In Congo Brazzaville, the department of Sangha, more than 800 kilometres north of Brazzaville, has been an Eldorado for gold panning for almost 10 years. My last visit to the Sangha was in 2020 and I kept a sketchbook of the people I met and the landscapes I visited.
Among the many children and young men I passed in this gold rush, a little lady who was no more than about 5 feet tall caught my eye. Her oversized clothes took on the beige colour of the dry mud and I was absorbed by the incessant movements of the sieve she was immersing and taking out of the water without interruption.
Even today, when I look at this piece, I see the incessant dance of the sieves shaken in the water, and the little yellow scarf of the lady at the riverside.
