Picnos Tshombé by Gloria Oyarzabal

A collection of works by Spanish artist Gloria Oyarzabal.

Using photographs, text and documents, the book explores how events from decades ago in the Congo still resonate today. The story begins with the abduction and disappearance of Moïse Tshombe, the first president of the separatist state of Katanga, which separated from the Republic of Congo in 1960 shortly after the country gained independence. Tshombe was a separatist leader in the Katanga region of the Congo, rich in cobalt, uranium, gold, diamonds, copper and tin. He fled to Spain under the Franco regime in 1963 on suspicion of murdering Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's democratically elected anti-colonial leader. Four years later, however, an aircraft bound for Palma from Ibiza was hijacked by unknown assailants, and he was arrested for two years in an Algerian military camp before passing away.

The impacts of the European colonization of Africa and its turbulent independence, including migration from Africa, continue to this day, and in this book the author uses visual expression to ask us questions about the unequal and complicated relationships established between Europe and Africa, and between Europeans and Africans.

First edition limited to 700 copies.

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Title: Picnos Tshombé
Artist: Gloria Oyarzabal
Witty Books, 2018
Hardcover, 170 x 240 mm
142 pages + booklet of 32 pages
First edition of 700 copies
ISBN: 978-88-941882-7-1
¥5,300 + tax