Photographer: Lamote, Carlo (1928 – 2017).
Title: untitled (Danse Matambu).
Date: 1959.
Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Medium: unmounted gelatin silver print.
Size: 18,1 x 24,1 cm.
Condition: very good.
Reference: CLV1111/1.
Provenance: French collection.
Extra: typed note with identification in French on verso. Congopresse 31.406/34.
Matambu dance performed by the Basal Mpasu (Salampasu). 
The territory of the Salampasu in the south of the Kasaï is bordered by the Lulua and the Kasaï-rivers. Their neighbouring people are the Lunda in the South, the Kete in the north and east and the Lwalwa in the west.
Because of their bloodthirsty behaviour and because of the headhunting, in the past frequently attended by cannibalism, they became very feared. Consequently they remained a homogeneous people that succeeded in keeping its traditions, language and customs free from foreign influences.
To dance, the Salampasu dress up themselves with all kinds of skins, head-dresses and body paintings. The ritual characteristics find their best expression in the head-hunting dance matambu, the mask dances and the dances held during the healing rituals as there the luanda, the mfuku, the utshumbu and the kabulukuta, the latter exclusively being performed by women. On the organological level they differ from the Lunda, Kete and Luba by the apparent preference they give to the xylophone madimba, the most important instrument of their orchestras.
Location: Mukasa.
Territory: Louiza.
Province: Kasaï (current name = Kasaï-Central). 
Photographer and cameraman Carlo Lamote (1928-2017)) left for Congo in 1950 to work for the colonial information service. For ten years, he travelled to every corner of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi to highlight the colonial achievements. Propaganda is the name of the game, but he turned out to be an excellent photographer. Together with his colleague Henri Goldstein, Lamote has shaped our image of the Belgian Congo. Open any book about the 1950s in the colony and you will find their names under the photos.
After independence, he set up his own film production company and news agency, with Visnew, ABC and CBS as regular customers. He was also the founder of Congovox, the news service of the Congolese state broadcaster.