Description
This photograph, taken in 1942 in Messabé in the Congo, is the result of a collaboration between Germaine Krull, Ellebé and Robert Carmet during the Free French Forces photographic mission to Africa.
Aimed at young nubile girls, the tchikumbi is an initiation rite for the Vili people of the Loango region. They are adorned by their elders with bracelets and other jewelry and covered with a "red wood powder mixed with palm oil" according to the testimony of Bernard Lefebvre dit Ellebé.
Part of the archives of this report is kept at the Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer.
This photograph is referenced as FR CAOM 30Fi75/13.
1950s print run.