Gendarmes katangais

Gardner Fellowship in Photography For his Fellowship year, Sammy will focus on the Gendarmes Katangais, a rebel resistance group from the copper-rich Katanga province of DRC. The Katangese Gendarmes have influenced political landscapes in Central Africa since the Cold War and are likely to continue to do so. Defeated in their battle for the succession of Katanga from Congo/Zaire during the 1960s, the Katangese Gendarmes based themselves in neighboring Angola among communities that shared their mostly Lunda ethnicity. In precolonial times, a Lunda kingdom had ruled this cross-border region. The Katangese Gendarmes mobilized Lunda unity during the 1970s and, aided by Angolan forces, staged two insurgent wars against Zaire, ruled by President Mobutu. Mobutu, claiming the rebels were backed by Cuba and the USSR, enlisted aid from the US, France, and China, and defeated the rebels. During the 1990s, the Katangese Gendarmes joined Laurent Kabila’s successful overthrow of Mobutu, but many became disillusioned with Kabila’s rule and eventually returned to Angola, where today they struggle to maintain their identity and still dream of a return "home” to Katanga. In this new project Sammy will continue his collaboration with anthropologist and Lunda expert, Filip De Bœck, and his use of archival resources in his photographic processes.