What I'm about to present is based mostly based on data that I've collected last year with a short stint of fieldwork in Congo, in Zambia,
and I'm about to go on a second stint to fieldwork, some very much value any thoughts or feedback that you might have at the end of the presentation.
I'll talk about some of the popular art forms which developed in the mining region
of the Kuiper Belt since the last large scale copper industry started there.
And the Copperbelt is a bit of a exceptional case in Africa in that we have
two neighbouring mining centres only a few kilometres away from each other,
and yet they belong to different spheres of influence,
both in the colonial period end of post-colonial period and the two forms two to
fulfil two forms of popular art for which the Zambian Copper Belt and Katanga,
the mining region of Congo, are known for.
First, we have some rock, which is a blend of Central African sound and psychedelic rock from the 1960s and 70s,
and that developed into Zambian mining found in the 70s.
There's been a bit of a resurgence recently, mostly because some independent label had reissued some of the some of their albums.
So it's quite well known in the world of music enthusiasts, but to my knowledge, it has not received any academic attention.
Then on the Kentucky side, we have what is perhaps one of the most famous form of popular arts who have developed in the mining centre,
which is a type of painting which uses bright colours in a cartoony style to depict scenes of urban life and Congolese history.
And this is really well known,
mostly because it has because of a number of academics who were based in Katanga at the time at the University of Louisville,
but she took an interest in in it and to and produced a lot of scholarship on it.
And that includes polygamy. Jose Ritchie, Yohannes, Fabian and his, I think, wife Ilona Nelson by 2013.
Yes. And they they first took an interest in Detroit because of the seemingly political content,
because of the social commentary that they provide on urban life and the window that it provided to mining societies collective consciousness.
And in fact, some samples of these paintings have even been part of a High-Profile exhibition,
for example, at this exhibition, which was held a day from the from Cathy in Paris in 2015.
But while I would argue that while it is great that some of these popular arts forms are getting the attention that they deserve,
there's also a danger of overlooking the actual diversity of popular art forms that is likely to prevail over time.
So first of all, there is a tendency to localise it a little bit too much.
We talk of Sambrook has been Zambia. Popular painting has been the tango.
And yet we know that this is a border over which that people crossed a lot over time.
And then there's also the fact that they are surprising differences between the two mining centres.
For example, if a lively community of painters developed in Katanga in the 60s, this was not at all the case in Zambia.
And yet the practise of locating, which is widely thought to have inspired folklore painting it Katanga exists in Zambia as well.
So why is there a discrepancy?
So what I would like to try and do in my research is perhaps to reverse the approach that Joseph Ritchie and Fabian have used, and that is to say,
rather than looking at the odds for what it can tell us about the social context, I would like to look at how the economic,
political and social context give space for artistic expression and also shaped it to an extent.
So I would not be able to cover everything today.
I would only points at certain points of intersection to certain patterns of production and consumption,
and most mostly focus on music and visual arts. And first,
I'd like to start with some of the hypotheses that my informants have pointed out to explain the
differences between the two countries when it comes to the development of art and the vast majority.
And in fact, everybody pointed to the differences in the Francophone and Anglophone approaches during the colonial times.
So the Francophone countries we have from the 1920s African Art Institute to be quite highly considered, even a bit avant garde.
And in fact, Congo already has a reputation for its for its mask,
for its traditional and statues and wooden work, et cetera, who are seen in Anglophone Africa.
It looks like the arts in the colonies, where it was mostly treated as something to be put in the museum, not necessarily as modern art.
And so what we see is that in Katanga, in the late forties, early fifties,
there were a series of schools that opened and this is one of them the boys out in Lubumbashi,
which was opened by a Belgian professor for the specific purpose of promoting the arts in the colony.
And there was absolutely nothing of this going on the Zambian side, not before, not before the independent period.
Another possible another discrepancy,
another difference between the two countries is that the type of emissions that existed on both sides were different, so it was mostly predestined.
In Zambia, it was mostly Catholics in in in Congo and theatre and music and things that religious schools in mission really emphasise.
This is one of this is one of the choirs which was attached to a secondary school bashing, and it became very famous, even even outside of Congo.
