Preliminary Exploration photographic work

Purpose of the work:

This African diaspora work is inspired by history.

I was born in Hong Kong in 1950. When I was in secondary school, newspapers reported that the black district of Watts in Los Angeles was burned into ruins in 1965, and that black leader Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968. That’s when I learned the word ‘Racial Discrimination’. At that time I had no means to understand the violence and injustice towards black people in the United States. Later, I discovered in books some horrific pictures of black people being lynched and hanged. The words, Racial Discrimination, hung in my mind as I prepared to come to America.

In 1971, I went to the United States to study industrial and commercial photography. I borrowed books from the library, looking at photographs instead of texts. Then I came across a book called, Chinese in America, that described all kinds of bullying, community burning, and extermination of Chinese railroad and mine workers from 1840-1890 by their white counterparts. Later, I came across works about slaves in the book “Nothing Personal” by the American photographer Richard Avedon*, and read carefully the text written by James Baldwin, who wrote the preface of the book. As a result, I began to have varying degrees of understanding of American society. I understood that in 1863, President Lincoln announced the dissolution of slavery in the third year of the Civil War. That was in name only, as smart white people would always be successful in making white people superior, no matter poor or rich.

*In 1972, I thought Richard Avedon was an outstanding fashion-product photographer at first, but later I saw him differently. His diverse and passionate photography throughout his life had a great impact on the world.

We need to consciously deal with the ugly side of human nature: greed, ignorance and pervasive power dominance.

As a Chinese American, I often think of our ancestors as the foundation of our existence and identity. Even though the ugly side of human nature also exists in history, the genealogy of Chinese surnames can be traced back a thousand years, and we can still confirm this bloodline from the handed down texts and portraits. But can the descendants of African slaves do this? Can Africans find traces of their lost ancestry elsewhere in the world? During the time of slavery, Africans lost everything under captivity and tyranny: religion, family, language and food culture; their whole identity ruined. Lifelong and descendant slavery rendered them illiterate, ignorant and being forced to reproduce for generations-for the benefit of their owners. And now, regardless of their nationality, they have evolved into international slaves of capitalists and industrialists alike.

Black images have been stigmatized for centuries, and the stigma has fueled the world’s imagination. Persistent negative stereotypes reinforce fear and underlying hatred. However, our ignorance exacerbates this situation because we fail to learn, and embrace the changes that must start deep within. As Muhammad Ali, our acknowledged great world champion, said, “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”

In my life, I have witnessed Chinese-Americans dislike African-Americans because of theft and robbery, and the negative portrayals of African Americans in the media. But, to be fair, since the early 1900s, the continuous shooting in Chinatown, gangsters, turf wars, dirty places and illegal problems have resulted in the negative image of Chinatown. The old community is dilapidated, and most people have to rush home after six in the afternoon. One can’t blame this on the outsiders.

In recent years, there have been incidents of hatred and beatings of Asians in major cities in the United States, and Asians blindly blame African Americans. In my own circle of Chinese friends, especially immigrant friends, some have expressed their disdain to understand the historical background of black slavery in the United States; let alone the painful and deep consequences of being enslaved for 400 years across continents.  Those with financial ability will not buy property and do business in black communities. Many have expressed their fear towards black people, even if they don’t even know a single black person, and they don’t want to know them. Ignorance, fear and discrimination spread out like an epidemic in Chinese society.

This kind of blind discrimination against black people is not lacking in China. This issue is so complex that it takes individual and community efforts to find ways to explain and accept our differences to understand each other. Healing needs to begin.

The Purpose of work is to understand this deep entanglement from the root. 

Information from Wikipedia: Current estimates are that about 12 million to 12.8 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic over a span of 400 years. The number purchased by the traders was considerably higher, as the passage had a high death rate with approximately 1.2–2.4 million dying during the voyage and millions more in seasoning camps in the Caribbean after arrival in the New World. Millions of people also died as a result of slave raids, wars, and during transport to the coast for sale to European slave traders.

The nature of the photographic work:

I have been photographing in depth the Chinese diaspora for over fifty years, covering S.E. Asia, North and Central America. This preliminary depiction of African slave diaspora work is based on Africans and their descendants’ desires to find their roots and souls.  This has often resulted in a perpetual sense of confusion and loss. Indeed, in different ancient civilizations in the world, there are similar cultures. I think this is a response to the course in one’s life as we age.

