Homme Bambara
"Bambara Man" (caption translation). Bambara (Bamana or Banmana) are a Mandé ethnic group in the Senegambia and Central Savanna regions. Boilat explained how the subject of this portrait was the author's gardener, who "is wearing a typical Bambara hat made of straw, and has on Moroccan leather sandals; he carries a walking stick over his shoulder from which is dangling a basket with vegetables he is going to sell in the market; a knife is in his right hand. Although this man is shown with amulets (gris-gris) around his neck, the author points out that since the Bambara are not Muslims, these are simply ornaments and have no spiritual significance" (pp. 29-31). David Boilat (1814-1901) was one of the first Catholic priests in the Senegambia region. His father was French and his mother a Signare, which was a term from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used to describe a mixed-race, French-African woman. Boilat spoke Wolof and Serer; and made his drawings from life. The 24 plates based on these drawings are explained in an accompanying text. Boilat left Senegal around the age of 13, was educated in France and he returned to Senegal in 1842 where he lived for ten years working as a teacher. He returned to France where he completed his Esquisses sénégalaises in 1853. He also published a Wolof dictionary in 1858.
Image Title
Homme Bambara
RegID
SI-OB-998
Date
1850s
Title
Homme Bambara
Source
David Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises: physionomie du pays, peuplades, commerce, religions, passé et avenir, récits et légendes (Paris: P. Bertrand, 1853), plate 23.
Language
French
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Western Savanna
Reproduced In
David Boilat, Esquisses sénégalaises: physionomie du pays, peuplades, commerce, religions, passé et avenir, récits et légendes (Paris: P. Bertrand, 1853).
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
2-Apr-16
Identifier
Boilat14