Collective memory and its images: Popular urban painting in Zaire — a source of “present past”∗

Abstract

Based on the example of Zaïre's popular urban painting, the author analyzes the relationship between the collective memory and the social imaginary. The pictorial dissertation on the past and the present of the population of a mining town — Lubumbashi — is an autonomous historical account mostly intended for the petite bourgeoisie. The analysis focusses on two levels of the discourse: (1) the images of the past, in relation to the present, which reflects the collective memory of the group, and (2) the discourse on the balance of power between the state and the civil society. The author compares this urban painting to urban song and to some life stories.

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