Probably one of the fortunate aspects in being interested in African affairs is the fact that unfortunately, most people are not interested in African affairs. So it's often the case that you can visit exhibits and museums that have a focus on African without having to worry about crowds.
Such was the case with the musée de Quai Branly in Paris. While the museum sits at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in a very lovely modern building constructed just for the museum and has a multitude of cultures on exhibit, it is quite easy to pop in to for a nice look around. There are basically no lines and you mainly share the museum with a few random people and the occasional school group who seem to mostly focus on the featured exhibit halls.
While there are exhibits from the Americas, Asia, and Australia, I was most interested in their Africa exhibit. Obviously the most famous museum for African art and culture outside of the continent is the Africa Museum in Brussels which shows most of the items that the Belgians stripped "collected" from the continent. But, having not been to Brussels yet, I don't really have much to compare with, although the Quai Branly is quite respectable as it is.
While the collection doesn't cover every single country in Africa, it covers the west and central regions quite well in addition to touch of items from East Africa. Works range from the always ubiquitous masks, to jewelry, to clothes, to fertility dolls, to this massive obelisk type sculpture from Cameroon that sits near the entrance to the Africa section. Overall, I have to say that while many of the pieces were ones that I'm already familiar with, there were quite a few new ones that made it interesting (such as the obelisk.)
A section that I noticed most people missed, but is definitely worth taking some time with, are a series of sliding doors that display a hundred different small pieces that are primarily jewelry items, but also some general beadwork. While they don't have the impressive lighting of the larger works, they're still quite nicely display and more to the point, this method allows one to get quite up close with the work to really see the craft that people put in to them. And this is probably one of the best facets of the museum in that these truly are museum quality pieces on display. They aren't the chintzy pieces you find these days that are made for tourists as most seem to have been gotten in the very early 20th century if not in the 19th century.
The other big takeaway from the Africa section of the Quai Branly is that one can see how the art and craft varies massively between even the smallest regions in a country. It goes further to emphasize the ridiculous natures of today's country borders in Africa that were forcibly carved up by the colonial powers.
If you're in Paris and want to take a breath from the aggressively camera-riden throngs at the Louvre, Orsay, Montemarte, and Eiffel Tower, head on over to the Quai Branly. You might even experience something you may have thought you'd never see in Paris: French tourists.
The large, glossy-format printers that we have in the US don't exist in DR Congo. This makes it very difficult to create large advertisements. Despite this, you see big bulletins for products everywhere. The secret to these are the signs painters; groups of very talented artists who eek out a living painting signs around the country.
The quality of these guys work is amazing. Not only do they have crap paint and brushes to work with, but they are also doing this outside in the sun and yet are duplicating the original products so well that you don't even realize that a whole advertisement was painted by hand. Once you do realize this, the scope of the work that is done is mind blowing.
From toothpaste to beer to ads for Nokia, these guys do it all. If someone were daring enough, a documentary about this group would be fascinating. As it was, I just managed to get a few pictures of them at work and the countless billboards that are their work around town. One road in particular, which was supposed to be the road for heavy trucks, but now everyone uses, has a continuous wall between it and the railroad tracks. This wall rarely has any empty space on it as sign painters have plastered it with advertisements. You can see an example of a guy at work below.
This is just one of those small things that a person can appreciate in a country as broken as DR Congo. Artists are everywhere and somehow throughout history they always find some niche that allows them to survive.
Le Marché des Valeurs is the largest conglomeration of Congolese arts and crafts for purchase in Kinshasa. The only problem is that it is also the largest conglomeration of crooked Congolese salesmen in the entire city.
It's an obvious magnet. There are countless expats wandering through the stalls of the market, looking for a good deal on something "authentic" to take back to friends and family or decorated their Congo home with. The Congolese aren't stupid. They picked up on this fact and the fact that most of the people are from countries where haggling is considered low brow and thusly, they don't do it. But even for those who are willing to haggle, it's a lot of work to get anywhere near a decent price on this.
On our first visit, we did rather well. It was a Sunday and it seemed like it was a slow day or they were just out of it, but the haggling was good. We managed to pick up two necklaces for $7 that they originally wanted $25 apiece. That's not so bad, but it should be kept in mind that they probably cost less than 50 cents to make, so even this markup is quite massive, but we were happy with these few souvenirs that were hopefully made in DR Congo.
It should be noted that the actual name of the place is "Le Marché des Valeurs" which means, "The Market of Values", but most everyone calls it, "Le Marché des Voleurs" which means "The Market of Thieves". With this in mind, it's no wonder that our second visit fared much worse.
The biggest problem that most folks run in to is the general attitude of the market on the day that you visit. The second day we were there, they were not in a haggling mood. There were one or two other mundele (white folk) wandering the stalls, so they didn't feel like they needed to come down on their prices at all. The other big problem is that they communicate with each other faster than the speed of light. If you start looking at an item in one stall and ask about the price, but then put it away to go to another stall, it's more than a little suspicious that the next guy will offer you the same thing that you were just looking at with the same starting price. For instance, we took a liking to these tribal necklaces that probably originally consisted of red flat, round stones or other items strung next to each other, but were now round plastic discs. Despite this, they were still quite cool, but the "merchants" had the nerve to quote a starting price of $65! Again, they're probably about 50 cents to make and when throwing them down on the table in disgust, they halved their prices immediately because they knew that they had completely overshot. We moved on to other stalls to find the same type of necklaces with the same unfortunate prices. There was no bargaining with these guys. They knew that we wanted one of those necklaces and so we just gave up. It was not a good day to shop.
For anyone else that finds themselves amongst the "value thieves", keep a few things in mind such as the fact that you can easily haggle 60-75% off the asking price. Also, while they will tell you that someone is coral or a precious stone, they most likely are not. Beware the sellers that can speak English. The assumption in Kinshasa is that if you speak English, you've got money and they're ready to get that money from you. You will constantly hear about how much "quality" there is in each piece. I've had nights out drinking in dive bars that consisted of more quality than is in most of the stuff at the market. I mean, it's a bunch of stuff on a string, let's be realistic and just call it a knick knack that most of us aren't planning to have become part of their inheritance to future generations. Lastly, if you don't feel like dealing with these guys, then go to a place to eat like Surcouf where there are some guys who will come by your table with the same things that are at Le Marché des "Voleurs". The difference is that their prices will be lower and you can sit down while haggling and take your time as you eat. It suddenly makes the tables turn just a little bit more in your favor.
