Margaret Courtney-Clarke Gallery

Throughout West Africa, decorating wall surfaces is the collective effort of several women, usually initiated by a senior wife owing to her experience or by the owner of the home whose choice of patterns reflects her identity. The lifespan of painted walls – subject to disintegration - is not intended to be permanent. Rather, the walls are recreated each year to celebrate or announce new events and to permit women to partake in a communal activity.

Silla Camara applies fo khoule, a paste of ground white limestone and water to the tagaye, mud wall, in the Gandega family compound. Djajibinni (no longer exists), Mauritania

Nany mint Sass uses a combination of motifs representing parts of the body to create a decorative element around a doorway. The Koran forbids figurative representation of living beings; therefore, ideograms symbolise a concept. Oualata, Mauritania, 1988

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

Yellow chalk-like pigment, edo, is a primary colour in wall painting and is found near water throughout West Africa. In Nigeria it is applied as a paste to the body both for decorative and medicinal purposes. Edo, rubbed onto the skin, is said to protect against measles. Nri, Nigeria, 1988

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.

Dioncounda, Assa and Dianna Camara decorate a wall for a festive occasion using a zig-zag pattern learned from their mothers, although its origin or meaning is unknown to them. Buanch (no longer exists), Mauritania, 1988

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.

Each woman carries out a different process of filling in, outlining, polishing, or line drawing, although Asokwine, the home owner – wife of Chief Aneriba Zure -- directs the communal effort. Sirigu, Ghana, 1986

Although mural painting is rare in Burkina Faso—one of the world’s poorest countries – in the remote surroundings of Zecco, the Wenna family maintains their Nankani tradition with vigour.

Biloa Wenna paints a chicken, a remnant of pagan idolatry. Burkina Faso, 1987

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Margaret Courtney-Clarke

African Canvas

Margaret Courtney-Clarke was born in Swakopmund, Namibia (1949) where she currently lives and works. After studying art and photography in South Africa, she spent the next four decades working as a photographer in Italy, the USA and across Africa. Margaret began her career working under Italian photographer and filmmaker Pasquale De Antonis, photographing art, architecture and antiquities, thereafter freelancing on magazine assignments in Europe and Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1979 Courtney-Clarke became persona non grata under the Apartheid laws and renounced her South African citizenship – later returning to South West Africa asserting her Namibian birthright under the protection of the UN. Throughout her career, Courtney-Clarke would pursue personal projects in Africa documenting feminine identity.