Size: 430x118cm./169.2×46.4inch.
Year: 1960’s
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Very large cloth with the image of Moise Tshombe from the 1960’s. See video. The cloth was made in the United Kingdom for the export to African markets. Most likely the cloth was made to cut up into several pieces for use troughout the country. It is 4.3 meter or 169 inches long. It has never been used.
Moise Tshombe (1919-1969), depicted here, was a Congolese businessman and politician and president of the Republic of Katanga, in the early 1960’s who later became Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The State of Katanga was a breakaway state that proclaimed its independence from Congo on 11 July 1960 under Moise Tshombe, leader of the local Confédération des associations tribales du Katanga (CONAKAT) political party. The new Katangese state did not enjoy full support throughout the province and was constantly plagued by ethnic strife in its northernmost region. It was dissolved in 1963 following an invasion by United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC) forces, and reintegrated with the rest of the country as Katanga Province.