba, et aussi le nez, les fesses, les jambes. Il nous montre même sur son smartphone ce genre de bouche – comme une demi-lune – comme Luba. Les pieds sont cependant absolument Songye. Après tout, il situe la figure sur la même frontière intertribale que moi. (Je suis un bon client!) Son compatriote se corrige légèrement: Autour de Kongolo sur le Luba Luba live, Hemba et Songye dans un mix coloré.

Songye Miniatur IMG_8313 Songye Miniatur IMG_8327

 

 Question: Les Songye avaient-ils traditionnellement des „esclaves“?

Oui, ils l’avaient. Alan P. Merriam (Un Monde Africain – Le Village Basongye de Lupupa Ngye , 1974) écrit à la p.234 à propos d‘ un deuxième type de mariage , mukashanda a bubika, qui signifie à peu près «femme esclave» (et cela à côté d’un troisième et quatrième type de mariage). La femme est acquise dans une transaction en espèces et a un statut intermédiaire fixe. Elle n’est pas une femme  mulangantu . Si sa famille est connue, vous n’auriez pas à respecter son père ou sa mère. Le prix de la mariée est payé à la fois et en espèces. Sa force de travail et ses enfants appartiennent à l’homme et à sa lignée. Si la relation reste sans enfant, elle peut être revendue. Le problème de ce statut pour la femme est: Elle n’a aucun soutien dans sa famille d’origine. – Cette forme de mariage existait aussi sous le Bakongo, au moins depuis le 19ème siècle ( MacGaffey). Était-elle répandue dans tout le Congo?

Selon les informateurs de Lupupa, ces femmes ne sont jamais des Songye, mais plutôt des Luba ou des Tetela. – Nous avons donc affaire à des étrangers. Cela ne correspond-il pas parfaitement à l’institution du fétiche? J’ai lu un peu dans Fritz Kramer „Der rote Fez“ sur le  „pepo“ sur la côte Est (page 99 et suivantes) et j’ai quelques idées:

Oui, la femme achetée de l’extérieur peut souffrir d’un manque de soutien; et ses enfants sont expropriés, mais elle reste aussi étrangère à son mari. Questions intéressantes: Pourquoi l’a-t-il épousé? Quel était son rôle social dans le village?

Le fétiche incarne aussi une sorte d’étrangeté similaire. Est-ce que les mains liées indiquent  plus le statut d’étrangeté que le manque de liberté? Le symbole des mains liées sous cet aspect peut-il être comparé à la bisexualité ou à la duplicité des autres figures de Makishi?

Chez les Milembwe et les Belande, on fabrique souvent des Makishi purement féminins. Est-ce que les mains liées indiqueraient la présence d’un esprit capturé dans le Nkishi si les mains n’étaient pas nécessaires pour accentuer l’énergie du nombril? Parfois, un masque représente déjà un esprit féminin spécial! Nous devrions vérifier à nouveau avec Dunja Hersak le statut de la sorcière parmi les Songye!

 

Commentaire sur l’esclavage – un tabou pour les gens autour de moi!

En Europe, toute forme d’esclavage est actuellement taboue , même si elle se produit considérablement dans notre sphère d’influence.

Merriam a parlé du cas du village de Songye. L’État providence doit intervenir par des mesures et des paiements de transfert. L’ise de la «famille nucléaire» dans la société moderne généralise l’isolement des individus. Dans des situations problématiques. Pendant ce temps, l’institution du mariage est affaiblie et dissoute dans l’arbitraire.

La variété des modèles pour les couples dans les sociétés africaines traditionnelles est vraiment moderne! Les gens ne semblent pas s’en passer.

(Mon auto-traduction pourrait être une amélioration du texte original.

27. février
Aujourd’hui, les comparaisons que j’ai trouvées éclairantes il y a quelques jours me semblent inappropriées.

L’occasion est typique de la perception d’un Européen de l’Ouest: un rapport circulant sur le net sur le mariage forcé au Congo. Le site Web du HCR – <em> http://www.refworld.org/docid/3f7d4e0a15.html; Le document RDC41768.F – diffuse un rapport reçu par la Commission de l’immigration et du statut de réfugié du Canada le 14 juillet 2003 d’un scientifique de l’Université de Kinshasa. Ce sera probablement toujours d’actualité. – Français original:

En RDC, il y a plus de 300 tribus [au sein desquelles] la plupart des femmes sont victimes de coutumes et de traditions négatives qui poussent à se suicider, à quitter le pays …

Parmi ces tribus nous avons les Yansi avec le système des mariages forcés «Kityul». Les Yansi sont matrilinéaires. Les filles et les femmes constituant les richesses pour le clan car elles sont elles qui sont «les» enfants et garantissent le clan. [C] ‚est grâce à filles qui génèrent des «filles» que la famille est riche pour continuer avec le système «Kityul» qui enrichit le clan avec les dots destinés au grand-père de la fille.

Les filles sont forcées de se marier avec [leurs] grands-pères, ses cousins ou neveux. La fille peut avoir 12 ans et le mari 70 ans, 80 ans. Les parents n’ont rien à dire devant la décision qui vient des ancêtres. La fille est mariée, c’est un don de clan. Par contre, pour nuire à la fille en cas de refus de mariage, le grand-père fiancé demande le remboursement de la dot fictive qu’il n’a pas payé [e], un montant exorbitant dont le nouveau fiancé peut même être incapable de calculer.

