For my entire life, until 5 years ago, pith helmets were just colonial helmets to me. At least, until I needed one to round off a fetching steampunk outfit for a Comic-Con. Afterall, a pith helmet remains the purest evocation. Adventure. Exploration. Discovery. Just stick one of them on any...
Diamonds, copper, cobalt, uranium, … Name it, and Congo is likely to have it. The country, shrugging off civil war, regains its rank of second biggest producer of copper. Congo produces 2 thirds of the world’s cobalt today. Yes, that metal, for lithium batteries et alii. The metal of the 21st century. ...
If you want a friend, get a dog. Warren Buffet. Do you eat whale, horse, rabbit, guinea pig? What about domesticated pigs? Are animals just emotional support, Life’s guide dogs? Or should they be re-introduced where they were hunted to extinction? Whatever the case, and whichever side of the discussion...
1940-1955 The triage of memories continues. Albums pile up. They get thicker. Now covered in heavy bordeaux faux-leather, they look like spell books waiting for a lectern, and a priest to officiate. Out with the earlier scrapbooks, the glued and stringed pages. In with the temple tomes and careful order....
Look, you ask me why I have so many photos of animals I shot, so many teeth, horns and skins? Pictures of antelopes shot in 1917, 1929, 1937 or 1943. I understand your puzzlement if I then tell you how much I regret that the landscapes I loved are now...
I am addressing you Emm. As you told me some days ago that you knew nothing of my life before, when I was a young girl over there [in Africa]… I know that the memories we keep, even with images, the smells, none of it can be communicated, but, for...
Katanga 1917-1957 Every second of every minute of our lives, we know where we are. Within 64 cm. That is the accuracy of our smartphones. If we actually care, that is our precise position in the universe, the space we occupy. If we use a smartwatch, that is even the...
François Dulière started off in Congo as an electrician in 1914, then a draughtsman for UMHK around 1917. He came to Europe in 1921 to complete his qualification of Surveying Engineer at the famed School for Travaux Publics in Paris. From there on, he never ceased to map out, draw...
In 1942, the Belgian colonial authority, Governor Schollaert was asked to build a two-way lane bridge in Dungu, the north-eastern-most corner of the Congo, in the Oriental province. Next stop across the border of South Soudan. The deepest, most remote post. The bridge still stands today. A proud witness of...
In most of the pictures taken in or around the bush, locals walk around, parade, hunt, work barefoot. All alarm bells ring! Colonialism! Poverty! Exploitation! Do not trust the smiles, it is just the Stockholm syndrome of capitalistic oppression. And still. They are all smiles on the picture. Even clearly...
August 16, 2024
My Heritage | Travel Trunks and Suitcases
August 2, 2024
August 9, 2024
August 30, 2024
From Ghent to Likasi, the Heart of Darkness
September 20, 2024
November 15, 2024
November 1, 2024
WWI in Soissons, Henri Penotet and the Big Bomb
November 8, 2024
Life on the Trail, the Routine of Adventure
October 11, 2024
January 3, 2025