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.

More Beautiful Posters from Kano

Exciting find. If you are me that is. If you are me and terribly excited about the repeatedly mentioned religious posters from Kano. At Marifah.Net there are some gorgeously beautiful photographs. I’m particularly excited about the one depicting wall murals of Tijani sheikhs inside a house in Kano. I have some qualms republishing it here. I have been at this particular sheikh’s house in Kano with my friend Nura in summer 2008. I asked permission to photograph the murals but was politely asked not to take a photo. But I’m terribly excited about stumbling across it on the net. I’m amazed by the beauty of these murals. But instead, let me republish a photograph of a poster on the site which I too think is terribly fascinating. It's a poster made for sale so I’m more comfortable publishing it.

In this regard a short plea for help: Pls. I tried to contact the people behind that website but my messages via the contact page don’t seem to have gone through. If anybody has advice on how to get in touch pls. let me know. Basically, to get permission to publish the photograph of the wall murals here and to use it as an illustration in my PhD.

This aside, I should probably use this blog post as an opportunity to wish everybody ‘Barka da Azumi’ before I head straight back into proof reading and revising my thesis.

Posters, Popular Painting and Animation: The Inkale Theme

Quite a while ago I was chatting to my friend Paula who is conducting her doctoral research on African animation. Reading through the draft for an article and discussing a work by Jean Michel Kibushi of the Democratic Republic of Congo I was struck by an illustration: I was hundred percent sure I had seen the same or an iconographically closely related painting at Sabon Kwakwaci Garage in Kano. How exciting I thought. And a few weeks ago, flicking through a volume on African Posters I just happened to come across an illustration of a very similar scene by R. Nwonta of CAS Creation, Janual Caeli Marketing, Onitsha in 2001.

When it comes to my research I seem to react like a toddler who first discovers the world around herself – so yes, I still think that is exciting and, hence, will bother you not only with the illustrations (not of Paula’s article though, sorry) but also with the little information I have been able to find about the so-called Inkale theme.

Wendelin Schmidt, one of the editors of the volume Plakate in Afrika that accompanied a 2005 exhibition at the Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt a.M., and later the same year at the Iwalewa House, Bayreuth, writes with regard to the motif (my quick translation):

‘ … Many calendars draw upon the tradition of sign painters. These don’t conceive of themselves as commercial painters only but also as artist who, in addition to the business, paint pictures in order to articulate their fantasies as well as to visualize discourses about political, social and religious themes. Popular is the Inkale theme which is widespread in Africa (e.g. Congo-Zaire and Senegal). Here a man is shown in a desperate situation hanging on to a tree branch extending over some water. On the banks a tiger and a lion (symbols of influence and power) approach. In the water a hippo and a crocodile (the last a symbol of traditional-religious spirits) wait to seize him. A huge snake moving dangerously close blocks the only escape route. This desperate scene is accompanied by Bible quotes promising salvation and redemption through God. This Inkale theme communicates two different messages: Primarily it suggest that trust in God is required to master desperate situations. Another, political interpretation might consider Inkale a metaphor of an exploitative and corrupt state deceiving its citizens. In that case, the poster’s message in Nigeria were diametrically opposed to the first one. Here, the lion were to represent the state power, the snake to symbolise the Christian evil, and, in a trans-African mindscape [Vorstellungswelt], the crocodile is considered a pagan god playing an important role in witchcraft and magic. The crocodile then represents the impact of occult practices in political and socio-economic aspects of everyday life. The mighty employ such practices to protect themselves against spiritual and worldly attacks by opponents as well as to accumulate riches and influence through intransparent and immoral means. …’

(Schmidt 2005: ‘Populaerkultur und visuelle Kommunikation: Plakat-“Kunst” in Ghana und Nigeria. In: Schmidt & Kramer, eds.: Plakate in Afrika. Frankfurt a.M.: Museum der Weltkulturen. 32-35)

This is what Bogumil Jewsiewicki had to say with regard to the Inkale theme.

Un autre tableau [de Tshibumba] utilise l’icône d’inkale pour faire dialoguer l’événement et le sens partagé du monde. L’inkale, qui signifie l’impasse, est une icône représentant une personne prise en étau entre la sorcellerie (le crocodile), l’État (un prédateur, lion ou léopard selon la version) et le péché chrétien (le serpent). Dans le tableau en question, Tshibumba place les exploitants de diamants dans la position du personnage, les soldats dans celle du lion, et un hélicoptère est substituéau serpent.

(Bogumil Jewsiewicki, 2001: ‘Pour un Pluralisme Epistemologique en Sciences Sociales.’ In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. Vol. 2001/3. 634)

As this is kind of a digressionf rom the actual focus of my research, I haven't yet dug anyt deeper for further information on this particular theme - so if anybody can contribute anything, I'd be very grateful. But for now, let's leave it here and ... well, you enjoy the illustrations I go back writing on my PhD.

Some more Illustrations of Religious Chromolithographs Online

I found a few more illustrations of religious posters, this time in the collection of the Tropenmuseum Amsterdam. They are all in the West-Asia & North Africa collection and since I'have not figured how to copy those images (I guess, they've done that on purpose) let me give you the motif and link to the image (hoping that this will still work in a few weeks time or whenever you happen to come across this entry). So, in terms of motifs, there are represented: the Garden of Eden (?, I don't read Arabic and the image is pretty small anyway, but check it out here), Ishamel's sacrifice at the hands of Ibrahim (here), Solomon (here), al-Buraq (here) and the Ka'ba (click here). Hope you enjoy them ...

