Imaging Culture

Photography in Mali, West Africa

Candace M. Keller

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780253057211
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photographie

Imaging Culture is a sociohistorical study of the meaning, function, and aesthetic significance of photography in Mali, West Africa, from the 1930s to the present. Spanning the dynamic periods of colonialism, national independence, socialism, and democracy, its analysis focuses on the studio and documentary work of professional urban photographers, particularly in the capital city of Bamako and in smaller cities such as Mopti and Ségu.

Featuring the work of more than twenty-five photographers, it concentrates on those who have been particularly influential for the local development and practice of the medium as well as its international popularization and active participation in the contemporary art market.

Imaging Culture looks at how local aesthetic ideas are visually communicated in the photographers' art and argues that though these aesthetic arrangements have specific relevance for local consumers, they transcend geographical and cultural boundaries to have value for contemporary global audiences as well.

Imaging Culture is an important and visually interesting book which will become a standard source for those who study African photography and its global impact.

II. Imaging Culture

3

Photography as Social Agency

SINCE THE 1930S, PHOTOGRAPHERS AND clients in present-day Mali have collaborated on the construction of self-identity, social memory, and local conceptions of modernity. Through the creation of portraiture and reportage imagery, their engagement with the medium has been integral to the development and dissemination of contemporary cultural values and processes of transculturation. New ideas and practices have been shared via the production and exchange of images, and those already established have been reinforced or challenged, inspiring visual dialogue across social strata for generations. To understand these dynamics within an appreciation of the local significance, meaning, and aesthetic intents of photographic images produced in Mali during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, photography is considered here in terms of fadenya and badenya, principal concepts derived from indigenous theories of social action that are intimately bounded to local aesthetic values.¹

Fadenya and Badenya: Social Theory and Cultural Logic

As with all theories and philosophical concepts, badenya and fadenya encompass a complex web of meanings that can be understood in a variety of ways, dependent on context and interpreter. Derived from the practice and cultural concept of polygamy, badenya literally translates as “mother-child-ness,” an idea that refers to the camaraderie, loyalty, and respect among children who have the same mother and father (Bailleul 2000a, 20). This notion emanates from sinjiya, the bond that is formed between siblings who share the same breast milk, which signifies a strong physical connection as well as one that is emotional, psychological, and even spiritual (M. Sidibé 2004). Fadenya is translated as “father-child-ness,” a concept that refers to the competition, rivalry, and jealousy that often occurs among siblings who share a father but have different mothers (Bailleul 2000a, 119). It describes the competition among cowives for a husband’s resources and affection, which carries with it similar dynamics among their offspring (M. Sidibé 2004; K. Sidibé 2004; C. Keïta 1996, 98; A. B. Konaré 2000, 19).² This idea is addressed in cloth called n sinɛmuso nyɛ-jugu, or “my cowife’s evil eye” (fig. 3.1),³ and n tɛ siran n sinɛmuso nyɛ, meaning, “I’m not afraid of my cowife” (fig. 3.2), worn by women in portrait photographs taken by Seydou Keïta (Y. T. Cissé 1997, 273–75).⁴

Figure 3.1. Seydou Keïta, Untitled (portrait of a woman wearing cloth called “my cowife’s evil eye”), c. 1954–60. Gelatin silver print, 23 × 19 inches. Courtesy CAAC—The Pigozzi Collection. Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC.

