Suwer by Mam Gueye

Portrait of the beautiful Aba Segú –Suwer– (Dakar, Senegal)

The Serer, Wolof or Mandinga people prefer to write it suwer, but we have no doubt that it is an orthographic transcription of the French word sousverre, which should be translated as "under the glass" (because they are painted on the back of a piece of glass), a word that the French prefer to use, however, to refer to a sad coaster.

But let's get to the point: suwer is a colorful and vital artistic expression that was born at the beginning of the 20th century in the coastal cities of Senegal as a reaction to the lack of permissiveness shown by the French colonizers towards the dissemination of Islamizing ideas and texts. The rigid control exercised over the printing presses of Saint Louis or Dakar by the colonial administration determined that an army of street artists soon emerged who reproduced colorful Koranic scenes under pieces of glass, which were then highly appreciated by a largely illiterate population. The images starring Noah and his Ark, Ismail and Ibrahim, Omar and Ali immersed in epic battles or even unorthodox portraits of the Prophet were the favorites of artists such as Mor Gueye, Ibrahima Sall or Gora Mbengue, now rescued and raised to the altars of Art with capital letters by the gurus of Pop Art.

Later, religious motifs would be replaced by nostalgia for life in the village, by secular themes or even by the disillusionment associated with a progress that seemed to resist reaching the countries of Africa.

The Suwer that we suggest on this occasion is a variation of the portrait of Aba Segú, the most beautiful woman in West Africa, taken to glass by Mamadou Gueye, the son of the mythical Mor Gueye, who now produces his work near Sandaga, in the Plateau from Dakar.

Height: 34cm; Width: 24cm