A New Book Explores the World Through an African Gaze
Amy Sall signs into our Zoom meeting wearing glasses and an off-white top. She looks relaxed and poised as she explains the origin of her new book. The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power was born out of the public response to her teaching materials. Sall, a Senegalese-American archivist and writer from the Bronx who taught a course of the same name at the New School, released the syllabus on social media in 2020. It went viral, which makes sense. The syllabus, which focused on “postcolonial visual culture in Africa,” included materials from artists and authors such as Aimé Cesaire and Ousmane Sembène and quickly spread throughout the internet. It resonated with people because it met a need the public may not have realized existed, for an accessible collection that answers questions about how postcolonial African artists craft their own stories and compose their own lives. Sall explains, “I wanted the work to be accessible…. I got all these messages from people saying, ‘Thank you for releasing the syllabus. I’ve been getting together with my friends and we’ve been studying the African gaze as a study group.’ ”
It made perfect sense to Sall, then, to create a book version of the project. The book, which features contributions from academics Mamadou Diouf, Yasmina Price, and Zoé Samudzi, is split into two sections: one on African photographers and another on African filmmakers. The African Gaze includes interviews with some of the living artists, including Nigerian photographer Samuel Fosso and Malian director Souleymane Cissé.
The African Gaze is an opportunity for Sall to shine as an African archivist. The book features over 300 pictures obtained directly from the artists featured. “[It was] my way of showing them my respect and letting them know, ‘I want you to be part of this book,’ ” Sall tells Harper’s Bazaar. “I also wanted to find images that weren’t widely exhibited or commonly found on the internet. For example, there’s an image in the Souleymane Cissé interview of him in this big hat when he was in Russia—that's an image that came straight from his family.”
A meticulously crafted archival compilation, The African Gaze allows readers to understand the postcolonial circumstances that forged these photographers and filmmakers. Sall says, “It's important that African people are stewards of African material … what is so common is that the African archive is mediated and controlled and organized by non-Africans, by Western Europeans or Americans …. [B]eing an African archivist is more than just dealing with photos and ephemera. It’s approaching it with a level of sincerity and care and being part of a larger conversation. Being part of this grander pan-African heritage.”
So, what makes a book like The African Gaze necessary? “I think this is an important book to have because in recent years, the art market has been pushing forward African portraiture,” Sall says. “This material is more than things that exist in the art market. These were privately circulated amongst friends or to capture moments. These were images never meant to be circulated in the art market and plastered on white walls; these have greater significance.”
She adds: “I want people to understand the heft of the African image and the fact that African image makers are asserting themselves and fighting against the damaging colonial narrative that has been put forward for so long. African image makers have reclaimed their power.”
The African Gaze will be released in the United States on September 17, 2024, through Thames & Hudson.
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