Suturing the City

An ethnographic and photographic investigation into the complex meanings of living in Congo's urban worlds today.

Focusing upon the ‘urban now’, a moment suspended between lingering precolonial references, the broken dreams of a colonial past, and the not yet realised promises of neoliberal futures, this book provides an ethnographic and photographic investigation of the complex meanings of living – and living together – in Congo’s urban worlds today.

The authors, anthropologist Filip De Boeck and photographer Sammy Baloji, take the reader on a tour of specific urban sites in Kinshasa and beyond. In their detailed analysis these sites emerge as suturing points in which the possibilities of collective urban action and dreams of a shared future continue to be explored.

Reprint of Suturing the City: Living Together in Congo’s Urban Worlds, Filip De Boeck, Sammy Baloji (Autograph 2016)

Look inside and read the preface >