Posing for photographers gives me visibility and strength. By having myself I wanted to show off my slim waist and hips", Angela Kipasa, 22.

Angela works as a model in Goma, in the east of the DRC. One thing particularly interesting about her: the beads she wears around her waist, the 'zigida' (the name varies from country to country and from culture to culture). different countries and cultures).

Originally, 'zigida' were flat beads, only red in colour. They are a beauty in Africa in general and in the Congo in particular. They also have a very intimate intimate value, as they are worn by women as a means of attracting a man. The idea is to to make him understand the attraction you feel for him, without ambiguity. These pearls only be seen by the person to whom the message is addressed. For little girls they were used very early on, tied around her waist to shape her hips.

Today, many different colours and shapes of pearls are used for the same purpose. To give shape to the contours of a woman's body for children and adults, to seduce a man with the particularity of a clothed or naked body.

By evoking the intimacy of women and their relationships with men, these beads plunge us into the heart of social interaction, into the always discreet world of desire and seduction. These universal practices once again underline the similarities that exist in all societies, similarities that colonial propaganda sought to camouflage, preferring to accentuate the differences, in order to justify a project presented as "civilising".