FESTIVAL DE GUNGU (FESNAG)

Initially this festival was held in Gungu around July 21. Today the tendency would be to make it a travelling festival in charge of conveying the art and the culture of the country. The origin goes back to 1925. At that time it was called "Luvidi" which is a Pende term meaning show, game, festivity. This commemoration was interrupted in 1960 and resumed in 1998 with Kibala Malungi of the association "Art Secret Pende". Carefully elaborated, the costumes respond to precise symbolism: the fertility of the soil and water, the relationships between the members of a community, the presence of the spirits. These costumes inspire choreographies that evolve and are enriched by new contributions. The Pende inhabit the savannah of the southern equatorial forest and the Kasai. Their number is estimated at one million individuals who preserve the customs and traditions of their ancestors. The Minganji, famous circumcision masks, are not only the emblems of the festival, but also the cultural anchors of the society. They invite the spirits of the deceased to mingle with the world of the living and to promote harmony and fertility of the ecosystems. Very early on, the young boys are initiated into the steps and weave raffia to make the regulation costumes. Association, initiation, secrecy... are the key words of a festival that invites to remember the ancestral values and the way in which the Ancients managed the relationship of the communities with the nature.