ABSTRACT
In Kinshasa, exclusive new urbanisms often take the form of a ‘modernization as spectacle’ in which various modes of specular modernity feed a powerful political theatricality and imaginary of the ‘neoliberal city’. Part of the start-up capital for the construction of ‘new cities’ in Kinshasa undoubtedly derives from such debt vulture hedge funds, in which case the new city is literally feeding off the corpse of Kinshasa and its pauperized precariat, the immediate by-product of this capitalist globalization. The most emblematic one in this respect is the burial ground that is officially known as ‘Necropolis – Between Earth and Heaven’, consisting of 17 hectares of land on the eastern outskirts of Kinshasa.
