AfricanColours - Political and Social Dysfunction without Borders

Côte d'Ivoire Fri 26-08-2011

Political and Social Dysfunction without Borders – The Battle for Abidjan in London
By Aarti wa Njoroge

A change in policy in an unnamed West African country led to two private elementary schools taking opposing stances on corporal punishment. This “naturally occurring policy shift” and some other control factors created the perfect ground, hitherto lacking, for research on the impact of such “punitive methods of discipline”.

Aboudia Abdoulaye's works

Ivorian artist Aboudia's depiction of the peacekeepig efforts during the Ivory Coast crisis

The evidence, concludes the report in the Guardian Weekly (Spare the rod and teach the child, 12.08.11), “clearly suggests that corporal punishment does not teach children how to behave or improve their learning”, even if in the short-term one may see an improvement in behaviour. To summarise, not only may corporal punishment not teach you to be responsible, it may detach you from a sense of accountability – and even push you to becoming more irresponsible.

Aboudia-Abdoulaye

Aboudia Abdoulaye gives an interview on his war paintings of Ivory Coast

It is education, Aboudia Abdoulaye Diarrassouba believes, that is essential for the street children in his West African country, Côte d’Ivoire. It is with some irony that we were talking about these young people needing help three days after the peak of the riots and looting in England, where I was calling Aboudia from.

For now, Aboudia has put down his “pinceaux de guerre” (war paintbrushes). Just a few months ago, he was documenting the bloody conflict sparked by the riots that followed the disputed presidential election results in late 2010. This led to an exhibition entitled ‘The Battle for Abidjan’, recalling Pablo Picasso’s ‘Battle for Guérnica’, brought to London by the Jack Bell Gallery.

Assassin by Aboudia

Assassin

Perhaps because the gallery was about to move, Aboudia’s paintings were unidentified. Cruder than Gazbia Sirry’s ‘Cairo People’ (1983), similarly layered, scratched surfaces to Sirry’s ‘Loneliness’ (1988), these “paintings depicting the crisis have a lot of black, silhouettes,” says Aboudia. Yellow flowers in one of the two pastel drawings add all the more brightness for their rarity.

Other use of colour is more unsettling: one of the figures, perhaps a soldier, is magenta and red from head to ankles. Is this the colour of fresh blood? In the painting splashed with ‘God’, a red-orange body is darker. Has the blood dried? His raised arms resemble the arms in Joan Miró’s ‘Man and Woman in Front of Pile of Excrement’ (1925) – in this case, not a documentation of (the Spanish) civil war, but a foreboding of it.

The God by Aboudia Abdoulaye

The God

“The expressive colour, contrasting with the blackness of an apocalyptic sky, the chiaroscuro that accentuates the insubstantial limbs [....] express Miró’s pessimism.” Aboudia’s civilian victims have large, terrified eyes and straight mouths; soldiers have menacing eyes and mouths.

The feeling of distrust prevails, as in David Koloane’s 2007-8 works, ‘The Night has a Thousand Conspiracies’, ‘The Night has a Thousand Eyes’ and ‘The Night has a Thousand Whispers’. Like Koloane, Aboudia’s urban landscapes are claustrophobic and threatening.

Traditional and modern images collaborate – or clash: in the largest painting, there are two spears; a rifle that could be mistaken for a kind of musical instrument or car round some of the soldiers’ necks; one has what could be a traditional wooden animal-shaped stool suspended round his. In another painting are skulls, with what could be blood streaking down, and some sort of danger symbol. On the right could be a soldier, blood splattered on the skull.

Daloua-29 by Aboudia.jpg

Daloua 29

The recurring images of television screens with cartoon strips, the characters speaking poor French, or photos of refugees or internally-displaced people and men in front of burning tyres, further document the symptoms and victims of the unrest. “Ceux qui viennent après nous verront cette bagarre-là,” says Aboudia. Future generations will see “that fight”.

Through his work, people see a snapshot of history. Either he is assuming they will know the causes or he does not think it matters. The indifference or arrogance of the political élite, the lack of prospects and education to generate such opportunities... It comes full circle to Aboudia’s current project. Teaching the youth practical skills, but also a sense of responsibility, is like giving them building blocks not for destruction, but for a stable future.

Posted By: Allan Kapten

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