2328 CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE - A Punu mask

The Punu, or Bapunu (Bapounou), are a Bantu group of Central Africa and one of the four major peoples of Gabon, inhabiting interior mountain and grassland areas in the southwest of the country, around the upper N'Gounié and Nyanga Rivers. Bapunu also live in the Divenie, Kibangou, and Mossendjo districts of the Republic of the Congo. They live in independent villages divided into clans and families, and social cohesion is ensured by a society known as moukouji, whose role is the subjugation of the harmful forest spirits.

2085 CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE - Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza's Mausoleum in Brazzaville

 In February 2005, presidents of Congo, Gabon and France gathered in Brazzaville to lay the foundation stone for a memorial to Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza (1852-1905). In 2006, Brazza's remains were exhumed from Algiers along with those of his wife and four children, and were reinterred in the new mausoleum of Italian marble. He was considered at that time the liberator of the slaves, and an apostle of peace  and civilization.

1470, 1620 CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE - Oilpainting postcards

1470

Posted on 27.02.2015, and 31.05.2015
If the first postcard received from Republic of the Congo was a sand painting one, the second and the third one are oilpaintings. Anyway, I can say that in the last years I didn't see any "real" postcard from this country, but merely handmade. And these ones are even signed, as the true paintings.

1620

 

1386 CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE - A sandpainting postcard

Handmade postcards aren't among my favorites, but this one received from Brazzaville is an exception, especially that it comes from a country difficult to access and it was achieved by a special technique, namely sandpainting. Sandpainting (or drypainting) is the art of pouring colored sands, powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, and pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed, or unfixed sand painting. It is practiced by Native Americans in the Southwestern United States, by Tibetan and Buddhist monks, by Australian Aborigines, by Latin Americans on certain Christian holy days, but also by some modern artists worldwide.