The Courier

Nono Katanga, Vas-tu enfin te réveiller, Afrique ?, 2006. Black and white photo, 40x30cm.

Courtesy of the Artist

Meaning ‘welcome’ in both Lingala and Swahili, the word ‘yambi’ was the title chosen for the festival organised by the General Commission for International Relations, the entity in charge of the cultural relations of the French-speaking Community in Belgium, in cooperation with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Ministry of Culture.

Mirko Popovic, head of the Africalia association, which has a stake in the initiative, claims Yambi was the biggest event to showcase Congo’s cultural treasures since independence: no less than 380 activities involving 160 Congolese artists in 100 or so venues in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Veering off the beaten path

All fields of artistic activities were on display: music, theatre, dance, literature, cinema, comics and the visual arts. Congo’s Yambi commissioner, the writer André Lyoka, and his Belgian partners combed every nook and cranny of Congo to select the participating artists. Most of them were unknown talents, but this was the purpose of Yambi, to discover new creative artists. As Popovic points out, well established greats, such as the rumba or popular painting, the Papa Wemba, the Chéri Samba, hardly need to rely on Yambi to spread the word. The initiative aims to veer off the beaten path to offer the public the widest range of innovative creative ideas and to showcase the best creative talent on the Congolese professional circuit. The aim was to show the unfamiliar: modern African poets and musicians, singer-songwriters consciously fleeing the rumba to explore new rhythms, such as ethno jazz, plus choirs and brass bands which hail back to the police brass bands, are looked at in a wonderfully fresh light: the people who attended a meeting between a Belgian and a Congolese brass band on the main square in Brussels (Grand Place) were nothing if not astounded by the musical experience.

“Beyond hope”, “Congo on the move”

Yambi was regarded as a major event not just for Brussels but also for the Congolese artists taking part. “Having a work showcased in Matonge, an intercultural crossroads, is wonderful!” says Freddy Tsimba, the man behind the first contemporary African work of art to be put on display in the capital of Europe. Called Au-delà de l’espoir (Beyond hope), Freddy Tsimba’s sculpture is made from bullets the artist collected from the Kisangani battlefields. It represents a woman carrying a crippled child in her arms. “A plea for life” is how the artist sums it up.

Yambi is obviously a testament to the fact that Congo is more than a nation where everybody is shedding tears in a landscape full of mud and battlefields. These artists represent 60 million Congolese citizens who are anxious to come through, to stake their claims, stresses Mirko Popovic. However, the war has made a serious impact on the country and its inhabitants, so it is no coincidence that the profound marks left on people’s hearts should reappear in several works in the key exhibition of contemporary art “Congo on the move”, showcased in Brussels Botanique Arts Centre. The exhibition includes an “installation” by Vitshois Mwilambwe called Le Congo sous perfusion (Congo being drip fed): a photograph of a man riddled with tubes and covered with plasters. “This is a country that has to have outpatient care so as be able the cure an illness that has lasted four decades,” explains Alain Mwilambwe, the main behind the photography.

After Yambi

Alain Mwilambwe claims that Yambi represents a “way of being projected, being there on the international stage”. Yambi is also a way for artists to try to emerge from a dire social situation where they have to struggle for government funding. The social situation is also reflected in the working conditions. The studios are cramped for space and the artists have to use what materials they are lucky to find.

Amongst the forms of expressions highlighted by Yambi, the comic book was well positioned with the “Talatala” exhibition by Congolese authors portraying the diurnal round in Kinshasa in all its epic features, not least the never-ending police harassment of citizens, the desire for Europe and the art of resourcefulness. Another major event was the 12-13 October gathering of 20 or so novelists, poets and short story writers with the Belgian public and writers as part of a “major Congolese literary salon”. Sponsored by the Brussels Association for Educational and Cultural Cooperation, this event was completely unprecedented!

However, Yambi seeks to be more than a one-off spectacular event. “A meeting between two nations via artistic activities” aspiring to underpin a sense of dignity, creative talent, identity, while fostering emotional and aesthetic exchanges between people: Yambi also seeks to plant the seeds of future cooperation on the basis of a programme of exchanges and cooperation. The General Commission for International Relations has lit the way, according to Popovic.

There will be follow-ups. Africalia has published an anthology of the works by 20 or so photographers. The Commission has produced a promotional CD, to be available at Midem 2008, and featuring the percussive sounds of La Sanza, Balladeers Goubald and Lokas, the Grâce Choir and the Confiance Brass Band. Similarly, a promotional DVD has been published with short films by Congolese video makers. All of these items act as highly valuable calling cards for artists who were unheard of up to now. “Charleroi danse”, the contemporary dance institute for the French-speaking Community in Belgium, played host to Congolese choreographers, while the Mons Dramatic Centre is planning to embark upon a two-month tour of Congo.

And last but not least, Mirko Popovic is looking to Yambi to make its mark, the artists’ act of creation itself came face to face for first time with other forms of expression, was confronted by criticism. The head of Africalia predicts, “Some artists will be doing a great deal of soul-searching, and seeking new ways of asserting themselves”.

Nono Katanga, Vas-tu enfin te réveiller, Afrique ?,
2006. Fotografía en blanco y negro, 40x30 cm.
Cortesía del artista.