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Zairian artist and painter

Tshibumba Kanda-Matulu (1947 in Élisabethville, Belgian Congo – c.1981 in Zaire), commonly abbreviated to TKM, was a noted artist and painter from Zaire (the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo).

TKM worked within the style termed "African popular art" or "genre painting" and is known for his prolific paintings depicting key moments of Congolese history as they appeared in folk memory. TKM disappeared in 1981 and is believed to have been killed in rioting.

Life and work

TKM was born in Élisabethville (modern-day Lubumbashi), in the south of the Belgian Congo, in 1947.

TKM worked within the period of cultural authenticité in the 1970s. TKM was one of the leading figures of "African genre painting" which had emerged in the Belgian Congo in the late 1950s and which integrated both European and Congolese styles and techniques.

TKM's best-known paintings form part of a series of 101 works commissioned by the G