Songs of the Wal}}s [Hardcover]

For the Ekonda pygmies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the most important event in the life of a woman is the birth of her first child. The young mother is called Wal? (?primiparous nursing mother?). For several years after giving birth, she lives in semi-seclusion, separated from her husband, cared for by other female tribe members and covered daily in red powder made of Ngola wood. When the time comes to reenter society, she puts on a show for the community, translating the lessons learned during seclusion into songs and dances. These celebrations captured the attention of French photographer Patrick Willocq, who, in a unique collaboration with some Wal?s, their respective clans, an ethnomusicologist, an artist and many artisans of the forest, constructed elaborate and surreal sets, in the middle of the jungle and without any photoshop montage nor collage, inspired by the Ekonda mothers chants, and then photographed staged scenes of the women within them.This book presents the series produced between 2013 and 2015, among them I Am Wal? Respect Me and Forever Wal?. Through this work Patrick Willocq (b. 1969) takes his images far from the usual hackneyed and clich?d depiction of the Congo (where he grew up) and brings a fresh interpretation of Africa. I've always been fascinated by native tribes because I feel they have a wealth that we have somehow lost. To document this beautiful tribute to motherhood, fertility and femininity, I proposed to some Wal?s (? primiparous nursing mother ?) to participate in staged photographs. Each set-up worked as a visual representation of one of the subjects that the Wal? would sing about on the day of her release from seclusion. On that day, she sings the story of her own loneliness, and with humor praises her own behavior while discrediting her Wal? rivals.Forever Wal? continues to be a personal reflection of women and the Wal? ritual, but first and foremost the result of a unique collaboration with young pygmy women, their l³’