Tropical Cowboys

Ch. Didier Gondola

Description

During the 1950s and 60s in the Congo city of Kinshasa, there emerged young urban male gangs known as "Bills" or "Yankees." Modeling themselves on the images of the iconic American cowboy from Hollywood film, the "Bills" sought to negotiate lives lived under oppressive economic, social, and political conditions. They developed their own style, subculture, and slang and as Ch. Didier Gondola shows, engaged in a quest for manhood through bodybuilding, marijuana, violent sexual behavior, and other transgressive acts. Gondola argues that this street culture became a backdrop for Congo-Zaire's emergence as an independent nation and continues to exert powerful influence on the country's urban youth culture today.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Falling Men
1. "Big Men"
2. A Colonial Cronos
3. Missionary Interventions
Part II. Man Up!
4. Tropical Cowboys
5. Performing Masculinities
6. Protectors and Predators
Part III. Metamorphoses
7. Pere Buffalo
8. Avatars
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Men's Studies
• African Studies
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• África
• Central Africa
• History of Africa
• Central
• Africa

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 10 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253020802
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

TROPICAL COWBOYS
Vue d un quartier de Kinshasa, by Lama, 1993. Author s collection.
AFRICAN EXPRESSIVE CULTURES
Patrick McNaughton, editor
Associate editors
Catherine M. Cole
Barbara G. Hoffman
Eileen Julien
Kassim Kon
D. A. Masolo
Elisha Renne
Zo Strother
TROPICAL COWBOYS
Westerns, Violence, and Masculinity in Kinshasa
Ch. Didier Gondola
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2016 by Ch. Didier Gondola
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gondola, Ch. Didier, 1966- author.
Title: Tropical cowboys : Westerns, violence, and masculinity in Kinshasa / Ch. Didier Gondola.
Other titles: African expressive cultures.
Description: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2016. | Series: African expressive cultures | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043496 | ISBN 9780253020666 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253020772 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780253020802 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Gangs-Congo (Democratic Republic)-Kinshasa. | Young men-Congo (Democratic Republic)-Kinshasa-Social conditions-19th century. | Masculinity-Social aspects-Congo (Democratic Republic)-Kinshasa. | Youth and violence-Social aspects-Congo (Democratic Republic)-Kinshasa. | Kinshasa (Congo)-Social conditions-19th century.
Classification: LCC HV6439.C752 G66 2016 | DDC 302.3409675112-dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043496
1 2 3 4 5 21 20 19 18 17 16
To my son Noah (aka ), a Bill in his own right
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Falling Men
1 Big Men
2 A Colonial Cronos
3 Missionary Interventions
Part II. Man Up!
4 Tropical Cowboys
5 Performing Masculinities
6 Protectors and Predators
Part III. Metamorphoses
7 P re Buffalo
8 Avatars
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
L ONG IN COMING and the fruit of toils and many a sleepless night, this book would have never seen the light of day had it not been for a number of persons and institutions that I would like to acknowledge and thank. When it was still in gestation, this research project benefited from two generous grants, a New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities grant from the Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Research and a U.S. State Department Fulbright Fellowship that allowed me to spend time in the archives in Brussels and conduct fieldwork in Kinshasa in 2008-2009. Dean William Blomquist s generous leave package helped me afford spending two academic years in Kinshasa and Nantes, respectively, and maintaining a home in Indianapolis.
I am grateful to Charles Ambler, Phyllis Martin, and Carolyn Brown for reading the earliest draft chapter and providing insightful feedback and encouragement when a book manuscript on the Tropical Cowboys was still a long, long shot. A number of colleagues and former colleagues at IUPUI, including Annie Coleman, now a faculty at Notre Dame, Danna Kostroun, Nancy Robertson, Marianne Wokeck, Robert Rebein, and William Jackson, read portions of this manuscript at various stages in its development. Their thoughtful criticism and valuable comments were most helpful.
The bulk of the book manuscript took shape in 2011-2012 at the Institut des tudes Avanc es in Nantes, France, where I resided as a Eurias fellow. The idyllic location of the IEA Nantes, nestled within the confluence of the Erdre and the Loire rivers, where writing could flow uninterrupted, and the welcoming and stimulating intellectual company it keeps gave the manuscript its cohesion. I thank the entire 2011-2012 cohort of fellows and the IEA staff for making my stay in Nantes both pleasurable and productive.