Pourquoi les filles acceptent cette violence? Pourquoi les parents sont dépassés? Ils ont peur de [mourir] à cause de la sorcellerie qui décime le clan jusqu’à la 5e génération.

La fille ou la femme veuve est aussi léguée comme héritage après la mort de son mari au frère, cousin ou grand-père du mari car il a reçu la dot. Avant de reprendre sa vie sexuelle après la mort de son mari, elle doit être couchée par un homme choisi par le clan du mari soi-disant pour se débarrasser des mauvais esprits de son mari défunt.

Conséquence: les femmes et les jeunes filles vulnérables et qui ont été étudiées ou qui ont été sensibilisées [s] par les ONG qui militent pour la paix préfèrent prendre la poudre d’escampette, fuir pour aller vivre ailleurs. Tribus au Congo: chez les Bakongo, les gens de Bandundu, chez les Baluba, etc.

Les femmes Baluba sont également victimes des mariages forcés avec des diamantaires, des polygames et qui ne respectent pas la femme comme personne. Un homme peut marier trois ou quatre filles sœurs de même père, même mère; pour l’homme, c’est son argent qui compte, les épouses habitent la même maison et se partagent tout en commun. Pour un homme qui refuse les ordres du clan ou une fille qui refuse, tous les deux sont ensorcelés, empoisonnés et méritent la sanction de la mort.

Jusque là, nous en tant que ONG, essayons de sensibiliser les femmes sur la violence dont elles sont victimes. Nous sensibilisons aussi les hommes […] sur la discrimination à l’égard de la femme, mais jusque là, le pays juge les victimes suivant la loi coutumière et nous proposons au Parlement [d’adopter] certaines lois pour lutter contre le phénomène Kityul »et le mariage précoce des filles car les filles sont majeures à l’âge de 14 ans. Nous avons adressé une note à un gouvernement pour que les dispositions concernant l’âge nubile de la fille soit revue [s] to 18 years and supprimer certaines dispositions coutumières qui avilissent l’image de la femme et violent ses droits et la pousse à s ‚ immigrer.

Une telle moralité destructrice des chefs a des effets désastreux sur le groupe, alimentant la discorde dans le groupe et entre les générations. MacGaffey et Ekholm Friedman décrivent cette maladie de la société congolaise, qui a émergé parmi les peuples côtiers esclavagistes au 19ème siècle et a survécu aux dirigeants coloniaux. Les chefs et les sorciers irresponsables se sont fait détester pour les avantages à courte vue des deux derniers sièclesLeur position qu’ils espèrent cimenter par la ruse et la violence. Despotes du village!  Alors Kinshasa éclatera et la terre plate saignera encore.

TROIS GRANDES STATUES DU MAYOMBE (BAS CONGO) – frz.

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  • LIEN au texte originale (allemand)

25 janvier 2017|dvg – version encore provisoire le 10 juillet 2022

Keller mit Schrein-IMG_2242Le groupe de figures Yombe a initié, il y a un an, le „Projet Congo“ sur ce page Web mais il n’est y pas arrivé ici jusqu’à ce jour.

Je commence par les descriptions de la femme et du chien pour faire regarder les deux de plus près. Je présente des lieux où on trouvent tels groupes de figures, et je vais finir avec quelques réflexions sur la figure mâle.

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Rider on leopard – from the Mbala, neighbors of the Yaka

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Published: 17 february 2017                         Original version  22 january 2017

A delicate double figure of a land chief, 32 cm high. Dark patina shining red on the edges, dense wood. Condition: Good. It was part of a family treasure. I cannot say how old, as Mobutu since 1965 has modernized and solidified the rights of those who traditionally possessed the ground. A remarkable resistance to the German climate points to an earlier date of making. >>

The power of the Nkishi in the leather skirt (Milembwe – Songye)

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published 17 february 2017

Original version 22 november 2016  

The attached picture numbers ( no … ) refer to the monograph by Francois Neyt : La redoutable Statuaire Songye d’Afrique Centrale, Fonds Mercator, Antwerp (5 continents) 2004.

Milembwe-img_6909milembwe-img_6900

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Mayombe – Paradies mit kleinen Mängeln (1912) (deutsch/englisch)

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Touring C

 

(Vergrößern durch Anklicken!)
 Upload 13. April 2016

PARADIES MIT KLEINEN MÄNGELN

Ich suchte nach Karten des Mayumbe-Gebiets, alten und neuen. Die schönste fand sich im Panorama du Congo – Édité par le Touring Club de Belgique, Bruxelles (o.J., um 1912). >>

C. Einstein ‚Negro sculpture‘ – Revisited with Z.S. Strother

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 Link to the original text „ Wieder zu ‚Negerplastik‘ …“ 

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Z.S. Strother, “ A la Recherche de l’Afrique dans Negerplastik de Carl Einstein „ , Gradhiva 14-2011, 30-55, mis en ligne le 30 novembre 2014 URL: http://gradhiva.revues.org/2130 – an electronic publication of the Museum Quai Branly , Paris . The American original is also available on the net under the title: Looking for Africa in Carl Einstein’s Negro Sculpture . >>