Making sculpture out of bullets in Kinshasa
Freddy Tsimba transmutes his country’s bloody history into art
“FOR ME, KINSHASA is a beautiful woman who walks barefoot,” says Freddy Tsimba, a sculptor, in his studio in Matongé, one of the city’s most chaotic districts. The capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is home to some 12m people. Battered cars choke its highways; its unpaved backstreets are clogged with stinking black mud. Once known as “Kin la belle”, its residents—fed up with the festering rubbish and open gutters—re-christened the place “Kin la poubelle”, or “Kin the dustbin”. But the barefoot woman also has charm. She dances to the fuzzy rumba beats that blast out of almost every bar; her noisy thoroughfares are full of hopeful, chattering people. Mr Tsimba gets some of his best ideas from watching them.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “His dark materials”
From the November 23rd 2019 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Culture
Why many French have come to like “Emily in Paris”
Even if they may not want to admit it
“The Perfect Couple” and the new map of Moneyland
Depictions of the super-rich on screen reflect the times
What should “inclusion” include at the Paralympics?
The games make a virtue of their diversity. But there’s still room to grow
The information wars are about to get worse, Yuval Noah Harari argues
The author of “Sapiens” is back with a timely new book about AI, fact and fiction
Arnold Schoenberg was one of classical music’s most important rebels
But, 150 years after his birth, he is underappreciated
Despots and oligarchs have many means to meddle in American politics
The extent of the foreign-influence industry may surprise you