I have just come back from a day that started at Kurmi Market talking to sellers of religious posters. Personally I'm particularly interested in the older ones that have reportedly been imported from Cairo some fifty years ago as well as their locally produced reprints. They show portraits of sufi sheikhs, scenes from the old testament as well as from Muslim history.
I wonder to which extent they have informed a contemporary local discourse on visuals arts in which portraits of sheikhs (and to some extend politicians) can be found all over the town on posters, murals and stickers. But in order to make any such argument I need to know more about the history of these posters, the context in which they were produced, their original audience/consumers, the origin of their iconography etc.


In addition to my own interest I have also met a really nice and assisting local researcher, Nura Ibrahim from the Department of Mass Communication at Bayero University, who is interested in the history of these posters for his MA own research into contemporary posters and their semiotics.

Unfortunately we have not been able to learn to much about the history of these posters from the traders. They inherited their business from their fathers and all they know is what they've been told and that the posters were already available here in Kano before they took over.

Hence, if anybody out there might be able to advice us as to where to look for information on these posters or whom to talk to (probably via email/internet for the moment being) we'd be really grateful!!!

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