The whole area of Kapanga is mostly roadless and disconnected from the communication network of the country. The area, also due to the presence of the Lulua River, is very rich in forests and fields where it is cultivated cassava. To walk in these areas is particularly difficult and dangerous.
You are confusing the circulatory system with this maze of meandering, twisted like cells of the brain – wire meshes and tangles, resemble memory – each with a story to hide or to be dissolved, there just behind a gauze suspended between the face and the hanging ceiling, hanging between the faces and walls.
You do not know if they are roots or hair those that sink in water, and in the sky – in the sky from where the water is more than any imagined Africa.
The sky of thick foliage, of dry logs as your crosses and you do not know if they are branches or knots of hair braiding those who see blacks under the smoky clouds. There are more signs on the ground and more signs on the water that on the blackboard, which does not pass the history of your steps, but one of the steps of foreigners on your land.
A whirlpool in the lazy river as you sleep. A run in the tall grass, cutting edges. A jump and a heavy bag on your head, the water reflects other water and the tree grows from your shoulders, soon broken up by life that your father has left the crooked stick.
Located in the southern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo with an area of about 500,000 square km and a population of about 6 million inhabitants, the Province of Katanga is one of the most prosperous regions, rich in mineral deposits and water resources of Central Africa.
High percentage of births as a result of violence and rape. The primary health care services of the state are absent and the few missionaries and NGOs are run by some private dispensarti and health centers. Given the scarcity of health facilities, it happens that a woman walk many Km on foot in full throes.
The Lulua is the largest river in the region, is rich in fish, very deep and dangerous also because of the animals along the banks that are difficult to access because of the rich vegetation and mangroves. It is used as the communication route and is devoid of bridges. The only way to cross it is the use of canoes and ferries rowing.
Congolese women are tall and have a proud attitude also because of their descent from warrior race; they have a particular way of putting the hair rarely found in other African states.
The region is influenced by the typical climate of central Africa: a dry season and a rainy season. During the rainy season they experience sudden, brief, violent storms and several times a day that are the main cause destruction of villages, or the spread of malaria.
High percentage of births as a result of violence and rape. The primary health care services of the state are absent and the few missionaries and NGOs are run by some private dispensaries and health centers. Given the scarcity of health facilities, it happens that a woman walk many Km on foot in full throes.
The health system is entrusted to the missionary religious that creates and manages health centers and dispensaries in remote areas, while the best equipped hospitals are found only in large cities. It is quite frequent that dispensaries are often plundered to sell medicines on the black market.
The region is influenced by the typical climate of central Africa: a dry season and a rainy season. During the rainy season they experience sudden, brief, violent storms and several times a day that are the main cause destruction of villages, or the spread of malaria.
High percentage of births as a result of violence and rape. The primary health care services of the state are absent and the few missionaries and NGOs are run by some private dispensarti and health centers. Given the scarcity of health facilities, it happens that a woman walk many Km on foot in full throes.
High percentage of births as a result of violence and rape. The primary health care services of the state are absent and the few missionaries and NGOs are run by some private dispensarti and health centers. Given the scarcity of health facilities, it happens that a woman walk many Km on foot in full throes.
This is a story.
As every story it’s made by moments, instants, people, places.
Different but indissolubly tied together by invisible and indivisible light threads.
It’s not a tale of Africa but it’s a story of men, or of a single man.
It’s the tale of a centuries-old tree with its roots – the wrinkled and strong arms of an old lady- searching for life in the depths of the river.
It’s the story of a woman who stretches the same roots to the sky as if to contrast a law of nature.
In Africa there’s nothing that doesn’t come into being from the earth and nothing that’s not raised towards the sky that dominates everything.
It’s the tale of a river that flows for thousands of years in a land that’s fighting for his identity for a thousands of years.
It’s the same river that carries along life and death, the end and the beginning.
A river able to nurture, a river able to kill.
It’s the tale of many men leaving in search of something that doesn’t have a name yet.
