Decalquer

Decalquer is a photo portrait work that represents mixed-race Japanese-Congolese children abandoned by Japanese workers at SODIMICO in 1983.

SODIMICO is a mining company in the Haut-Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo near Zambia. Until 1983, it was 85% owned by Nippon Mining Company. Hundreds of Japanese workers settled in the Kasumbalesa mining region between 1972 and 1983 to run Congo's main copper mine. Japanese workers lived in labor camps where they were forbidden from bringing in a third party. For some time, they were forced to socialize with young girls in the surrounding area. Most of these girls became pregnant by Japanese workers and had children. After the end of their contract in 1982, Japanese workers were forced to leave the Congo and their children.

The studio-style photographic portraits of the 1980s and the 2000s present different elements. The Lamba maternal culture (Kushiripa) is practiced on village huts with natural pigments, represented by the patterns and prints on fabrics that serve to demonstrate elements of the appropriation of the traditional Japanese culture of kimonos, which are the symbol of fatherhood, and the Lamba culture, which is the symbol of motherhood.

Growing up in the remote neighbourhoods of the city of Lubumbashi, I and other children of my generation were treated with visual lessons on what Asia and its culture could look like. I had to trace the landscapes from a 1986 Japanese film, Rain, using oil paint to create backgrounds in my photo studios, which allowed me to insert mixed-race Japanese-Congolese children during shots.