IBA Stage: Rencontres de Bamako – African Biennial of Photography

“On Becoming in Being

The impositions of notions of singularity – as in singular and unchangeable beings, single and inalterable identities, single and fixed planes or spaces in which we find ourselves and navigate in, singular and immutable cultures, jealous deities and their singular belief structures, the single story or politics or political system – seem to be some of the most challenging concepts to get rid of post liberation and independence, from the forces that have held a huge part of the world under bondage for too long a time. The forcing of these concepts down our throats has meant a loss of multiplicity, fragmentations and points of intersections of different ways of being and eventually a loss of complex notions of humanity and complex narratives.

When asked in an Oct 1998 New York State Writers Institute interview “what is the importance of stories ?” Chinua Achebe responded “well, it is story(telling) that makes us human. And that’s why we insist. Whenever we are in doubt about who we are, we go to stories because this is one thing that we have done in the human race. There is no group that doesn’t do it. It seems to be central to the very nature, to the very fact of our humanity to tell who we are. And to let that story keep us in mind of this. Because there will be days when we are not quite sure whether we are human or even more commonly whether other people are human. It is in the story that we get this continuity of this affirmation that you are human and that your humanity is contingent on the humanity of your neighbour. “
If Chinua Achebe was right in his assumption that it is in storytelling that we find our humanity – in its unique complexity and multiplicity – then one of the places in which one might want to look is in Amos Tutuola’s “The Palm-Wine Drinkard.” This novel is particularly important in the way the notions of becoming, multiplicity, of difference, not only within the human, but also with other creatures and landscapes and spaces are manifested. Most of the stories in Amos Tutuola’s novel refer back to stories told in Yoruba and other African popular cultures, to which almost every kid can relate. The man in search of his dead palm-wine tapster meets gods, can fight with death, can become a lizard and follow people into endless forests, while he encounters people who can pull out their body parts. The palm-wine drinkard could command jujus, and transform

himself into a big canoe. He could interact with the ‘Water Spirit woman’ in the ‘Bush of the Ghosts’ and could transform himself into a big bird like an aeroplane and could fly away his wife, just as much as he transforms his wife into a wooden-doll and puts her in his pocket, as well as he could sell his death before entering the ‘white tree’ of the Faithful-Mother. In “The Palm-Wine Drinkard,” humans encounter spirits, negotiate with ghosts and freak creatures, gods are within reach, and death is an integral part of life. Humans co-exist and capture huge curious creatures, and vice versa, and each could become each other. They are saved by good creatures like ‘drum, song and dance’. Creatures speak languages that sound like church bells, and humans and their companions dwell atop ‘Unknown Mountains,’ Red-towns with red creatures and red- kings, or in unreturnable-heaven’s town. In the Faithful-Mother’s White Tree, it is a life of abundance, never short of palm-wine nor food, a gamble with money earned from selling one’s death.

In “The Palm-Wine Drinkard,” life is in a constant state of becoming, and every being, form, landscape seems too to be in that state of becoming. If this story reveals anything about our humanity, then it is the impermanence thereof, the multiplicity of forms and aesthetics that this humanity can claim, and the refusal to accept that which we see as the only reality. Philosophically speaking, ‘becoming’ is the possibility of change in a thing that has being. If we agree that every matter is in a constant process of change, then each of these beings will have multiple states of and ways of being, existing.

Our concern for this 13th Rencontres de Bamako/ Biennale Africaine de la Photographie, Bamako is on deliberations on storytelling, the multiple facets of humanity we accommodate, on Becoming in Being, acknowledging processuality, embracing difference and multiplicity in existences, embracing fragmentations within ourselves, as much as our layered and compound identities, and ways of being in the world, of forms, of landscapes, of beliefs.

It is important to stress that Becoming in Being should and can not be reduced to issues of personal identity, but must be considered within the realms of quotidian and even state politics. Sometimes, it is even the personal Becoming in Being that has an impact on the state political scenery. Upon independence across the African continent in the

1950s and 60s, a great lot of strong nationalist leaders in whose hands the hope and future of the continent was bestowed like Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d’Ivoire, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, or Léopold Sédar Senghor of Senegal overstayed their welcome. Many of them in their being became something else. In our contemporary, there are too many examples to name. Even our national constitutions written with the best intentions to set up democratic and prosperous societies Become in their Being. Often not to the best. Recently across Africa, we have witnessed constitutional amendments by incumbent politicians to extend their stay in power or advocate for the centralisation of power. In Guinea, in the Comoros, in Egypt, in Ivory Coast, in Rwanda and many other places, the national constitutions’ beings have been twisted into becoming for individuals to stay longer in power. In places like Cameroon or Equatorial Guinea, this has been normalised, and we have seen constitutional changes of that nature in Burundi, the Republic of Congo, Chad, Gabon, Togo or Uganda in favour of incumbents.

Becoming in Being is about transformations, transitions, changes within a given state of existence.
In thinking about multiplicity within our sociopolitical contexts, it is important to think of the importance of our heritage/ patrimony. Not only do we need to acknowledge and embrace our multiple heritages, but we also need to de-patriarchisie the notion of patrimony. The French word Patrimoine that comes from the Latin patrimonium literally means “the heritage of the father”. How can we imagine heritage – as historical, social and cultural marker – within a frame of matriarchy – whereby female histories and femininist perspectives and modes of care, egalitarian structures constitute the discourses and receptibility of the heritage? In reflecting on the multiplicity of patrimony, let us try to imagine a concept of matrimoine.”

Read the full curatorial statement here