My journey primarily searches the remote area in northern Togo, West Africa, where I  photographed the Batamariba tribe. I believe that this tribe has not been seriously affected by Catholicism and Islam. There is no water, electricity, shops, schools and basic medical care. Being subsistence farmers, it is not heavily infected by the civilized world, and their traditions are almost intact.

I titled this series of diptych work – “Imagining Ancestors”

The components of the diptychs and icons:

1. The subject usually holds a prefabricated composite photo of a deceased slave (photographed by an anonymous person around 1932-1935) and a flag. These are portraits of deceased African American slaves, obtained from the Library of Congress, free for use without any restrictions. The other half is a flag which represents 1 of the 32 former European colonial countries in the Americas, where Africans were sold  and enslaved. All the wealth they created went to the United States and European countries. Although these colonies have by now achieved independence, most remain fairly poor and unstable.

2. Portraits of Africans and their descendants are made in their ancestral lands and in other countries. Some showcase their occupations and others are made in their tribal home setting. All subjects consented to be photographed.

3. All slaves transported in the Atlantic Slave Trade were done by ship.  So oceans and rivers are important icons in this series. These sea/river photographs are near slave embarkation points, called ‘factories’, e.g. Aneho in Togo, Senegal Goree Island and Pointe des Almadies; and rocky coast of Casablanca in Morocco.

4. Slaves were forced to toil in construction, mining, land clearance and plantation work: sugar cane, cotton, tobacco, cocoa, rice, coffee, corn, indigo dyes, rubber and timber. These were products of the colonial period. And cassava, yam and sweet potato, called Été in Africa, are the basic foods in Africa. These are icons. Regrettably, the diaspora situation is still going on now. Africans enter Europe, America and Hong Kong through various channels, legal or otherwise.

5. During the two months I was in Africa, due to poor public security in many West African countries, the area I could visit was not large. Forests had been cut down, and some crops had not matured or had already been harvested. Therefore some forest and crop totems were filmed in Thailand and Malaysia.

Method: Before setting off, I prepared a simple statement of intent in French and asked for the blessing of my subjects before making their portraits.

Bonjour,

Comment ça va?

Je m’appelle Pok Chi Lau. Je viens de Hong Kong. Je parle chinois et anglais. Je suis photographe.

  J’ai photographié des personnes d’ascendance africaine nées à Cuba, à Hong Kong, en Jamaïque, en Haïti et aux États-Unis. Beaucoup d’entre eux pensent à leurs ancêtres en Afrique, bien qu’ils ne sachent pas d ‘où ils viennent. Maintenant que je suis en Afrique de l’Ouest, je veux photographier des Africains imaginant leurs ancêtres qui ont été enlevés de force de leur terre natale, traités horriblement et force.

  Je voudrais prendre un portrait de vous tenant une photo d’un ancien esclave africain avec un drapeau du pays où ils ont été envoyés. Vous aurez les yeux fermés comme si vous pensiez à des parents dans un pays étranger.

  Voici quelques exemples de ce que j’ai fait jusqu’à présent. Votre photo sera placée à côté du coton, de la canne à sucre, du maïs, du tabac, des cacahuètes et des minéraux, etc., pour lesquels les Africains de souche ont été asservis au travail.

  Je montrerai ces photos dans des expositions de musées si l’occasion se présente. Pourriez-vous, s’il vous plaît, me permettre de faire un portrait de vous ?

  Puis-je avoir votre bénédiction? Je vous remercie d’avance.

Photography process:

I usually ask my subjects to choose a composite image of a former slave with a flag, and then ask them to look at the slave in the photo. This induces a burst of imagination in their minds. Then I ask them to close their eyes to imagine their own ancestors who were forcefully removed from their homes forever.

The first photo is made at the home of Fola Lawson in Lomé, Togo, whose second house is under construction. I photograph their families and construction workers. Fola has a 68-year-old mother, wife, three daughters, a widowed sister with a 12-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son. They are all from towns about 20 to 100 kilometers away from Lome. And it is through my friend, Tevi Lawson, a legal laborer in Hong Kong that I get to know his elder brother Fola Lawson in his hometown. The gravel pile is for building another 2-storey living structure. 

