I type word “African” to the search field of a microstock image bank and limit the search to illustrations. Images of dry savannahs and half naked women carrying pots of water on top of their heads and babies on their backs in the heat of Tropical Africa create a striking contrast to the cold and wet reality of Finland in December. I won’t use search words West African, as at this stage I want to see vast results. Later when using the search word “West African” and “Sub-Saharan African, I get mostly images of flags and maps as a result.
I scroll down trying to ignore the countless safaris with smiling crocodiles and cute little monkeys. Majority of the human characters I find are women. Two female types emerge: the half-naked pitch dark rural woman stuck in the ancient times and a modern light skinned woman usually labelled as “African American”. Only few modern looking female characters remain after I mentally filter the African Americans. Most of the characters fall into the category of rural folks, often labelled “tribal” or “traditional”.
My overall impression is that majority of illustrations show a decorative illustration of an exotic woman having no function, story or personality. I am hoping to contribute to the collections with illustrations of characters that have more depth.
4.2.1. Arrogant Dictator
I want to draw a character with confidence and pride. The idea behind this is to provide an alternative to victimising images that I remember vaguely having seen on various charity advertisements. The character should preferably be a modern male to balance the abundance of rural female characters available at the microstock image banks.
I feel a bit intimidated by the task at hand. Will I be able to provide any better illustrations than those already on the market? What if I fail miserably and fall in to using stereotypes and clichés? Feeling uncertain I first head to Google image search. I type words “powerful man”.
Richard Avedon’s portrait of Putin looks down on me from the search results. In awe of the rhetorics of the photo I take out my pencil and sketchbook and begin to copy. I modify the image replacing the world leader with a handsome black male seated on throne leaning on a globe. The image looks far from West African, so I add a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol and some bright colours. I begin with colour red but quickly change my mind as the image starts to resemble Nazi propaganda. I also remember that in Ghana red is associated with witchcraft and funerals. I choose instead a golden yellow colour scheme borrowed from images of royal kente fabrics of the Akan.
I take a deep breath and take a look at the result. I have drawn an arrogant macho showing of his wealth and power. A drug lord or a dictator comes to mind. (Fig.8.)
Figure 8: Sketch of a powerful man.
4.2.2. Riot of Stereotypes
Taking a completely different approach I create the most stereotypical image I can think of. It’s a very quick process. I just burst into drawing without much thinking. A cartoony female character emerges carrying a baby in her back and a huge goofy elephant on her head. I immediately regret drawing it as I remember I will have to scan it and publish it in my blog. I quietly hope no one will mistake me for a racist because of this goofy scribble. My aim was to explore stereotypes and maybe turn them into ironic criticism. I am however so aware of judgement waiting for me should I be misunderstood that I decide to retreat tale between my legs. (Fig. 9.)
Figure 9: Sketch of a cartoon character
4.2.3. Dancing Away
I try to find my inspiration from the world of music. I pick some random Nigerian play list in YouTube. Wanton girls shaking their buts fill the screen. My sketches end up looking as sexist and vague as the music videos. They bring to mind Jezebel stereotype of lusty black woman. (Fig. 10.)
I make one last attempt. Afraid of drawing yet another harlot I draw a very young and innocent character. She looks like a fairy with her fluffy pink dress. I give up for today. Feeling disappointed for the results of the first day of drawing I close the sketch book. It remains closed for one week. (Fig. 10.)
Figure 10: Sketches of dancers.
4.2.4. Missing Fufu
I curl up on sofa munching a Christmas cookie and open the sketch book. My husband is watching online news broadcast on election results from his home country, Ghana. I travel back in time to Cape Coast, to my work place canteen where I spent my lunch breaks consuming the local dishes. I can almost smell the fufu and goat meet soup.
I draw young middle class workers eating fufu. They are using their hands to eat sharing one plate. Maybe they are a couple. Later I draw a close up version of only the lady. The drawings are still somehow boring. They have details of modern life in Ghana but lack depth. I make a note to myself to use real people as models next time. (Fig. 11.)