In addition to the IEA Nantes, I had the privilege to present my research on the Tropical Cowboys at other venues in Europe and North America. I am indebted to V ronique Giroud, Karin Barber, Susanne Gehrmann, Dominic Thomas, Michael Barrett, Amandine Lauro, John Clark, and John Cinnamon for inviting me to share my project with their faculty and students.
I owe no small debt of gratitude to Susann Baller, Dianne Stewart, Maria Eriksson-Baaz, Heike Raphael-Hernandez, Sarah Demart, Kristien Geenen, Charles Tshimanga, and Filip De Boeck without whose friendship and encouragement this project would still be on the drawing board. While writing this book, I faced several informational and conceptual hurdles that threatened to impede its progress. A number of scholars that I solicited, including Guido Convents, Wyatt MacGaffey, Jan Vansina, Enika Ngongo, and Fu-Kiau Busenki, helped me sail through them. I would be remiss not to thank Katrien Pype, Beverly Stoeltje, Peter Bloom, Stephan Miescher, and Jennifer Cole, whose keen eye and theoretical command sharpened the dull edges of some of my narratives. Needless to say, I bear full responsibility for whatever flaws and failings that remain in this book.
Many of the materials used in this book were located with the help of a number of librarians and archivists. Constance Courn de, a gem for IEA fellows, left no stone unturned in her search for materials I ordered through the IEA interlibrary loan network. I also would like to thank the staff of the African Archives and the Biblioth que Minist rielle in Brussels for their assistance and diligence.
The late P re Buffalo (aka Jeff de Laet) and many other informants (some of whom have since also passed) have shared a wealth of oral and written materials with me. I am grateful for their generosity and hope this book did not betray their expectations. Friends and relatives who assisted me with this research, each in his or her own way, are too numerous to list. My dear friend Raymond Mututala went above and beyond in helping me during my fieldwork in Kinshasa. I also thank Timothy Gondola, Nina Gondola, Alain Ngulungu, Placide Gondola, and Jos Lusende for their moral support.
Special thanks are due to Victoria Scott, whose corrections and queries have improved the text significantly, and to my editor, Dee Mortensen, and her assistant, Sarah Jacobi. Dee is everything an author would want in an editor. Her meticulous approach and soft touch have profoundly impacted my book in countless ways.
Last but not least, my son Noah (aka ) gave me the strength and urgency to finish this book. One colleague at the IEA nicknamed Noah atomic boy for his fearless and explosive personality. A Bill in his own right, Noah kept me busy and relentlessly forced me back to toe the line when I tarried in a well-deserved respite. Colleagues and friends at the IEA often asked me how I got through this tedious project with my three-year-old son in tow. I never quite knew how to respond. At long last, I found the parade to this recurring question: I can t imagine being productive without children. How do you manage to achieve anything without having to care for children? became my favorite riposte. This book is dedicated to him.
TROPICAL COWBOYS
Introduction
W HEN V IEUX D EGAZIN welcomed me to his family compound at l Avenue de la Victoire, in the Kauka township of Kinshasa, just a stone s throw away from the stadium where in 1974 Ali and Foreman faced off in the so-called rumble in the jungle, he tried to make sure that his children and grandchildren would not listen in on our conversation. But his small, dimly lit dispensary was too stuffy and lacked air conditioning so it was not sealed off completely from the outside. The small, dusty desk fan could barely circulate the stale and moist air that sent streaks of sweat running down my arms and spine. Besides, the sight of even a makeshift filming crew, a jeans-clad researcher flanked by a local assistant, was too exciting for the children. They could not be kept at bay. We talked for about an hour with the one window wide open to keep the warm air of the afternoon flowing into the room and invite natural light. The bespectacled seventy-two-year-old spoke in monotonous, at times muffled voice, using Lingala, Kinshasa s main vernacular, and only rarely, rather hesitantly, ventured into French.
It was hard to imagine that the old man sitting in front of me, a quiet and revered father and grandfather of many, had been in his youth a feared and fearless Bill (or Yankee ) who wielded sway over Quartier Saint-Jean (today Lingwala), one of colonial Kinshasa s seediest townships. The interview confirmed the glimpses I had gleaned from other informants. In the heyday of Billism, Degazin was not just the sharpest barb on the hot wire of Kinshasa s gangland; he was an avuncular figure, a sheriff , who refrained from flexing his muscles by using his legendary kam (magical protection) 1 to deter potential rivals. Many Bills went to him to seek powerful kam to best their rivals in street fights. After he hung up his spurs, Degazin converte