I've finally finally managed to finish a short introduction to myself for Nii and after all that work and just in case you ever wonderered who I was and didn't know how to check my complete blogger profile [at that point you’re required to imagine a big fat slightly embarrassed grin] I just got to post that here … you know, showing off that I'm still able to to complete any kind of writing, however small it might be ...
Hailing from one of Berlin’s most beautiful suburbs I literally stumbled into African Studies: I was looking for an interims option to bridge a year while I was waiting for admission to study my subject of choice. Choosing between different options of regional studies at Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany) I light-heartedly opted for the one subject school and leisure readings had taught me the least about: Africa. If I had to bridge a year why not use it to reduce one of those gaps in my knowledge? However, as I discovered exciting authors such as Syl Cheney-Coker, Wole Soyinka, Abourahman Waberi, Yvonne Vera and Tayeb Saleh (to name just a few) a year became two, I passed my intermediate examinations, participated in a student group organising readings of African literature in German translation, attended a DAAD Hausa language course in Azare (Bauchi State, Nigeria) and went on an Erasmus exchange year at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London, UK).
For the first time SOAS offered me the opportunity to combine my newly acquired passion for the products of African cultures with my childhood passion for visual arts. I returned to Berlin intend to write my Magister dissertation about African arts. Inspired by John Picton’s (then still teaching at SOAS) enthusiasm for Nigerian arts and my previous experience in Azare I was hoping to conduct fieldwork in Nigeria and consider in my dissertation one Nigerian art world. However, for a variety of reasons my fieldwork trip was cancelled on short notice and in its stead I opted to return to SOAS for my MA. During the course of the year the idea for the PhD I’m currently undertaking emerged. I started reading broadly about the history and culture of the geographical region north of Abuja and effectively turned my MA dissertation into a literature review on Hausa arts and material culture. After another year of reading and convincing myself that a PhD was indeed desirable I returned to SOAS as a PhD candidate in September 2006.
Thanks to the financial assistance of the UK’s AHRC I was able to undertake a year’s fieldwork in Maiduguri, Kano and Zaria from which I returned in October 2008 with notebooks full of information I’m still struggling to organise and condense into a thesis.
And, just in case you wondered: yes, I’m actually still struggling. In fact, for the last few weeks, been struggling not to loose faith in my ability to ever pull that off … And I’m missing Naija, hating the fact that I won’t make it back as planned. Not even now … But for now, it’s all about getting started into another academic year … Oh, and did I mention I was grateful for any feedback on how to improve on that, the intro to myself I mean, I mean, stuff for which I don't need to change my past or lie about it ...
On my way back from Lagos to Maidguri I had another stop-over in Abuja and I used the day there to meet up with Hussein Akar, the owner of Signature Gallery in Abuja. He wasn’t around when I first popped by on Thursday on the way from the airport to Ella’s place but I was able to make an appointment for the next day. I was a bit nervous about meeting him because, despite the recommendation to see him by his uncle at the Signature Gallery in Lagos and Nabil’s friends, I wasn’t really quite sure whether I had enough questions for him to justify disturbing him. However, it turned out to be a really useful and interesting discussion. In fact, he was kind enough to call one Zaria graduate during our conversation to pass on one of my questions and provided me with his number and that of somebody at the Society of Nigeria Artists before I left. At the same time, his emphasis on Zaria graduates, Lagos as an important place of residence for artists from different parts of the country and also t...
When I flicked through the papers this morning – online, if you must know – I came across an article in the Daily Trust that extolls the virtues Usman dan Fodio and his generation of northern Nigerian political leaders. It sets them up as good examples of leadership and argues that current President of Nigeria Muhammad Buhari should take inspiration from them to solve the current crisis of leadership in his government. Now, I don't want to get into political arguments here. I only mention this article – here, in a space that I said I'd use to organise my thoughts for my art historical writing – because it was illustrated by a photograph of a smiling elderly man. The caption underneath the photograph identifies the man in the picture as 'Shaikh Usumanu Danfodio'. Now, the founder of the Sokoto caliphate may not have been the only Sheikh named Usman (or Osman or Usumanu) in the family. However, the article makes it pretty clear that it is him that the author ...
Once again I have been procrastinating for few minutes to get over a temporary writing blog and what did I find? Look, the iconography of the Sheikh Ahmad Tijani poster I have collected in Kano has been more influential in West Africa than I originally would have thought. Granted, this is again an image from Senegal, a country with a strong tradition of Sufi Islam and adaptation of imported religious prints into new media, behind glass painting, followed by the subsequent extension of this artistic practice to include a variety of other religious and profane subject matter … anyway, its related to my research so I’m excited about it! So here you go, this is what I found: I guess, the choice of this image speaks of its ubiquity and iconic power in Senegal at least – iconic, here, in the sense of the image’s potential to symbolise not only the depicted person but also the ideas and philosophy associated with his name. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out when the boo...
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