Margaret Courtney-Clarke
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Work
  1. When Tears Don’t Matter
  2. Cry Sadness into the Coming Rain
  3. Noah’s Ark in a Sandstorm - Part I
  4. Noah’s Ark in a Sandstorm - Part II
  5. Dog Days
  6. Prix Pictet
  7. Ndebele
  8. African Canvas
  9. Imazighen
  10. South Africa 1969-1983
  11. South West Africa (Namibia) 1978-1983
  12. Maya Angelou
  13. La Ciociaria
  14. Portraits
  • African Canvas

    Nany mint Sass uses a combination of motifs representing parts of the body to create a decorative element around a doorway. Oualata, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    Nwunna was attracted to the western blouse she wears because of its resemblance to the traditional diamond-shaped motif used in scarification, ogalu. Nri, Nigeria, 1988

  • African Canvas

    It is customary for the wives in a settlement to share their views on the decoration and beauty of one another’s compounds. The royal settlement, Tiébélé, Burkina Faso, 1987

  • African Canvas

    Silla Camara applies a paste of ground white limestone and water to the mud wall of her house. Djajibinni, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    Entrance to a Bulsa dwelling with its textured wall surface created by using millet cobs pressed into the wet mud. Home of the Abobyeri family, Chuchiliga-Tadem, Ghana, 1986

  • African Canvas

    Soninke women use only their hands and fingers to apply the earth pigments obtained from the Senegal River. Buanch, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    In the isolated desert settlements of southern Mauritania, Soninke women divide a wall surface into panels before painting purely abstract, geometric designs to create a vibrant rhythm along the flat surface. Buanch, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    Silla Camara takes a break to nurse her child, while Fenda Gandega adds the final touches to their day’s work. Gandega compound, Djajibinni, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    A wall decoration representing “mother with thighs”, a design derived from a woman’s thigh repeated in infinite combinations. Oualata, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    Although mural painting is very rare in Burkina Faso, this Nankani compound in the remote south is maintained with extraordinary vigor. Biloa Wenna paints a chicken, a remnant of pagan idolatry. Zecco, Burkina Faso, 1987

  • African Canvas

    Nankani compounds are not only influenced by climatic or social factors, they are an integral part of the people’s day-to-day life, the core of their existence. Home of Chief Aneribe Zure of Sirigu, Ghana, 1987

  • African Canvas

    Young women learn from Neine Bou through observation as she skilfully decorates a wall. Oualata, Mauriitania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    The elaborately painted interior walls of Soninke homes are intensified by the absence of furniture. At most a bed or mattress bear witness to a utilized space. Ouloumbini, Mauritania, 1988

  • African Canvas

    Wall detail from the Aneriba family compound is decorated with a triangular motif called wanzagsi, “broken calabash”. Sirigu, Ghana, 1986

  • African Canvas

    The Uli pattern is painted on the face of Ogbungwa, signifying she is considered a “good” person by other women in her community. Olido, Nigeria, 1988

African Canvas

The Art of Africa is a casualty
of colonial exploitation, surviving
principally in the museums of
other countries.
Nadine Gordimer


My objective in this work is to document an extraordinary art form - vernacular art and architecture in West Africa - that is not transportable and therefore not seen in museums around the world. It is an attempt to capture the unseen Africa, a glimpse into the homes and into the spirit of very proud and dignified peoples. In much the same way as I photographed the art of Ndebele women, I have drawn on my personal affinity for the art itself, for methods, design and form, rather than the socio-anthropological or political realities of a people or continent in dilemma. These images portray a unique tradition of Africa, a celebration of an indigenous rural culture in which the women are the artists and the home her canvas.


Margaret Courtney-Clarke, 1990