(Mis)treated treaties

(Mis)treated treaties

Patrick Mudekereza

These 19th-century treaties and moukandas, chosen by Patrick Mudekereza from the museum collections, are archives concerning the transfer of land by local dignitaries of the Boma region to the Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo, an agency that preceded the Congo Free State.
They may seem difficult to appreciate for the nonarchivist, but their impact was immense.

They pertain to negotiations, transactions and payments aimed at obtaining the right to settle on land, and even to become its legitimate owner.
According to the museum scholars’ present-day interpretation, it is conceivable that the local dignitaries to whom these documents were read signed them with a cross without really understanding their meaning or realizing their portent.
The main aim of these treaties was probably to gain recognition in the eyes of the foreign powers present in the area.
The strangeness of these written documents and of the language they use in a world and at a time when the spoken word prevailed, incited Patrick Mudekereza to revisit the documents through the spoken word, and, with the complicity of Aline Bosuma and Pitcho Womba Konga, to interfere with them through slamming.
Aline Bosuma is a singer and actress; Pitcho Womba Konga is an actor and slammer, creator of the album Crise de nègre.

 
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