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The Kinshasa cowboys: How Buffalo Bill started a subculture in Congo

By Thomas Page, for CNN

Updated 7:31 AM ET, Tue December 8, 2015

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(CNN)It was hard being a youth in Kinshasa in the 1950s. Known as Leopoldville at the time, the capital of Congo was under the control of Belgian colonialists. Segregation meant there were no-go zones after nightfall and unemployment levels were high. Most residents had no education beyond primary level.

The city was feeling the strain from an influx of rural migrants, largely young men, who flocked to the capital's poor neighborhoods. Away from their parents it was a hyper-masculine environment, and yet they found themselves infantilized by the colonial class.
Refusing to be cowed, these young men (and in some cases women) were looking for a role model.
They found one in Buffalo Bill.

A very different type of cowboy

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Bill and photographer Jean Depara made Kinshasa his canvas in the 1950s, capturing cowboys like Andrada in the urban neighborhoods they staunchly defended. Depara was an erstwhile shoemaker until 1953, first taking up the camera at his wedding in 1950, when he bought a small Adox camera to record the occasion. His lens would go on to detail myriad examples of pop culture in the bubbling metropolis, but his series on the Bills is among his most famous.
Photos: Jean Depara: The man who captured the Bills
Bill and photographer Jean Depara made Kinshasa his canvas in the 1950s, capturing cowboys like Andrada in the urban neighborhoods they staunchly defended. Depara was an erstwhile shoemaker until 1953, first taking up the camera at his wedding in 1950, when he bought a small Adox camera to record the occasion. His lens would go on to detail myriad examples of pop culture in the bubbling metropolis, but his series on the Bills is among his most famous.
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(Clockwise from top left: Andrada, Hubert Kunguniko, Roy aka Therese Muyaka and Meta.) Many of the Bills came from rural areas, moving to the city by themselves. Away from family, these youths were drawn to each other, forming neighborhood gangs highly influenced by the Western genre of films.<br />
Photos: Jean Depara: The man who captured the Bills
(Clockwise from top left: Andrada, Hubert Kunguniko, Roy aka Therese Muyaka and Meta.) Many of the Bills came from rural areas, moving to the city by themselves. Away from family, these youths were drawn to each other, forming neighborhood gangs highly influenced by the Western genre of films.
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