On 'Portraits' of Usman dan Fodio again

Last year I mentioned here a number of alleged photographs of Usman dan Fodio and drawings that purportedly portrayed the Shehu that I had encountered as illustrations in newspapers and elsewhere. I wondered whether such a portrait – either a photograph taken in dan Fodio's lifetime or a portrait at least sketched after meeting the man himself – could actually exist. 

I suppose, I found it hard to imagine that any of the sheikh's contemporary disciples would have produced such a drawing, let alone had access to a camera to take a photograph. I still do. Just consider his admonition of the customs of the Hausa-dynasties that his jihad dethroned.

'One of the ways of their governments is their … wearing whatever clothes they wish, whether religiously permitted or forbidden […], and living in decorated palaces, whether religiously permitted or forbidden and spreading soft (decorated) carpets as they wish, whether religiously permitted or forbidden …'

(Kitab al-Farq, transl. by Hiskett 1960: 567)

Another 'Portrait' of Usman dan Fodio

Here is another photograph that is presented as a portrait of Usman dan Fodio.

(Source: Slideplayer)

I found this one because it was used in a student's PowerPoint presentation that somebody uploaded to the web. Whether these students are at secondary school or undergraduates I cannot tell from the website. But, I hope they are not at university because, once again, there is no information here about the origin of the photograph. – Don't students these days learn that they have to reference their sources, including their image sources? 

(Source: Slideplayer)

 Anyway, this one is particularly puzzling. I don't know if I am being prejudiced here but to me the man in the picture, the one on the horse does not look Nigerian at all. What do you think? It puzzles me even more since the same presentation in another slide includes this 'portrait' drawing of Usman dan Fodio that I have already mentioned here a few days ago.

(Source: Slideplayer)

Political Sardines in Ghana

This comes from West Africa, the weekly magazine that was published between 1917 and 2005 and covered the latest news, economical developments and, to a much lesser extent, culture in the region. To me that's a rather creative approach to politics – though I am sure Dr. Busia didn't think it quite as funny. Did anybody ever do something similar to a Nigerian politician?

Political Sardines

Dr. Kofi Busia, one of Ghana's two main political party leaders, has said he does not know about the manufacture of "book matches" said to have been made with his effigy on. Ten thousand are reported to have been ordered by the Ghana Students Association in North America in 1965, without Dr. Busia's permission being sought. The former Vice-President of this student association said the matches had been produced as part of their struggle against Nkrumah. He denied reports that the Association had ordered tins of sardines with Dr Busia's picture on them (the tins).

(West Africa, 23 August 1969, page 985)

'Portraits' of Sheikh Usman dan Fodio

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 is concerned with. This makes it likely that the photograph has been included to illustrate that very Usman dan Fodio who in the early 19^th century waged war against the established ruling dynasties in Hausaland, conquered most of what is now northern Nigeria and founded the Sokoto Caliphate. 

CFP: Culture and Society in Post-Colonial Nigeria in honor of ULLI BEIER

Still catching up

Institute of African Studies

CALL FOR PAPERS

Culture and Society in Post-Colonial Nigeria in honor of ULLI BEIER.

November 28 – 30, 2011

The conference is being organised in honour of Ulli Beier, not only to invoke his memorable role in the cultural production in Nigeria from the years immediately before and after the independence, but also to incite robust discussion on his entire oeuvre as a cultural interventionist. In literature, in performance and in Visual Arts, the long list of artists that Ulli Beier’s many fora (Black Opheus, Mbari, Mbari Mbayo) fostered is a proof of his sterling contribution to African culture.

Culture itself encapsulates the dialogic production of meaning and aesthetics through a variety of practices. It also captures discourses associated with a mix of public and private institutions such as cinemas, the media, museums and other sites of socio-historical production. Discourses around such issues expose the mindset of a people; they mirror where a nation is coming from and the direction in which it is moving. After fifty years of independence, Nigeria requires looking back to assess itself. The project of evolving a new Nigeria has placed emphasis on political and economic factors rather than developing cultural potential for sustainable development. This is a huge lacuna given the fact that culture plays a significant role in the life of a nation.

The conference is intended to stimulate new dimensions of assessing the predicament of pre-colonial Nigeria, privileging cultural history and production. More specifically, we anticipate an interrogation of the double-bind of fusion and rupture of politics and culture. In an attempt to answer many questions that emanate from this, we expect that the conference will generate theses from a wide range of perspectives such as economics, art and science, among others.

Sub-themes include but are not limited to the following:

* Culture Theory

* Culture, Gender and (Wo)Men’s rights

* Culture, Democracy and Governance

* Globalization, Mass Culture and the New Media

* Material Culture and Cultural Performance

* Culture and Ecology

* Traditional Medicine and Spirituality

* Conflict Prevention and Management

* Social Movements and Ethics

Keynote speakers:

Professor Akin Ogundiran, Chair, Africana Studies Department,University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC.: Topic: Crises of Culture and Consciousness in the Postcolony: What is the Future for Nigeria?

