Kombo ya Sika (New Name)

Kombo Ya Sika is the title of a song by the great musician Luambo Makiadi from 1974. This song served as propaganda for the German Volkswagen car brand in Zaire. These cars were assembled in Brazil. And at the time bought by several Zairians to put them on public transport.

Around 1996, after the fall of President Mobutu's dictatorship by Laurent Kabila, the Zaire country had once again become Congo. Kabila the father experienced the suffering that the new Congolese were experiencing as a result of the Frontiers that were closed during the Mobutu dictatorship. He decided to open the borders free of charge to Congolese traders to bring new private cars that can be used in public transport. And these traders no longer bring back the Toyota Hiace cars that came from DUBAI, to replace the Combies Volkswagens that reign in the city of Kinshasa.

I went to revisit the history of the Combies in 2017 in an isolated district, because they could no longer have access to the city centre. This visit questions the state of the Combies, the propaganda song that highlighted them and the change of institutions to represent following the license plates with a representation of a piece in Polyptych nothing of the facades of these vehicles.

Then in 2019, I went to the origin of these combies, which is Brazil. In Brazil the importance was to find the same models, because on the spot a large production of the new models was present. To do this and connect was to photograph the backs of the Combies in Brazil to show the start and finish that was the ZAIRE.