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Paper short abstract:

The revolts of January 4, 1959 marked a crucial step in the road to Congolese independence. Reading with Fanon, this paper focusses on three topoi in the photo archive of the revolts: the material targets of the protests, the facial expressions of its participants, and the use of ‘vandal tags’.

Paper long abstract:

In November 2021, the Belgian State Archives digitalized a collection of five photo albums of the sûreté coloniale. It contains about 450 photographs from four different photographers, visually documenting the events of early January 1959 and its aftermath in Léopoldville (today Kinshasa). These events, known as “the revolts of January 4”, marked a decisive momentum in the process towards Congolese independence. A concurrence of circumstances – a meeting of political party ABAKO that was prohibited last minute by the colonial authorities, a lost soccer game, and the recurrent presence of unemployed youths in Léopoldville’s streets – led to a culmination of colonial discontent among the city’s Black citizens and resulted into riots. According to Mutamba (1988: 377), the January 4 events changed Belgian-Congolese relations for good and rendered the general anti-colonial climate irreversible. Reading with Frantz Fanon’s work on colonial violence, this paper focusses on three topoi present in the January 4 photo collection: (1) the material targets of the revolts, (2) the textuality of the ‘vandal tags’ used by the protesters, and (3) the facial expressions of both ABAKO leaders and Congolese citizens in the streets. While the photos made their way into the sûreté archive due to colonial anxiety over the loss of Belgian control, as “evidence” (Sontag 1977: 3) of the “rage” of colonial subjects, they suggest a different kind of reading in the 21st century: the images are strong visual reminders of the liberating and performative aspect of anticolonial jocularity. Furthermore, the paper explores parallels with the more recent protests in the Congolese capital against President Joseph Kabila in 2016.