Vintage Silver print photograph.

Published with varying titles and dates in the primary McCullin monographs:
1. This is the difference between white Africa and black Africa – the whites have always had the guns. Congo 1967 (The Destruction Business, 1971)
2. A Rhodesian mercenary humbles a Congolese family, 1966. (Sleeping with Ghosts, 1994)
3. White mercenary and Congolese family, Paulis, north of Stanleyville, 1966 (Don McCullin, 2003)
4. Rhodesian mercenary with a Congolese family, Stanleyville, 1964 (Don McCullin, 2007)
5. Rhodesian mercenary, Stanleyville, the Congo, 1968 on the Victoria and Albert Museum website.
McCullin made three trips to the Congo. On the first, in November 1964, he disguised himself as a mercenary to fly to Stanleyville to cover the hostage rescue and the suppression of the Simba uprising. It was probably only ‘Mad’ Mike Hoare’s admiration for his bravery that saved McCullin from execution. He almost certainly would not have been permitted to accompany the subsequent raid (codenamed Dragon Noir) on 26 November to free further hostages held in Paulis. Although we have not been able to confirm the detail it is likely this photograph was taken in 1966. In his autobiography (p. 74) McCullin mentions, in passing, that this trip was unremarkable due to restrictions imposed, but he did have the experience of a drunken mercenary trying to’ hold me hostage at gunpoint in a town called Paulis’. McCullin’s final Congo visit (in October 1967) involved another illegal entry when he documented Colonel Schramme’s mercenary force holed up in Bukavu, prior to their retreat into nearby Rwanda.

320 x 215 mm, on a larger sheet

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