Bills

The Bills were a youth subculture that thrived in L?opoldville (now known as Kinshasa) in the late 1950s, basing much of their image and outlook on the cowboys of American Western movies.

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From 1957 to 1959, half a dozen movie theatres opened in the "African" neighbourhoods in L?opoldville (the city was segregated into African and European areas). The majority of L?opoldville's population was under 20, and most of these youths were educated to only Primary level, since the colonial government reserved most of the Secondary school places for Europeans. Poor education resulted in large scale unemployment, and, with little else to do, the youths began to make the theatres their meeting points. They were particularly drawn to Western movies, and began to incorporate many of the motifs into their lives. The portrayal of Buffalo Bill in the movies was especially appealing partly because of the similarity to hunter heroes of Congolese culture. The character of Buffalo Bill had already appeared in over 20 films by that time, but the most influential movie is thought to be 'Pony Express', where Charlton Heston played Bill.

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Dress, lifestyle, appropriation of cowboy motifs, anti-colonial aspects, Billism, myths

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Subculture: :For the term in biology, please see Subculture (biology)....

Cowboy: :This article is about the cowboys and cowgirls of the Americas; for other uses see Cowboy (disambiguation) or Cowgirl (disambiguation)....

American: :This page disambiguates the many uses of American. For an article about those various uses, please see Use of the word American....

Bills related Images and Photos (experimental)

Buffalo Bill's Wild West c.1890	Buffalo Bill's Wild West The Scout	Buffalo Bill's Wild West The Scout	Buffalo Bill's Amusements Des Cowboys
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show Scout on Horse	Buffalo Bill's Wild West Visit of Majesties	Buffalo Bill's Wild West Visit of Majesties	True Blood Bill's Embroidered Thermal Henley
Bills Helmet -Fathead	Buffalo Bills	Sketches from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Earl's Court 1892	Bills Sideline Players Cap