Congolese popular paintings, Kinshasa, Congo (Democratic Republic)

"During the first half of the 1970s, Zaire's urban society experienced a distinctive conjuncture of social and economic conditions that encouraged a brief, but intense, burst of popular creativity. One form of that creativity was urban painting, which appeared somewhat later than in West African cities, yet immediately established a political and social dialogue with its Zairian consumers. Since the painting is a stage to "actualize," in a participatory way, the interplay of values and meaning in order to grasp the political order of the present, it has no value as a unique object. This explains why copies of every painting are made so easily:as an object, the painting is but a readily duplicated commodity. It also explains why some images are so frequently reproduced and so widely distributed: Mami Wata, Colonie Belge, Inakale (Man caught between leopard, snake, and crocodile)." [Bogumil Jewsiewicki, 1996: Zairian Popular Painting as Commodity and as Communication. African Material culture / edited by M.J. Arnoldi, Ch. Geary and K. Hardin. Indiana University Press.]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for National Geographic and traveled to Africa from January 19, 1972 to mid April 1972.