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Global Stories by. Eden G

Urban Now: Life in Congo

In this exhibition, Baloji focuses on the “Urban now” of city life in the Congo, living in between the consequences of colonialism and the broken promises of a neoliberal future. These images not only encapsulate images of what Congolese Urban lives look like but also the hopes for the future. But ironically, the future they fantasize, reproduces past colonial segregated structures. In most academic discussions of neocolonialism, it is a very jargon heavy complex discussion. But more importantly it usually leaves out the images and emotions of those living under these structures. In the specific case of the Congo, the mining sector and neocolonialism is discussed very heavily in academic discourse, but very little of it comes from Congolese people.

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1. Cite de Kawama The idea of dirt borders comes up again in Cite de Kawama. One image is the reality of a temporary mining shanty town and the other is a Chinese advertising poster on the walls of the miner's temporary towns. These images portray a promise of upward mobility and benefits to workers. These images once again are drawing a line between displaced workers living in temporary conditions and towns of luxury that they will never experience. It also shows the border between dirt labor and clean luxurious living. It is where those that mine and those that benefit from the dangerous labor.
2. Essay on Urban Planning The essay on Urban Planning puts twelve rectangular aerial photographs from the past and present of Lubumbashi with photos of classified specimens of flies and mosquitoes. The aerial photographs from the past show the visible corridors created between white and Black settlements in colonial times for security and hygiene reasons. The Belgians set up quarantine areas around fly invested areas but used it as an excuse to segregate and control movement. Along with his piece Sammy Beloji cites The Development of the Congo, written in 1931 in which a provincial engineer in Katanga explains the zones in between the white and Black settlements. [It] divides the lives of blacks from those of whites: it keeps the latter safe from the sources of malaria, and from the rowdy activities of blacks, so creating completely independent living conditions for each race . . . it is a true cordon sanitaire, placed at a right angle from the prevailing winds . . . our urban planning contents itself with creating developments that satisfy conditions of hygiene, salubrity and security, giving the white and black races the opportunity to live according to the hopes and needs of each, however modest these might be. Beloji notes that Malaria materialized as dirt in the minds of the colonists. Sirt is invisible but becomes visible when associated with an impurity—malaria and the “...racialized other.” In his installation dirt is absent but “...displayed in the cordon sanitaire corridor, which was designed to put colonials away from the “dirt” of colonized peoples, to leave what they perceived as dirty in its place.” Typically, in discussions of neoliberalism, neocolonialism, economic and political development have certain academic limitations. For instance, scholars are required to match their findings to official data points or ethnographical data. In addition, a lot of pieces are limited by language, and academic fields. But Sammy Beloji’s work is art from a person that grew up in and lives in the areas that experienced colonialism giving him a distinct experience that he expresses in a form that transcends language and “academic expertise.” It is not that scholars do not try to express what Beloji is trying to convey, but he does it in a way that is free of limiting academic factors.
3. Memoire Beloji’s series Memoire/Kolwezi focuses on mining sites of colonial times to the present day that focuses on artisanal mining extraction; which is the most practice of survival for Congolese miners. The mining industry is an extremely unstable sector and is in no way treated as reliable source of income. As a result of the reduction in business and low metal prices most Congolese workers turned to unregulated and artisanal mining. Due to the unregulated nature, miners are hardly visible, Baloji photos reveal the mining landscapes and the miners that live and work there. In the photographs that workers are hardly visible and are usually covered in dirt or lost in the landscape depriving them of visibility and humanity. Artisanal mining is dangerous and often associated with a high level of displacement In this case unless you are an expert, usually knowledge of Congolese mines, the people the mine them, and the materials that come from them. The importance of these workers and the conditions they experience are not as visible. But the way that Sammy Baloji depicts these mines, the image of neocolonialism is very powerful.
4. Urban Now: Life in Congo In this exhibition, Baloji focuses on the “Urban now” of city life in the Congo, living in between the consequences of colonialism and the broken promises of a neoliberal future. These images not only encapsulate images of what Congolese Urban lives look like but also the hopes for the future. But ironically, the future they fantasize, reproduces past colonial segregated structures. In most academic discussions of neocolonialism, it is a very jargon heavy complex discussion. But more importantly it usually leaves out the images and emotions of those living under these structures. In the specific case of the Congo, the mining sector and neocolonialism is discussed very heavily in academic discourse, but very little of it comes from Congolese people.
5. Kalasa: The Slaughter House of Dreams or the First Human, Bende’s Error This artwork is from an interactive video installation exploring how Luba history exists through all different forms of media. Kalasa is a type of Luba praise free verse poetry that retells myths, fables, proverbs, and history. It is sung or spoken by men and women who are specialists in this area, and are usually done at events, functions, or funerals. The copper instruments accompany Kalasa, and other works are x-ray images of ritual sculptures, dancers, which are covered by images of floating minerals that “underscores and overwrites” all Congolese history. This interactive installation tells many stories. One of them being invisibility of Congolese history and reality while the world focuses on the minerals that are so important to the global economy. The pain and survival of Congolese people is usually overlooked in the usual academic discussion of Congolese minerals in the global economy.