Description
Cette photographie prise en 1942 à Messabé au Congo est le fruit de la collaboration entre Germaine Krull, Ellebé et Robert Carmet lors de la Missions photographiques des Forces françaises Libres en Afrique.
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.
Ce cliché est référencé sous la cote : FR CAOM 30Fi75/13.
1950s print run.