Lorry Art Snippets: Biblical Scene 2007

Haven't posted any for a while, so here's another lovely photograph of the tailgate of a painted lorry. I found this one on a blog, Stardust's Shadow. The photo was taken on travels through West Africa in 2007, apparently on the road between Benin City and Ile-Ife. 

Martin Bennett (1999): Mammy-Wagons, Kaduna-Lagos Road

The other day I stumbled across this beautiful little poem by Martin Bennet, a British poet and translator who is, if I am not mistaken, now based in Rome, Italy (link leads to another of his poems but with a short bio). This poem comes from a collection that is informed by his time in Nigeria and was published in 1999 by Wasafiri. 

Lorry Art Snippets: No Food for Lazy Man

I stumbled across another beautiful (and old-ish) photograph of a painted lorry in Nigeria that I want to share with you here. This is from Dynamic Africa's tumblr feed.

Lorry Art Snippets: Photos from Lagos

I am not enough of a regular on Twitter not to miss the one or the other tweet that might be interesting and have some bearing on the theme of this blog. So, here's one that didn't escape me – although I've seen it somewhat late. So, here's two more images of lorry decoration from Lagos to add to the collection!

Ayomide O. Tayo republishes and misattributes my photos

Imagine my delight: I lazily type 'Nigerian lorry art' into the search window of Google News. – Yes, I was stuck and needed a moment's diversion. – And, there is actually a rather recent article that comes up. 7 October 2016. Amazing, I think. Something I can use in my write-up maybe?

Now imagine my disappointment when I click on the link to find this:

The Nigerian Coat of Armsin Maiduguri, Nigeria: One of my photographs misattributed by Ayomide O. Tayo of the Pulse NG

This is one of my photos that I took in Maiduguri in 2008. It's one of those that I posted on Flickr because I thought it'd be nice to contribute to the group on African truck art there. Only, it is not attributed to me but one 'Tropicaliser.'

Of the six photographs in the article, four are mine. I have posted all of them on Flickr and/or Animus. And all have been misattributed. 

Old Cowboy in Kano: misattributed by Ayomide O. Tayo of the Pulse NG

Rambo in Kano, Nigeria: misattributed by Ayomide O. Tayo of the Pulse NG

Eagle in Blue in Kano, Nigeria: misattributed by Ayomide O. Tayo of the Pulse NG

This gets me. I don't mind my photographs being used. I only like to be acknowledged as their source. – And, I really resent that my photograph is attributed to somebody else. Look, the other photograph by Mike Blyth is most likely from the African Truck Art pool at Flickr. So, if you've been there – how come you misattribute my photographs?

So, let me clarify something: I don't mind my photographs – or, indeed, anything I post here – to be reused. I don't even mind a newsoutlet (is that what Pulse NG is?) using it, even less a Nigerian one. I just think its good manners and indeed a matter of professionalism for journalists to mention your sources (with the obvious exceptions that don't apply here). And, yes, I expect you to get that right (more or less, at least, we've all been guilty of the odd typo here and there). I may want to use these photographs somewhere some day in a publication – and, I don't want some misattribution to muddy the waters on who has the copyright for them.

So, here are the links to my Flickr and Animus albums of photos of decorated lorries I have taken in Nigeria (both of which, Flickr and Animus I neglected while I was off).

Flickr

Animus

In a sense this is timely. Only the other day I posted bits from an article on copy right in Nigeria that I found in West Africa magazine. Sigh. And, yes, I am currently resentful. Which is why I only give you the link to said article in Pulse NG down here. Not that it adds much to anybody's knowledge of Nigerian lorry decorations. Which annoys me even more.

(Northern) Nigerian Lorry Arts and Race: A Question!

A friend of mine has just returned from a month’s visit to Nigeria, Keffi, Jos and Kano to be precise. Last night, we’ve spent hours going through her pictures (homesickness is not quite the right work but my sentimentality bordered on something similar) and one question kept puzzling us: We agree that Nigerian lorry arts are just amazingly beautiful. We love the aesthetics of it. But, why are so few of the men depicted in the tailboard paintings dark skinned. I understand that a number of the motifs originate in Italo-Western (especially the Django character), Hollywood action movies (Rambo) and Kung-Fu films. But how comes the characters have never been localised or ‘Africanised’ (chose whichever term you prefer)? An African/Nigerian character wrestling with a lion appears to make as much (or little, if you’re not a fan of this kind of movies) sense as a white Rambo character. Or not?

(Image: Ostfaficzuk, Stanislaw (1996): Geoecology of the Nigerian Part of the Lake Chad Basin. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slakiego. 21.)

This is interesting especially if you consider it against the background of somewhat similar debates about the illustrations on the covers of Hausa novels where, according to Prof. Abdallah (2006: 47), in 2005 ANA banned the depiction of Europeans and Indians. Of course, lorry artists and the road transport entrepreneurs that own the lorries do occupy a different position in northern society than the writers of Hausa novels (whatever that may mean and entail) – and so do their products. And, certainly, I’m far away from suggesting something ought to be done about the shade of skin of the tailboard paintings. I’m just being curious about which role the characters’ origin in foreign films play, or available colour palettes, or … or is this in the end just a misperception based upon the coincidences of times and places where we did our respective research?

Oh, and one last note, in reference back to a blog post about a year ago: my friend actually documented the, let’s follow Schmidt’s terminology, ‘Inkale’ motif on two lorries! I know I am turning into a terrible Nigerian art geek but there’s certainly material for an interesting article considering cultural flows across the region and different artistic media! As well as, mabye, in my question about shades of skin in northern Nigerian lorry arts.