On Procrastination and the Occasional Online Illustration Gem

I’m still writing on my chapter about the religious chromolithographs I collected in Kano in 2008 – yes, no further comment pls. I already now that I’m being terribly slow here and horribly behind schedule. Let’s just hope the results will make up for the embarrassment I’m feeling about this … But hey, I’m actually writing because I wanted to post a link here that might be of interest to those of you out there who share my excitement about popular religious prints:

I haven’t yet checked out that site in any detail but looks like somebody at Bergen University is actually conducting research into popular Muslim iconography … at first sight, I’d think with particular regard to Shiite iconography. There is a little online exhibition you might want to check out ...

And then, just for reference, there is a beautiful glass painting depicting Sheikh Ahmad Tijani (and bearing a close resemblance to the print I have collected in Kano, thus, probably going back to some shared prototype), Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse and the Prophet Muhammad documented on the site of Joseph Hill of the American University in Cairo.

Alright, for me its now: do I write another page or better go to bed and get some rest …

some Egyptian colour prints ... and their relevance for studying visual culture in Kano (and beyond?)

I have to confess something: I have allowed myself to get seriously distracted from writing up my thesis. Alright, this is not the first time this has happened but this time it is kind of related to my research, though nothing I will be able to discuss in any depths in my thesis ... thus, I thought I bother you with it ...

Remember the religious prints I mentioned here a bit more than half a year ago? The ones I was shown at Kurmi Market in Kano and bought? - I have recently come across a German scholar who has just finished her PhD thesis on prints and poster in the Muslim world. Unfortunately her thesis has been published so recently that its not yet available in any of the libraries I have access to. However, when I mailed her she suggested some articles for me to look at and, having been written in German, I have used my time in Germany to actually get hold of them. And, believe it or not, for almost all of the prints I bought in Kano last summer I have found a reproduction of an almost identical print acquired by the author(s) or some other collector in Cairo some time between the early 20th century and the 1970s!


(Left: Photograph of the Nigerian print depicting sheikh of Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani I collected in Kano, summer 2008, Right: Print collected by Kriss & Kriss-Heinrich in Cairo in the 1950s.)

This is amazing, because it suggests that these prints continued to be locally reproduced almost one-to-one for at least the last fourty years, probably longer, in Kano. While motifs probably imported from Persia where successively 'localised' from one edition to the other in Cairo (one of the authors, Peter Schienerl, here particularly refers to the background's composition and the architecture of the mosque depicted in the al-Buraq images), no such attempts seem to have been made in Kano. I think this is quite interesting. I mean, I'm pretty sure that local artists would have been able to do so if they wanted or were commissioned to do so. After all, enterprising traders have invented and adapted other motifs to supply a flourishing modern market for religious (and profane) posters. Here a few more examples, left the prints I collected in Kano in 2008 and to the right reproductions I found in the below listed literature.


Left: Photograph of a colour print depicting al-Buraq collected in Kano, summer 2008, Right: Print collected by Centlivres & Centlivres-Demont in Cairo, n.d. but prob. 1950-60s.


Left: Photograph of a colour print depicting Ibrahim's attempted sacrifice of Ismael collected in Kano, summer 2008, Right: Print collected by Centlivres & Centlivres-Demont in Cairo, n.d. but prob. 1950-60s.


Left: Photograph of a colour print depicting Ali with his sons, Hassan and Hussein collected in Kano, summer 2008, Right: Print collected by Centlivres & Centlivres-Demont in Cairo, n.d. but prob. 1950-60s.

Be that as it may, it reminded me of an observation David H. Heathcote noted in his 1979 thesis on Hausa embroidery: a tendency to preserve the 'foreign flavour' of certain kinds of textiles and dresses over extended periods of time, a tendency that could only be explained by a conscious choice of customers and tailors. If I recall correctly (and I'll have to double check this) this particularly concerned dresses associated with religious and, an extent, wordly authority. But that only as a remark at the side. It, anyway, raises more questions than it answers, e.g. as to who bought/buys these colour prints as opposed to the target audience of modern, shiny religious prints designed and commissioned in Kano but mass printed in China apparently. All extremely interesting ...

P.S. I've uploaded a few more of examples to Flickr and if you're interested have a look here. Obviously I'd appreciate it if you treated the pics according the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. (cf. http://creativecommons.org)

Literature/Image References:

Pierre Centlives & Micheline Centlivres-Demont (1997): Imageries Populaires en Islam. Geneve: Georg Editeur.
Rudolf Kriss & Hubert Kriss-Heinrich (1960): Volksglaube im Bereich des Islam. (Popular Belief in the Sphere of Islam.) Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz.
Peter W. Schienerl (1985a): Volkstümliche al-Buraq Darstellungen aus Ägypten. (Popular Al-Buraq Depictions from Egypt) In: Archiv für Völkerkunde. No. 39. 181-97.
Peter W. Schienerl (1985b): Zur Darstellungsweise Ali's auf alteren agyptischen Buntdrucken (Regarding Depictions of Ali in older Egyptian Colour Prints) In: Annals of the Naprstek Museum. No. 13. 178-86.
Peter W. Schienerl (1986): Koranisches Erzählgut im Spiegel volkstümlicher Buntdrucke aus Ägypten. (Quranic Narrative Motifs in Popular Egyptian Colour Prints) In: Baessler-Archiv. Neue Folge. Band XXXIV. 305-332.