There is no electricity and only 500 inhabitants in the Congolese village of Makwatsha. Nevertheless, the remote location became a small tourist attraction – thanks to the traditional wall paintings of the women.
In the dry season, the women of the südkongo beautify village Makwatsha lesischen paintings of cabins with wall. Especially visitors from China are fascinated by it. You come to Makwatsha, to the everyday scenes, flowers and butterflies painted facades.
Prosperine Mwelwa (right) in front of a hut in your village
“As colors, we use only earth,” explains the 60-year-old Prosperine Mwelma with clay-smeared hands. She is wearing a robe of bright Blue and Yellow: “Rosa, we need to dig.”
Known the wall were pictures by the Director of the French cultural Institute, who discovered it on a vacation trip. Together with a local tour operator, he saw to it that the village tourist has been discovered. In 2014 he organized even an invitation for some of the artists to Paris, where she sold eight works on canvas for a total of 52.600 Euro.
“Alone we couldn’t have done it”, stresses Jean-Pierre Kabaso, mayor of Makwatsha. The painting tradition could in the future be an important source of income, hopes the 52-Year-old: “Other projects are in the works, including plans for an exhibition in Washington.”
Business tourists and travelers to cultural
Butterflies and flowers adorn the facades
Makwatsha is located about 40 kilometers from the provincial capital of Lubumbashi. In a city of millions, the only tour operator in the Region, sits in his dark office – here there is electricity, but the falls often. Isaac Sumba Maly operates in the travel Agency Palma Okapi. Currently, he is preparing the visit of a Chinese tour group. From there, more and more business flows of travelers in the Congo, especially in Katanga province with the city of Lubumbashi and its many cobalt -, and copper skin of mines. In their leisure time, many of the travelers make trips. So you come to Makwatsha. Here you will see paintings on the wall and accompany the villagers in the procurement of clay, with which the colors are produced. They talk to each other.
Tour operators in the Congo: a tough Job
The women use only natural pigments
Each year about one hundred tourists visit this remote corner of the country, most of which come from China, and some also from Belgium and France. Now tour operators Maly – together with tourism and hotel schools, as well as the local media – a Malfestival has launched once-a-year the works of the women’s issue. Maly is also planning this year a trip to China, a contract with a private company to negotiate, want to send their employees for holidays to Lubumbashi.
But to sell travel in the Congo is hard bread: “The Congo has a bad Image because of the security situation,” says Maly. In some regions, armed militias are fighting against government forces, which deters many foreign guests a visit to the vast Central African country. The political crisis escalated, as President Joseph Kabila did not want to cede after the expiration of his term of office. Now the end of the year elections are to be held.
Tour operators Maly in the South of the Congo considered the size of his country as an advantage: “If in the North the war is thousands of miles away from here! In Israel, there are also attacks and bombs – and still thousands of tourists visit the country.”
Art from the Congo is a popular Souvenir
The pictures reflect the everyday life of the villagers
Tourists are also sought after sculptures made of green malachite, which occur in the old town of Lubumbashi are saws – under the deafening noise of electric. Stone sculptor from the Mineral Rhino or lion figures, which appreciate mainly Chinese tourists as Souvenirs. “You order large pieces, such as several-Meter-long crocodiles that take you to China,” says stone sculptor Stanis Chansa.
Intrepid tourists who travel to the skin in the province of cars Katanga, leave at least in the case of the inhabitants of a lasting impression: “The international tourists to make the Congolese people often only realize how beautiful your home country is actually,” reported Eric Monga from the local Congolese trade Federal.
ric/jah/cd/cs (afp)