The first trip out of the city was Aneho by the coast in the southeast, where Fola Lawson’s roots came from. This was a good start, as the village had a historic slave house, Agbodrafo, where captive slaves were once stored underground, and traffickers had to register and wait for formalities before slaves could be shipped out.

Kara is a large town in the north of Togo and is the only way to the Batamariba tribe

Some background in the Koutammakou

When logistics are finished, we begin our 10-hour drive journey to Koutammakou, our destination in the Kara region of northeast Togo. Information of the tribes:

-Village name: Bas Lissan 

-Mud tower: Tamberma Fortress or Tata Somba

-Tribal name is Batamariba 

-The people in the village are called Tamberma 

-Language is Ditammari or Tammari

-Fakanfa (‘n’ not pronounced) is a mud-gravel structure built from the ground for ancestral memorials. They range from 1 to 6 feet tall in curve shape.  Some are placed inside the bedroom, kitchen and hallway, and occupy the front of the Tara Somba. Some irresponsible western explorers give it the name of Liboloni and call them voodoos. The lack of resources and tribal warfare are the main causes of the diaspora from the Burkina Faso region to Fada Ngrouma in the 15-16th century. Tamberma are part of a larger Gur-language group in Congo, Nigeria, and sub-Saharan regions. Their language is Ditammari, also known as Tamari. Their population in Togo is about 43,000. We planned a 5-day journey.

Togo was colonized by Germany in the early 1800’s but the invasion of the Koutammakou area was unsuccessful, and the Tamberma resisted stubbornly. I guess the Germans had no intention of eradicating them. The Germans banned slave trade in Togo in the 1850s.

There is a Ditammari Bible (063P/BIBIRI-Kuyie Nnaanti Patiri) version made by Evangelical Christians from Baltimore, Maryland, and a missionary recording designed for oral cultures such as Tamberma, plus a program with audio recordings of the New Testament, trying to convert them. In three villages I visited, I only saw a 20-year-old mobile phone with no electricity to charge with, let alone signals. Therefore, the success rate of converting the natives to Christianity is only 2%.

The culture of Tamberma is oral and the tribal people are illiterate. However, there are rules in the national language alphabet of Benin that spell Ditammari into a written text. Alphabets without the letters Ŋ ŋ Ɖ ɖ are also used, notably by the Benin Bible Union. About 150,000 people speak the language.

The journey

The drive to Kara is uneventful. We pass small patches of banana, sugarcane and cassava fields as the landscape is not flat. There is no evidence of modern industrial farming. The landscape is quite arid without forests. The only fruit in abundance is mango. We find the Kara Hotel with air conditioning and clean sheets. We stay here for 4 nights and buy street food for lunch. Dinner is not much different.  Tough going!

Tamberma Fortresses are protected by UNESCO. Upon entering the tribal region, we have to pay an entry fee and hire a local guide. The destination is 10 miles on a dirt road to the northeast. Our car stops 100 meters in front of the village as a Tamberma woman is smearing a thin layer of mud on the outer wall of a Tara Somba with her hands.

Strikingly, there is no single flat wall or angle in these Tara Somba structures, they are all curved. The features represent parts of the human body: the mouth, eyes and forehead are at the front, the lung cavities are the passages to the kitchen and second floor bedroom and storage; and the ears and eyes are seen through two small holes. Because it doesn’t rain often, there are small drainage holes near the roof. In front of the gate are several mud/gravel towers up to 5 feet in height, called Fafanka – ancestral memorials. These unique vernacular objects resemble Lignum phalluses in the Hindu culture. 

Looking at the door from inside, there is no wardrobe, dining or living room. Tamberma folks live outside.

Looking at the inside from the main entrance, to the left is a work space, and forward is the kitchen.

The entrance faces a curved wall with animal skulls and plant seeds on it. The two rows of mud looking like pregnant women’s bellies with white feathers on the wall and the two mounds decorated in front are ancestral memorials called Fakanfa.