And in fact, every single musician of the older generation that I've talked to in Katanga has been part of the choir of this type.
Then there's also the fact that Zambia was for a long time.
Part of a wider entity, which also included Malawi and Zimbabwe, and the heart of this entity was in Salisbury or Harare as its as it's know now.
So this is where there was an art school and this is where there was a gallery.
And even there, it wasn't particularly popular because it was quite a segregated country.
And so the second only has a gallery in the 1980s, and the thought about never had any enemies at all.
And then finally, there are differences to the ways that the mining companies were set up.
So both sides have seen the rise of state.
Like mining companies in Katanga, we have the Union Mineral Katzenjammer, which later became she came in.
And in Zambia, we have the Anglo American Corporation and the selection trust to mines, which were later merged into one.
The Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines. We struggle to say it's a first.
This mine has had difficulties finding the labour that they needed because they were in competition with all the other mining centres in the area,
and this is to give an idea of the direction of movement they would have and the amount of movement that would have existed at the time.
This is a map that has borrowed from someone, and they forgot to put an arrow between Katanga and Zambia.
There was a lot of movement across across these two mining centres as well.
Because of that, both mining companies in Zambia and in Congo quite quickly turned to a policy of stabilisation of the workforce,
and for this purpose, they developed recreation facilities. They were quite similar on on both sides of the border.
They were called. There was the leisure centres in Katanga.
This is an example of a leisure centre in Lubumbashi.
They're a bit worse for wear nowadays. They they tend to be neglected in the last few decades.
This is what it looks like on the inside and in Zambia, they were called welfare halls or recreation halls.
And this is an example from kit with. And this is important because they provided a space for people to get together and start playing music.
And in fact, the depicted the welfare centre,
which I've just shown is where the copper belt's most famous band, which got together in the first place.
But generally, the Zambian mines appear to have put more of an emphasis on sport and cinemas, and tribal tribal dancing was in Katanga.
It looks like both the mines and the mines, the mines and the government.
The provincial government tried a lot harder to control the mine, the mine,
the the work force by the means of cultural activities such as theatre, dancing and etc.
And unfortunately, do not have the time to go into this, but it's very, very interesting.
So example to the logic. I mean, had many, many, many choirs and brass bands and the like.
And this was not only logic, I mean, there was also or the other or all the other companies.
The electricity company, the railway company and and even the police had its own its own facilities and its own bands.
But it's important to remember that on either side of the border,
the mines and the government only invested in in in cultural policy only in as much as it was as if to help them to keep public order.
And all, most of the art forms that that that emerged during this period did not grow within within.
Because of this, it just provided a framework that day to day.
That framework was repurposing original ways by the people who live within it and not always in the ways that the mines is intended.
OK. This is a group of musicians and dancers that was sponsored by Dirty Dancing.
Unfortunately, not have much time to talk about it. So music is one of the areas where this interaction can be seen.
The Copperbelt is known for a specific way of playing the guitar,
which developed in the 1950s on both sides of the border, and it has been understood to have been slightly different.
So Katanga, the guitar playing in Katanga, has been understood to be a bit more cosmopolitan in nature,
which means that meaning that you are more likely to borrow stones from further afield and more
likely to use international languages like Swahili rather than the local language and on guitar.
Playing on the Zambian side has usually been seen as falling fully on one side or the other.
So either completely the cosmopolis inside usually boring stuff directly from South Africa and Coachella,
particularly, which is a Dutch does or fully on the local side.
But it looks like it wasn't quite as simple as that.
From my limited, my limited musical expertise,
it looks like most artists could and did choose to borrow elements from several cosmopolitan sources and several local sources,
and mix all of these elements together as this whole fits for a particular song.
So, for example, Jambo School, one doc who is largely seen as the father of guitar playing in Katanga, became a very big star in the 50s.
He has several song.
One of the most danga is there's a structural resemblance to the Cuban hit home stereo, which was very popular in Congo at the time.
But one of his other song, one is sung in Sanga.
It uses a local rhythm played on a bottle, so that's that's supposed to be a localised characteristic.
And also it uses a harmonic progression and you're right from South African quella.