Professor Wole Ogundele, Director Centre for Black culture and International Understanding, Osogbo, Osun State.: Topic: He Lived among the Orisha: Ulli Beier and the Yoruba Cultural Revival.

Conference Venue: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria

An abstract of not more than 250 words is expected to reach the conference organizers through the following e-mail addresses:

Ohioma Pogoson tellohio[at]ahoo.com

Ayo Adeduntan grandeekay[at]ahoo.com

not later than August 15, 2011. Participants shall be notified of the acceptance of their abstracts by August 31, 2011.

The Visual Culture of Nigerian Politics: Police Detain(ed) Cleric over Goodluck Jonathan's Campaign Poster

Some while ago the Daily Trust reported that a prominent Sokoto-based scholar has been arrested on charges of defacing posters promoting the campaign of current president Goodluck Jonathan:

Police detain cleric over Jonathan’s posters

Daily Trust, Wednesday, 02 March 2011 00:00

Rakiya A. Muhammad, Sokoto & Misbahu Bashir, Abuja

Prominent Islamic scholar in Sokoto Sheikh Abubakar Jibril was arrested by the police on Monday afternoon and was flown to Abuja yesterday over what police sources said was the defacing of some campaign posters of President Goodluck Jonathan. The Sheikh, who is the Chief Imam of the Farfaru Juma’at Mosque in Sokoto, was arrested with his two sons, his driver and a domestic aide, according to relations and the police. Spokesman for the Sokoto police command ASP Al-Mustapha Sani said policemen on patrol arrested Sheikh Abubakar and the others while they were using black paint to deface the posters of the president and his deputy at some roundabouts in Sokoto metropolis at about 5pm on Monday.

Sani said they were arrested over inciting public disturbance and have been transferred to the Force Criminal Investigation Department in Abuja.

In Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer DCP Olusola Amore confirmed that five people including Sheikh Abubakar were being held at the Force CID and that they were arrested for allegedly defacing the posters of the PDP presidential candidate and his running mate. He said they were also suspected of inciting dislike for Jonathan and of acts capable of fanning the flames of public disturbance.

[…]

But a civil society activist, Ibrahim Tudun Doki described the arrest as political intolerance by the Jonathan regime. Tudun Doki, who is a House of Representatives candidate of the Congress for Progress Change [CPC] recalled that General Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign billboard was destroyed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State last week and that the police did not arrest or charge anyone to court for the action.

[…]

Read the full article here:

I am not in a position to comment on the accusations or the political ambitions that may or may not have informed the whole incident. And I have been hovering about how to express my kind of perspective in a way that fit this blog. Let me try.

I am fascinated by the idea that authorities in Sokoto would accord sufficient significance to the disfigurement of the current president’s campaign posters to take such drastic action. My interest in the relationship between (aspects of) visual culture and politics predates these news. Visually one of the defining impressions of my spring/summer 2007 visit to Nigeria was the prevalence of murals of politicians alongside the roads on which I travelled. Even in what appeared to me more remote areas of the country, there was the occasional house on which the portrait of a politician had been painted (as well as those ‘decorated’ by an advertisement for, if I remember correctly, Simba Motors). During a stroll through Zaria’s old town I stumbled across the abandoned signs portraying politicians. What an effort and what skill invested into visual communications considering that I had been previously warned to expect an impoverished visual culture. It also highlighted that there was a political culture that employed visual means of communication. And, that is rather interesting. It contradicted some of the statements I had read in the limited body of literature that spoke about visual culture in northern Nigeria.

There are prominent historians of Nigerian arts who argued that Islam had prevented the development of ‘meaningful’ (whatever that means) traditions of visual arts in the region or that, alternatively, it had only sustained abstract, aniconic artistic traditions. Instead, incidents like this one suggest that, in addition to a lively visual culture of politics, there is a substantial investment in these images. Why else the drastic reaction? This iconoclasm, if that is what you want to call it, is not religious but political. Not unlike the global Muslim reaction to the Danish cartoons cannot be understood in religious terms only. As Jytte Klaussen has demonstrated the political context in which these images were published significantly contributed to the escalation of the affair. This is not to say that northern Nigerian visual culture is not influenced by the presence of Islam and prominent interpretation of its sources with regard to the arts. For example, it would be interesting to know why President Goodluck Jonathan has chosen to promote his campaign using music videos – including a short song in Hausa[1] but Ibrahim Shekarau hasn’t.[2] The answer is probably complex but I wouldn’t be surprised if (in the widest sense) religiously inspired attitudes towards music videos and the dancing they depict had played a (possible small) role here. But to restrict the discussion of visual culture in northern Nigeria to the religious argument, would clearly mean to miss important dimensions. And, surely, this incident is another reminder of just that.

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[1] I got no political investment here on any side but I was too happy to find I had not totally forgotten Hausa not to link to it.

[2] Or did I just not find it on Youtube, correct me if I'am wrong! Pls. I’d love to know.