To the left of the curved wall is the kitchen with small Fakanfas on the ground, and to the right is the balcony on the first floor that can have a lookout.

A kitchen that doesn’t light a fire often, and I neglect to ask why? On the right are dried seed pods from the Nere trees used as fuel for cooking. The yellow seed in the Nere pod, after boiling, is food. The broth is used to mix with mud and animal dung to build the earthen tower.

The bellies of dried gourds are used as bowls and musical instruments.

Takounta Koutantia is a fisherman and hunter. I show him the picture of my giant rooster fish caught in Mexico on my mobile phone. He jumps up and down, grabs my arm and takes me as his best friend. He then points to the direction of the river and says excitedly that his father was a known crocodile hunter as villagers used to be bitten. He happily takes me to his house.

The entryway has no door allowing only one adult to pass through. (A wooden board or corrugated zinc plate is placed behind the wall as a door, without hinges). Crossing the first threshold, the floor space on both sides is used for drying plants and chicken coop. After passing the second threshold, 200 cm in front, one faces a 600 cm curve wall. There are five rather thick tree trunks in the passage in front of the wall as the structural 220 cm pillars of the entire mud tower. In front of it are several Fakanfas, ranging from 30-50cm, some of which are decorated with bird feathers. They’re built from the ground up like a fat missile head standing up. Other big mud bumps on the walls that look like pregnant women’s bellies are also Fakanfas. There are as many as 16 of them in 2 rows in another Tara Somba. Claire, the official local guide, whose real name is Sandamou Bahonma, puts it simply that these are Voodoo fetishes, when in fact, the correct name is Fakanfa. As a woman, she was not allowed to say that word (I later apologized to her for accusing her of not telling my friend Fola). They communicate in French and the Ewe dialect (one of over 40 Togolese dialects).

In the past, when Chinese quarreled, they often cursed their opponents’ eighteen generations of ancestors. In this regard, because there is no written language, African Ditammari have no match for this round.

The walls are gray. Essentials such as nets and cages are hung on ropes from the beams. Above are animals’ jaw bones, skulls, feathers, dried corn, okra and gourds. The structures of the construction are clear.

At the end of the curve are mud racks with more dried gourds for water storage. In the dark, there are plastic buckets of water on the floor, no candles, no oil lamps, which means no electricity or running water.

There are usually 4 holes in the curved wall, eyes and ears, to let light in and see outside from different directions. In the center is a tree trunk with a diameter of 20cm, which vertically supports the beams of the roof. At the end of the curved wall on the left, 2 steps of 50cm lead to the kitchen, where there are more small Fakankas. Three of them are used as stove supports for pots (out of all the Tata Somba kitchens I’ve been to, only two have used branches as shelves). The space in front of the steps on the left is for dry branches for cooking fire. The walls of the kitchen are blackened with no trace of dried meat, very few pots. 

Through the 2.5-meter-long curved kitchen, there are two more 50-cm-high steps to the first part of the roof on the right, which is used for drainage and a rare bucket bath. Another 70-cm high step leads to another floor, and a 1-meter high wall surrounds the entire building, enabling the homeowner to shoot spears and arrows against enemies. On the left there is a small step leading to the bedroom. It is a strategic defensive design structure where families sleep with all their meager belongings. This specially designed bedroom of Tara Somba is the last line of defense if the enemy has taken so much of the domain downstairs. 

It has a huge thatched roof covering 75-cm high walls and 75-cm sunken floor, the room is 150cm high. The grass eaves slope down to cover part of the bedroom opening which is 10cm from the roof’s floor. The bedroom entry hole is only 70-cm for 1 person to pass through. Anticipated enemies may come through the kitchen, the homeowner can discreetly shoot arrows directly from the bedroom at the invaders. Entering the hole in the bedroom is tricky to an outsider like myself. With my belly down, I put my first leg down first then the second. This design puts the enemy in the worst possible passive position, as he gets stabbed from all sides one way or the other. Also, if the table stone in the middle of the roof terrace (like the 50cm small dining table) is removed, a hole will appear allowing defenders to shoot arrows at passing enemies from the top floor.

Left: On the middle right are Fakankas of different sizes and women’s clothes. Middle: The tallest structure is the granary. Right: Outside the kitchen, the shells of the Nere tree are dried for fuel.