So this shows that the Congolese enzyme in copperbelt, we're connected to musical flows,
which run all the way to Johannesburg on one side and all the way to Kinshasa and Yaoundé in Abidjan on the other.
It's also representative of the way that all these influences were put on an equal footing in people's minds is this painting by Danny Chiesto,
who is a painter I met in Dola and when I met him, he was about to send this picture to stack up one exhibition, which was entitled Our Culture.
And so this is what he produced a patchwork of the music styles, which he thought were particularly significant in the musical history of the country.
And so we see you have you had the Rolling Stones, you have Jimi Hendrix, you had the Beatles.
Those were bands which we heard on on simian radios a lot.
In fact, there was even a band called the Lusaka Beatles and then used to have several wars and rock band which constitute five revolutions,
for example, and the family black foot. You have calendula, which is a more traditional type style of guitar playing,
and you have rumba as well, which is a Kinshasa then style dance music from Kinshasa.
So how how do we how does Roomba, how did Roomba end up on this painting?
Well, it coalesced in Kinshasa in the old 60s and cheap records where pressed during that time and from desperate poor to a very,
very wide area of Africa, including Zambia and including also Katanga.
And in fact, it completely intended Katanga to the extent that it suffocated local local music styles,
and this was further entrench during a brutal period because he co-opted some of its biggest players, such as Franco.
And so as a result, its iconic musician had to face a choice either either they could adapt.
That is to say they could play rumba, they could play music.
That phrase the president, they could play traditional music that was also acceptable or they had to leave, and a lot of them did so.
So throughout the 1960s and 70s, getting these musicians across the border into Zambia.
And this is a quote,
one of many coups that I've received on the topic by a former museum curator who says there was a lot of Congolese influence here.
It was very, very big in the beginning.
Most artists who were professional came from the Kuiper Belt and which itself was very much influenced by Congo.
I do not think there was any way in Zambia where there was no Congolese music. Even in Livingston, Zambian bands copied it a lot.
Rhythms were borrowed. And this was to the extent that it has been suggested to me that on numerous occasions that one of the reasons the call-back
was the first president of Zambia announced in 1975 that 90 percent of music played on Zambian radio should be the engine.
Music was because of rumba and because of the fact that they were too many Congolese musicians around in Zambia.
And indeed, from that point on, many Congolese musicians started moving on, probably to other Swahili for countries such as Tanzania and in Kenya.
But in another case, they sort of disappeared from the map.
And though also it also importantly, though, I only know of one Zambian musician who ever went to Congo.
Zambian music did cross the border in the other direction as well, mostly thanks to two records that were that were pressed even this time.
And because of truck drivers, which road is there because the radio plays this, this type of music?
And so it is still this situation where in the 70s, where Katanga is connected to the West and to the south at the same time.
All right, now, I'll say a few words about the visual arts and about popular painting.
So in the in the 70s, according to Your Highness Fabian, as much as 500 paintings were sold every day in Lubumbashi.
Why was it that this practise of hanging a picture on the wall really, really, really strongly emerged in the 60s?
It's not entirely clear, but the academics have said has several hypotheses on this subject.
One of them being that it might be linked to the relative economic prosperity of the time.
And the other is that it might be a form.
It might be that there was a form of collective consciousness which emerged in the period under the within the context of the Mobutu Iraq.
And they have divided these three paintings into three main categories, the first one is things ancestral, so that includes the idyllic landscape,
which is supposed to denotes a certain nostalgia for life in the village or in such an opposition between the rural areas and urban life.
Then we have things that and this is probably the most famous, the famous style that includes images of this kind.
This is called Colony Bench, Belgian Colony. And this is a.
It's considered sort of the archetypical example of this Dutch painting in that this is a way of criticising oppressions of all kind.
The idea is that most of these painters do not make a difference between oppressions under the colonial period and on the democratic regime.
So this is a way of coalescing everything.
And the last things present.
And that includes commercial paintings, images of modern cities and also very prominently the mermaid umami water, as she's known in most of Africa.
And this represent the pitfalls of modernity.
This is the idea that when a man has a personal relationship with the Miami water, he will become successful, but he will have to pay a price for it.
He will have to sacrifice something for it. And there were hundreds of pages that didn't get done.
