Mama Walet Mohamed (21), who is expecting her fourth child, waiting for a friend in the triage tent at the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) health centre at the M’Berra camp for Malian refugees in Mauritania on 3 March 2013. She attends a secondary MSF health post in the the camp for her prenatal care.
The 10th edition of “Rencontres de Bamako”, the largest African Biennial of Photography, opened on Saturday October 31 with a glimmer of hope for African photography in the coming years. Titled “Telling Time”, the festival, which could not be held in 2013 owing the political crises in Mali, is without doubt the rallying and challenging point for young African photographers and their bid to move onto the world stage. Indisputably, “Telling Time” attempts to present a collection of subjects and problems that tend to reframe the conformist explanations of time through conspicuous and inconspicuous structures while offering alternative methods of engaging chronicles, occurrences and aspirations of Africa.
From Nassim Rouchiche
Curated by Bisi Silva (director of Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos Nigeria) with Antawan Byrd (Doctoral candidate in Art History at the Northwestern University, USA) and Yves Chatap (independent curator / art critic) as Associate Curators, the thirty-nine selected artists from diverse countries and cultures in Africa expatiated on several issues relating to identity, colonialism, capitalism, politics and culture among others. The artists made bold pronouncements that hinge on philosophical debates on politics and technology, colonial temporalities and their links to capitalism as well as interventions by liberation movements. Indeed, they offered observers the opportunity to access the role of “Rencontres de Bamako” as an international convener of questions relating to photography in Africa. Works by South African photographer, Lebohang Kganye and others on display at the National Museum in Bamako show her as a master craftswoman.
From Emmanuel Bakary Daou
She reinvents the presence of her late mother through digital editing thereby leading to imaginary “stalking” of her past and present life. Employing bold approaches of reenacting and recreating, Nigerian award winning photographer Uche Okpa-Iroha deftly places himself in the frame of black and white pictures from Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 Hollywood film “The Godfather”. He creates in the process a separate story that relate to history. Photos by Nyani Quarmyne, another award winning photographer from Ghana literally turned an unattractive / harsh refugee camp in Southern Mauritania into an appealing one. Images of tea sharing, colourful clothes, football matches and skinning of slaughtered animals definitely tell a different story from constant misery and desperation painted by the media.
From Jean Euloge Samba
Black and white photos by Nassim Rouchiche from Algeria depict the perilous living conditions of a community of migrants from Sub Saharan Africa in the Algerian capital Algiers. His apparition-like images effectively blend with nondescript walls that tend to place the viewer in the situation of the migrants. Depressing photographs from the Congolese photographer Jean Euloge Samba show the aftermath of missile explosions and subsequent damage and destruction of a community that is sited dangerously close to a military facility in the capital Brazzaville. Images of health workers clad in biohazard suits by Emmanuel Bakary Daou (Mali) recall memories of the Ebola virus that wrecked havoc early this year in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
From Hypolyte Sama
The suit, which shields the identity of health workers, equally recalls the activities of undercover reporters who appear at public enquiries completely hooded. Politically charged photos from the Burkinabe photographer Hipolyte Sama, illustrate chaotic scenes that characterized the “people’s revolution”, which toppled long time ruler Blaise Compaore. Indeed, the images forcefully reveal the mood of Burkinabes, who fearlessly demonstrated their frustration and anger on the streets. Photographs, videos and presentations and “Telling Time”, which ends on Thursday December 31, 2015 will without doubt reverberate throughout the continent of Africa and beyond. Ministry Culture in Mali organized the biennial in collaboration with the French Embassy in Bamako and the Institut Français in Mali.
From Uche Okpa-Iroha
JOHN OWOO, freelance journalist on artsghana
