There is a row of photographs of “witch children” on the back wall of Kinshasa, The Imaginary City currently on show at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The exhibition and accompanying book are the result of collaboration between an anthropologist, a filmmaker and photographer, and an architect and curator. A disturbing element is the image of children branded practitioners of the occult.
Sometimes as young as three, witch children are blamed for all manner of social ills. Urban myth has it that a child becomes a witch after accepting gifts from an adult in a public space. Later, during the night, the adult returns to claim a counter-gift in the form of human flesh. From then on, the child is forced to cause spiritual mayhem in order to repay the debt. Churches perform exorcising rituals in order to rid them of the debt of their inner demons — this being just one step in their continued ostracisation from supporting social structures. Many are forced into life on the streets while waiting, in vain, for their families to reclaim them.
These children first made their appearance in Kinshasa about 20 years ago. By living on the streets of this sprawling city, they become witnesses to the rapid shifts around them. They see the decay of colonial architecture, the mushrooming of informal housing, the street economy and the change in African tradition.
Also on show are a series of films about life in the city. There are four projections of interviews with leading intellectuals from Kinshasa. Collectively, the study helps paint a picture of a contemporary African world that acts in complete opposite to the principles of its violent colonial past.
Tracking religious TV channels and soap operas, life on the river, death and the notion of semence (give to God and he will give you back), the team presents their research in a manner that is simultaneously minimal, yet dense with intellectual and social nuance. For this reason, the exhibition, first presented on the Belgium Pavilion at the ninth International Architecture Exhibition, was awarded the prestigious Golden Lion Award.
Kinshasa, The Imaginary City is showing at the Johannesburg Art Gallery until August 27