Manioc Culture in Congo-Kinshasa
Across the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape in northwestern Congo-Kinshasa, Bongando and Mongo farmers, grow cassava in organized family fields on the edge of abandoned plantations of colonial heritage. Through these simplified ecologies now in resurgence, different experiences guide us towards the possibilities of existence and survival of manioc in cohabitation with other human and non-human organisms. From the clearing of the space to be cultivated to the planting of cuttings, forms of attachment, in the form of alliances and emotional bonds, are established between humans and cassava and all other visible and invisible beings potentially involved in the future of the crop. Humans surround themselves with allies of life, ancestors and geniuses, and with latent forces, animal and vegetable, which they can awaken through the proper use of speech. From one village to another, manioc cultivation is a tangle of life forms that brings humans into a continuous movement of life, developing an affective closeness with the plants and engaging with other life lines according to various rhythmic movements dedicated to getting to know and approach them.