At what point in time? Yet today, but you you'll be hard pressed to find a single what, maybe one or two.
But most of them have disappeared off the map. So what happened to you then?
Why did they go? Well, for a lot of them, the answer appears to be once again to them,
much as was the case with Congolese musician little communities of Congolese artists and in cities,
and produced paintings that borrowed elements from Katanga things and codes.
And this is a painting. This is a picture taken by my colleague Battista, who took this in when you donga.
This is a region in northern in northern Zambia,
which really shows that this is the painting's full found their way to people's personal homes as far afield as that.
So it sets in certain certain themes were not particularly easy to reuse in this emerging context.
So you do not see anything like common embedded in it in Zambia.
But what you do see is a lot of examples of the idyllic landscape, all of the manmade.
But because this is something that will appeal to attend an audience and could even be appreciated by tourists, to my perspective.
Also, crucially, the first generation of Zambian artists who are now in the four places specifically for now in their 60s and 70s all over,
overwhelmingly cite the integration of Congolese artists as the starting point of the practise of canvas painting in Zambia.
Most of these orders have enough to screw up all at one point in the copperbelt,
where they first encountered these popular painters and they spread to other places from there.
And this is Lawrence young boy born in 56.
This is relevant Um,
who is one of the one of the painters or taught me the most prominently cited Congolese painters as his inspiration to to start painting.
He specifically mentioned one person, one person called Mozambique,
from whom he learnt his first pointers and techniques in and painting another example another.
Another painter who I've met in kicked away, pointed out that at the time that the Congolese musician Congolese painters cross into Zambia,
there were already a handful of Zambians who were making a name for themselves in the painting scene,
but they vote in much higher spheres and therefore they were not really very much in touch with any, any, any more popular painters.
And so therefore the Congolese were completely dominated the field.
The artwork could be seen everywhere, and it could be seen in all the bars and in.
Mudenda told me that as was sort of forced to reproduce these themes, because that's also what the bars asked him for this sort of thing.
This is the only example I could find myself.
There are many ways in which Congolese and Zambian popular art forms are intimately linked to their historical social context,
and there are also many parallels between the pattern of conception and exchange
and also general historical history and the history of these both countries.
We know, for example, that Congo had a stronger cultural infrastructure generally.
And if you look at the popular art, well, it could emerge as a as a stronger producer for us.
We also know that Congo subsequently went through a period of severe political and
economic difficulties which have pushed many Congolese outside of the border.
And this is reflected in patterns of extension of the popular art, as well as in the themes that it shows to choosing to emphasise.
And also, it's probably relevant to well in countries such as DRC, the popular arts, the arts,
even the popular ones cannot be detached from their political context because they came about on the edges of a.
Of corporate but journalism and also on the mortgage prison mortgages,
both of which use popular arts to entertain but also to manipulate them, did not follow the same political trajectory at all as Congo.
The arts were never politically politicised in the same way. But you can all still see links.
I mean, it's no coincidence, for example, that that painting only really took off in Zambia in the late 80s,
because that's a period where the country went through a period of democratisation and liberalisation,
which means all of a sudden there is many, many tourists who came and it was all of a sudden Middle-Aged lady,
a market for gold, for paintings, particularly.
It's also illustrative of the extent to which the existence of popular art work into two intertwined with that of the mining companies.
So when the mining companies crashed in the late 1980s, so did most of these art forms.
I've picked to quartz again went from a Congolese artist and one from a Zambian one.
The first one says the death of the chicken is the root cause for the decline of culture in Katanga.
It was never the state which supported the arts. It all comes down to the collapse of Bourgeois and SNCC.
The synthesis of railway company and then in came and said the downfall of the system has brought about the downfall of the Kuiper Belt Downs.
Gateway died and dollar died. It is a new set of rules to make the game now.
So the younger generation of artists who have emerged in post-crisis Katanga out of a different kind,
the much more connected to the global world and on both sides.
Art has become a lot more professionalised,
and many of these artists built Katanga and Katanga in Zambia's mining class and even built on the work of popular artists.
The field of action has now quite firmly moved to the capital cities and to and to the West, to to Europe and to states.
As any, the popular artist, well, for now, they've completely disappeared.
Thank you.