Figure 11: Sketches of people eating.
4.2.5. Focus on My Family
My husband and son are playing on the floor with Legos. I wonder if other Ghanaian fathers have such a close relationship to their children. Reality fights against my preconceived assumptions of all African fathers being distant authority figures. When I think about it I can’t really recall any Ghanaian father like that among my acquaintances.
The next three sketches concentrate on our family. As I draw I however modify some details to make the characters easier to recognise as West African instead of an African American, for example. I draw my husband an embroidered traditional West Africa style shirt and make my child look like a regular Ghanaian child (or what I think a Ghanaian child should look like) instead of a child of mixed heritage. I ponder over this decision and it troubles me a bit. Is my child not Ghanaian enough? What is a Ghanaian supposed to look like? (Fig. 12.)
Figure 12: Sketches of my husband and son.
4.2.6. Africa of my Dreams
To distract my son from trying to seize the pencil from my hand I turn on the TV for him. I remember how my husband once told me that in his childhood they would gather around fire to listen to stories told by their father in the moon light. I sketch down how I imagine that situation. The result is quite nice but not what I was looking for. After all I wanted to steer away from all this romantic rural scenery. My son snatches my colour pencils and I take a break. (Fig. 13.)
Figure 13: Sketches of my son watching TV and of story time in around the fire.
4.2.7. Family Photos
Running out of ideas I turn to our family photo album and copy two photos; one where my father-in-law holds my baby son and one where one of my husband’s nieces holds him. Again I modify the appearance of my son to look more like what I imagine an average Ghanaian child to look like. The resulting drawings are a bit boring. (Fig.14.)
Figure 14: Sketches from family photos.
4.2.8. Sambo
One day after spending the whole morning watching cartoons with my son I feel like drawing something playful. A happy little boy emerges to the paper playing drum and dancing to the music playing in radio. This character is really the embodiment of my childhood ideas about Africa imposed to me through children’s’ culture. In songs and stories and cartoons Sub-Saharan Africans are carefree people always dancing and making merry. I recognise a Sambo stereotype. (Fig. 15.)
Figure 15: Sketch of a dancing child.
4.2.9. Pretty Boring
Another failed attempt to draw from my imagination ends up flat on the paper. I draw a pretty girl in a fashion pose. She conforms too much to Western beauty ideals. She has no agenda, no purpose, just a pretty face. (Fig. 16.)
Figure 16: Sketch of a beauty.
4.2.10. Negro’s Kiss
One of the favourite sweets of my childhood was called “Neekerin Suukko” (Negro’s Kiss). It is a chocolate coated marshmallow sweet. The package of the treats was adorned with a cartoonish drawing of two dark skinned characters kissing. They had huge lips and they wore grass skirts. Later the Negro was dropped from the name, lips were made smaller and the grass skirt was replaced with normal skirt. The symbolic message remained the same. (Fig. 17.)
I scratch my response to a piece of paper. I want to make a statement. I draw a similar couple embracing each other, kissing but in more realistic fashion. The man is holding a drum, like in the Neekerin Suukko -package. They are wearing beach wear. It all looks so teenage fantasy it makes me want to puke. I have made the guy a macho and the girl a picture perfect model. It’s just all so cheesy. I wonder if I could ever turn this into something serious. (Fig.18.)
Figure 17: The Neekerinsuukko after changes. Image from urjalanmakeistukku.fi.
Figure 18: Sketch of a couple kissing.
I plan to continue developing a series where I tackle the stereotypical images of my childhood but I never quite get started. I do however make a version of a particular souvenir image that is being all around Ghana. It’s an image of a traditionally clothed girl pouring water as a welcoming gesture. I attempt to modernise this image and end up creating something ridiculously naïve and boring. The end result reminds me of the servant role blacks are often pushed to in Western popular culture. (Fig. 19.) I hate the drawing. I feel angry and frustrated, having spent over a month sketching and having achieved nothing.
Figure 19: Sketch of Akwaaba-girl.
ILLUSTRATING THE OTHER 