It’s the tale of a color in which all the colors are alike, the story of an escape towards places so far away, drawn in a map by red soil and where all the paths come together.
It’s the tale of a red soil that stains your feet and goes inside you.
It goes deep into your blood and fires it up.
And it’s useless to wash your body in the river at the end of the day: the red soil has left a mark on everything you have and everything you are.
It’s the tale of a disease without a cure.
It’s the tale of a rain that comes from the silence of a blue sky and with a din fills the buckets of the village.
It’s the tale of many other tales.
It’s the story of those who live and consume that land.
It’s the story of who has being worn out by that land.
And it’s also the tale of a ‘mondele’, a white man.
A tale of the moment in which he asked to himself: “What if I was born here?”
And then he understood the only possible answer: “I’m Africa”
The community of Museny live virtually isolated from the rest of the region because of the lack of roads and bridges on the river Lulua. It ‘absolutely normal for them to spend their entire lives within the village.
Since the time of the Belgian colony, the entire region has seen a great Catholic missionary presence: from the Franciscans to the Jesuits to Salvatorian, and lately a growing Anglican. To date, the choice to pursue a religious life, for the youth of the place, is often given by the certainty of having a meal and a secure future.
Since the time of the Belgian colony, the entire region has seen a great Catholic missionary presence: from the Franciscans to the Jesuits to Salvatorian, and lately a growing Anglican. To date, the choice to pursue a religious life, for the youth of the place, is often given by the certainty of having a meal and a secure future.
The construction and management of schools is left to religious missions in the area, the same way of sanitary works. The State educates and pays the teachers who go to teach in the villages. The village schools are to address professional.
Aerial view of the village of Musumba. The whole area of Kapanga is mostly roadless and disconnected the communication network of the country.
The area, often roadless, is disconnected to the communication network of the country. For that reason it is normal to walk many kilometers on foot to bring to market their goods.
The area, often roadless, is disconnected to the communication network of the country. The only motorized vehicles are usually owned by the religious missions.
Bio
Italian photographer Gabriele Orlini is enamored with visual storytelling from a humanistic perspective, including depicting its contradictions and “struggles of love with the world”.
A professional freelance photographer, Gabriele prefers to combine documentary and art photography focusing on social, anthropological and humanitarian issues, while working mostly on assignments for international NGOs.
Gabriele’s work in Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo,Tanzania, Mozambique, Angola, India, Argentina, Venezuela and the Occupied Palestinian Territories has been recognized, published and exhibited both nationally and internationally.
In 2011, he received the prestigious Author of the Year FVG – FIAF award in Italy.
After traveling worldwide, Gabriele began a personal project inspired by argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges’ poems in the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since, he has been documenting monumental cemeteries around the world.
Gabriele is available for commissions and assignments worldwide.
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Gabriele Orlini
When I look at the image of the switchback creek, even though I know it is Africa my mind translates it as tundra, rippled by muddy frost heaves. The tricks that black and white can play on the mind! But then color can too.
I enjoyed your pictures, Gabriele! Coupled with the words below it, the one of the white haired man standing in the midst of children and youth made me feel claustrophobic. It’s hard to imagine such a thing!
Back in 2005-07 I visited Katanga many times and have trouble with statements like: “Congolese women are tall and have a proud attitude also because of their descent from warrior race…”
In Katanga, like in many other parts of the DRC, some women are tall, some are short — and also show differences in bearing, depending on the ethnic group and on the individual. What seems like the New Age aspect of the text also leaves me cold, granted that for someone to attempt this type of writing in his second or third language is difficult.
@Frostfrog: Thanks for your words! I’ve been lucky enough to experience Africa away from the clichés, and I tried to tell starting from the “shocks” that leave from inside me. I tried “to photograph the smells” … :)
@Mitch Alland, “tall” as metaphorically for mean “proud and fairs”.
Then we agree that there are exceptions…
Wonderful work Gabriele !
Thanks a lot Gabor!!