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06
What we mean about the documentation of the African continent, agency & identity:
a brief reflection on the portrait photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé – the messengers of joyfulness.
Okwui Enwezor once wrote that “the West see Africa as a figment of their imagination and selecting the correct representation that sits their narrative.” The French have often adopted a certain narrative of Africans as uncivilized and they brought photography to Mali to depict them in the manner to which they felt appropriate, while building studios and teaching locals on the foundations of photography. From this, it is evident of how the western lens often turned its attention towards the removal of agency from Africans because photography as a medium is powerful and the counternarrative it holds, especially since it pushed through before, after and during Mali’s independence from France in the 1960s. The term African art has somewhat felt lacking in its different definitions and I do believe that art historians and writers are helpful in this regard. I do not believe there should be any constraints on it despite the movement of the traditional art market. Often, we hear of similar styles of work emerging from the same region and monitoring the growth of the market, one could easily see this as a consequence why the majority of the works are blending into each other for example hyperrealist drawings emerging from the continent. This is a much larger conversation that I am not focusing on here, but important to note here since both photographers seem to be considered as one from the lens of the Western Art. The kind of art being produced in recent times can often be an indicator of the format that has been favoured by the auction houses, galleries and collectors alike.
There is no separating the works of these two artists who shaped African photography from a social and historical context, it is well known of the intimacy captured in studio photographs and the nostalgia that it ultimately results in and to go beyond the nostalgic function that the photographs served. The two artists here, Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, are selected not only because of the similarities of their works but also the relationship that was established by both artists. Although each photographer had a unique sense of vision in their portraits, the era which they captured was one that focused not solely on identity but the landscape of postcolonial West Africa.
(Image shown above: Courtesy of Malick Sidibé, Soiree familiale, 1998.)
Africans love “to feel good”, this was often attributed to the joy these photographs brought, which led to them coining the phrase ‘I ka nyé tan’ which translates into ‘you look beautiful like that’. Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta’s photographs afforded the agency to revisit youth culture of the 1960s vividly on their own terms in their respective cities of origins. They captured the young people with a sense of freedom and their habits and attitudes towards the political movements fighting authority. Amidst all of this, these photographs help us to reflect on the reclamation of agency and the representation of how they shapedand expanded the culture over time. The 1960s and 1970s period are significant to the countries because of the music and cinema export during that time and everything that linked towards a modernism
culture.The cultural context of images and how photographers can be multi-authored objects is worth mentioning as they often captured themselves as subjects in their studios. Firstly, the images show the subjects in their natural space and how the studio photography growth boom had an effect, making it easily accessible to be photographed beautifully. The visibility earned by these photographs managed to capture the freeing sense of youth, the generational conflict, and the influence of rock and roll on the style of the youth as well. The photographs revealed their push for freedom from the nationalist authority at a time where the youth were finding their own agency.
But to understand the conditions that led to the style of the photographs, the 1960s in Bamako was led by the movement of the youth to evolve and consequently the demand that gathered when they became aware of the existence of both studios locally. This documentation, not only gave them a sense of identity, but also defined the subjects in the perfection they demanded, to look beautiful. This visual pleasure contributed largely to their success and the word of mouth meant information spread freely through parties and various social functions. They beautified their clients and this would go on to become symbols in the capital. Having a photograph by either artist was now seen as a memento that was desired by all. As a photographer Keita's role was rather simple, the subjects wanted to be seen in the image of the bourgeoisie and the middle class of Bamako, to reinforce that modernism. Due to the images that each photographer brought into their own style. To quote Folawiyo (2021), “is this identity relatable to a viewer who does not have an idea of the provenance and histories of the photographers? Can these images stir up a feeling of Africanness for the typical African viewer?”
(Image shown above: Malick Sidibé, Les Retrouvailles au bord du fleuve Niger, 1974.)
Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon stated that, “it is not only impossible to create a national culture under colonialism, but it is also equally evident that artefacts like these photos are signs of neo-colonialism and Western imperialism. Writing about African independence in the 1960s, Cesaire stated that whereas the colonial era was characterized by the "reification" of the African, the transition to independence would give rise to a revival of his creative energies, and a recovery of his authentic ways of being that had been forbidden by the colonizer. Independence would awaken in the individual the African personality that had for so long been suppressed ("La pensée politique de Sékou Touré," Présence Africaine 29 [December 1959-January 1960], 67).
There is a lack of knowledge from what the West have often considered to be African Art because at the core, they do not share the same commonalities and the gaps in their knowledge which make it difficult to make critical assessments and the single-story narrative is perpetuated. Consequently, the cultural history is not acknowledged appropriately and its makers largely ignored and not credited accurately. The accessibility to which the non-African galleries acquired these works and the influx of the works in the market, considerably between 2016 till date, there is an extensive amount of their works being sold at high price points far from its inception and the function each artist had created in mind.
(Image shown above: Seydou Keïta. Untitled, MA.KE.064: 1954. Courtesy CAAC – The Pigozzi Collection © Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC.)
Even in death, agency is removed, while their identity remains largely untouched because of their impact. The appreciation of their own cultural heritage and the foundation that led to them as proprietors of memory is what makes the work beautiful till today.