Within the context of society at large, fadenya and badenya help illuminate the fluidity of power, mutual affectability, and dialectic tension existing between individuals and social groups. To this end, Martha Kendall and Charles Bird discuss fadenya and badenya as a social theory of inertia in which fadenya is associated with “centrifugal forces of social disequilibrium: envy, jealousy, competition, self-promotion—anything tending to spin the actor out of his established social field.” Alternately, badenya is aligned with “the centripetal forces of society: submission to authority, stability, cooperation, those qualities which pull the individual back into the social mass” (Bird and Kendall 1980, 15). Essentially, fadenya is understood as individual competitiveness and the struggle to build one’s identity and reputation—traits often associated with youth.⁵ Although potentially divisive, these characteristics can harbor fundamentally positive and necessary social benefits. In the words of Malick Sidibé, “Fadenya came to put heart into [people], to motivate [people]. That is good fadenya. That brings work [and] progress. On the negative side of fadenya, there is selfishness and egoism” (M. Sidibé 2004). His colleagues Adama Kouyaté and Abdoulaye Kanté concur: “The true definition of fadenya is competition, in the bad sense. [However,] fadenya [can be] a good thing. It elicits motivation and change” (A. Kouyaté 2004b). In Kanté’s words, “Fadenya brings revitalization [to the community]. It is good. It allows men to advance. Without competition, there is no development. . . . On the bad side, competition often leads to hate” (Abdoulaye Kanté 2004). Inversely, badenya is interpreted as communal cohesion, societal obligation, and the quest for social stability, harmony, and prosperity. Adama Kouyaté explained, “Badenya is communion, union” (A. Kouyaté 2004). Papa Kanté’s son, Abdoulaye, described badenya as “very important; [representing] the good side of society” (Abdoulaye Kanté 2004). Ideally beneficial and supportive, when unchecked these qualities can promote stagnation and stifle individual creativity. Recapitulated by Sidibé, “Badenya is real [unity and] fraternity. [But] badenya is also restraint” (M. Sidibé 2004).

Figure 3.2. Seydou Keïta, Untitled (the woman on the right is wearing cloth known as “I am not afraid of my cowife”), c. 1952–55. Gelatin silver print, 23 × 19 inches. Courtesy CAAC—The Pigozzi Collection. © Seydou Keïta/SKPEAC.

Thus, in this system both concepts and their respective qualities are needed for all parties to excel: The society depends on individuals to invoke change and challenge stagnation. Individuals rely on the structure and stability of the community to provide support and validation—the enabling factors for their success in life. Understood in this way, fadenya and badenya comprise a theoretical model of social action developed to interpret and understand social tensions and relations of power exercised via individual and communal agency.⁶

As such, fadenya and badenya speak to Western theories of social action, such as Georg Simmel’s conception of conflict and Anthony Giddens’s notion of structuration and praxis (Simmel 1955, 13–21, 54–72). For Giddens, structuration is a theory of action that explores “complex agency,” or the “power relations of autonomy and dependence,” that exist between individuals and society. In other words, structuration recognizes the “mutual dependence of structure and agency” in human social life. Giddens explains, “Structure [in this sense] is regarded as rules and resources recursively implicated in social reproduction: institutionalized features of social systems that have structural properties [such] that relationships are stabilized across time and space. . . . Agency refers to an individual’s power to act. . . . [Because] all social actors, no matter how lowly, have some degree of penetration of the social forms which oppress them, agency implies power” (Giddens [1979] 1990, 69–73, 85–95; 1984, xxi–xxxi). Giddens describes praxis as the production and reproduction of social systems through the repeated actions of individuals (Giddens [1979] 1990, 4–5; 1984, xxi–xxxi).

Like structuration and praxis, fadenya and badenya address complex agency and interdependence among individuals and social institutions. Furthermore, these dynamics and their associated ideals are constantly reproduced and manifested in individuals’ mundane interactions. In this vein, Adama Kouyaté has said, “Fadenya and badenya is the daily life of Mali. It is our patrimony” (A. Kouyaté 2004b). Beyond the scope of Western theories, the aptness of fadenya and badenya to studies of photography in Mali is twofold: First, the concepts are endemic, arising from the same contexts as the photographs and their subjects, and are applied within local discussions of photographic processes and content. Second, derived from Mande cultural logic, these ideas directly engage Mande aesthetics. This elusive and complex category, rife with nuance, is intimately bounded to and informs the arts in Mali, including photography. Therefore, an appreciation of fadenya and badenya is critical in order to understand the social significance of photographic production in Mali since the mid-twentieth century.

