Creative Representations of Muslim Voices

EXPLANATION:

This drawing depicts a boot representing Europe and ‘progress’ stomping on Africa and ‘tradition’ (which is written in Arabic). A box zooms in on Samba Diallo’s village in Senegal. I aimed to portray the conflict between the two worlds that was a consistent theme in Ambiguous Adventure, as the Senegalese village struggled to determine how to deal with European conquest.

Symbols representative of each world fill the boot and box, and highlight the tension between them. The Daillobe village is vibrant, its colors as rich as its culture. The bright West African sun shines down on the houses and cow-filled pastures of the village. A scene plays out in the center, where the chief of the tribe sits, thinking about his lineage and the importance of ancestry, flanked by the Most Royal Lady on the left and the teacher on the right. The chief represents traditional political systems built around lineage and ethnic identity. He is placed in the center of the scene, reflecting his central position in village life. The teacher represents the tradition of the Glowing Hearth, a method of teaching built around memorization of the Quran and rigorous, character-building exercises that “teach the children God.” The Word of God lies at the center of this education and the teacher’s core values. The praying villager depicted in the corner of the box serves as a symbol reinforcing the importance of Islam in this society.

In contrast, the boot of Europe is black-and-white, further highlighting the contrast between Africa and the West, and reflecting Sambo Diallo’s perception of the coldness of European life, in which the “streets are bare” (as seen in the left corner). This is a world of rationality and science (represented by the atomic symbol and caduceus), where time (represented by the clock) is a “mechanical jumble.” People in this world worship industry (represented by the gears) more than religion, and they advocate a secularism informed by Nietzsche and Descartes that is completely at odds with Senegalese religious devotion.

I tried to use symbolism to explore the various forces motivating European imperialism. The books in the left corner represent the intellectual influences – law, philosophy, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution – which fed into the attitude that Europeans embodied progress and “their law, their language, constitute the very texture of their genius.” This attitude fed the idea encapsulated in French in the speech bubble: C’est notre responsabilite a civilizer les Africaines sauvages (It is our responsibility to civilize the African savages). However, conquest was also motivated in large part by “the possession of riches,” depicted here by bags full of coins and money symbols, and a desire to dominate the world and build an Empire (represented by the world map and the compass).

Through this drawing, my ultimate goal was to depict the collision of worlds, as the world of European ‘progress’ crashes down upon the meaningful traditions of Senegalese tribes.