Before embarking on an analysis of the visual expressions of fadenya and badenya in photographic imagery and their relevance for understanding photographers’ networks and professional dynamics, however, it is helpful to first discuss their significance in the broader contexts of social relationships and notions of personhood, or mogoya, among multicultural populations in present-day Mali (Jansen and Zobel 1996, 98–99).

Fadenya

According to Mande ideology, as Bird and Kendall have stated, every individual is born with a reputation largely determined by that of one’s father “and by extension that of patrilineage” (Bird and Kendall 1980, 14). To be successful in life, each person is expected to live up to or surpass that reputation and develop a unique name (togo) and admired individual identity (Johnson 1999, 16; Jansen and Zobel 1996, 99). As a result, a Mande proverb articulates I fa y’i faden folo, meaning “Your father is your first rival” (Bird and Kendall 1980, 14). Alternately, another proverb states Bee k’i fa ya baara ke, “All should do their father’s work” (Hoffman 2000, 59). In this regard, Malick Sidibé explained, “Some people think that it is ungrateful to be competitive with your father but, generally speaking, people want to surpass their father or at least do as well as he” (M. Sidibé 2004). Thus, one foundational basis of self-identity, in addition to sibling rivalry, is competition with one’s parent. This is generally the expectation for father-son relations. Particularly in cities, though, daughters may also strive to surpass their father’s accomplishments. Competition between mothers and daughters, however, is not as socially condoned or expected as father-son rivalry in part because relations with one’s mother—regardless of the child’s gender—are conceptualized in terms of badenya more than fadenya. Malick Sidibé explained, “Badenya is more associated with the mother and fadenya is more associated with the father. In Africa, children think more of the mother than of the father. There is more jealousy with the father than with the mother” (M. Sidibé 2004).

The following verse reiterates the expectation of father-son rivalry:

I fa yelenna jiri min ka n’i ma se k’a yelen,

(“If your father climbs a tree that you cannot climb,”)

i ka fini bo k’i sigi a jukoro.

(“take off your shirt and rest against the tree’s trunk.”)

Mogo temen tow n’u ba miir’i yelen to la don

(“People passing by will either think that you are about to climb it”)

o ba miir’i jiri na de.

(“or that you have just gotten down.”) (Malick Sitou 2004)

Malick Sidibé cited Malick Sitou, son of photographer Tijani Sitou, as an example of this productive aspect of fadenya, stating, “He is jealous. He has fadenya. He wants to be [a successful photographer] like his father” (M. Sidibé 2004). This competition serves several purposes. Among the most important is the inspiration for individual accomplishment and communal progress. For instance, Sidibé admitted he would be “happy” if his sons excelled beyond his success and had “the courage” to achieve renown in photography. However, illustrating a sense of fadenya competition among some of his colleagues and their descendants, Sidibé also said he would not be happy if someone else’s son “passed [him] by” (M. Sidibé 2004). Father-son rivalry informs photographers’ mentoring practices as well. Several photographers have solicited colleagues to train their sons in the medium in the hopes that such training will be more productive, objective, and fair than it might be under their own tutelage. Sidibé explained:

In this type of thing, the father [being the teacher] doesn’t have a lot of patience with his son. If he misbehaves a little bit, the father can get nervous. But with someone else it is better, because the person won’t get as annoyed as the father. That is why I think it is better for my kids to learn from others. . . . [My son] Fousseini used to go to Papa Kanté’s studio. He encouraged him and printed photos for him. . . . Even Siriman Dembélé came here to teach [my son] Mody how to develop film. (M. Sidibé 2004)

By extension, this form of rivalry is manifested in generational competition, in which youth struggle to assert themselves and prove their capacities have surpassed those of their elders. Today, this is made explicit in the vernacular of young men who refer to Bamako (which is commonly translated as “the back or spine of the crocodile” in Bamanankan) as Bamada, meaning “...