There is also a much smaller children’s bedroom on the rooftop that doubles as storage space. My buddy, Takounta Koutantia, slides down feet first into a sleeping fetus position. I can’t see anything important there, at least to my eyes, no cupboards or shelves, just a thin layer of hay as a mattress and little Fakanfas. The Tamberma folks are intimate with their ancestors. 

I have gone inside another Tata Somba bedroom before this and have observed a pillow, women’s clothes and a bra. I think this China-made European and American undergarment has finally come to remote tribes, although there is no rack for clothes yet. 

The highest part of Tata Samba is a grain storage tower built with mud walls and thatched roofs which can only be accessed with a narrow tree trunk ladder 20 cm wide. The ladder reaches the top with steps, which is more than 8 meters to the ground outside. I can’t climb this narrow ladder because it takes two hours to get to the hospital, if I fall. There are several Fakanfas in the bedroom. I think it is to meet their ancestors in dreams. (The Chinese have no match for this although dreaming about ancestors often appears in poems and fortune telling.)

As I look through the entire interior of Tamberma fortress, fresh fruits and vegetables are absent. Their diet consists of corn, cassava, yam, the seeds of the Nere tree and occasional domesticated animals.

The natives often stand under the versatile Nere tree and scan the horizon.

On the outdoor Fakanfa, these are ornaments made of large gourds to ward off evil spirits.

According to the 1976 American film Roots’ research, it is the cooperation between African Islam, tribal chieftains and Europeans who kidnapped Africans as slaves.

My Curiosity: Who Are Batamariba’s Enemies?

Two main categories of enemies have been identified on the Internet: Tribal chieftains and Muslims throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Other enemies came from other tribes, like the fierce Dahomey warriors of what is now the eastern region of Benin. Surprisingly, some of these warriors, known as Amazons, were women.

The guide, Sandamou Bahonma, said that the enemy was the Muslims who invaded the Batamariba tribe and took them as slaves, because they believed in animism and refused Islam. Because this tribe has no written text, its history is passed down orally; and is consistent with the research by Western scholars.

Sadly, Islamic militants in Africa continue to carry out raids in many parts of Africa. As economies collapse and climate change catastrophes expand, the African family degradation causing the diaspora remains unresolved.

Religious wars provide an excuse for Muslim invaders to capture non-Muslims and sell them to the Arabs, before Europeans came. Male slaves did labor work, including the pyramids in Egypt, some were turned into eunuchs to serve in harems, while female slaves became concubines or sex workers and servants. Murals and sculptures of Egyptian tombs depicted this history. In 1976 a very influential American film, Roots, came out. Backed by in-depth historical investigations, Muslim slave raiders were filmed, and they had no mercy for other vulnerable Muslim tribes in Sub-Saharan Africa. The protagonist of this movie, Kunta Kinte and his tribe members who eventually were sold in America were also Muslims. The business of Muslim slave trade continued to expand, and slaves were sold to Europe and American buyers.

Other observations

The Batamariba have no electricity, the wells are 200 to 400 meters away and they are subsistence farmers. Women carry buckets on their heads. Some young men find work in the township as there are 2 motorcycles. There are no schools, no clinics, no cement, only dirt paths, no modern life. I don’t see mirrors, toilets,  pencils, paper, books or writing anywhere. I don’t see any soft-drink cans, no plastic packaging, just one plastic bag hanging on a wire. The only ‘modern’ houses are the occasional A-frame corrugated tin roofs covering plain mud huts with 90 degree turns. I am guessing probably because there are no more enemies in this area, and no need to build Tara Somba. Sparse rainfall causes natural grass to be short and scarce. Folks often live and sleep outside. Children appear to be healthy wearing some form of worn/torn clothing and sandals, and most walk barefoot. Many younger women wear bras. Corrugated tin and ready made clothes need cash to buy. I suspect that they do not rely on cash crops to raise cash, such as mango and cassava. The soil is poor, water sources are scarce.

From the top of a Tara Somba, new mud houses with A-shaped tin roofs emerge. 2 traditional grain storages remain.

The Tara Somba villages I have seen are all built on the hills for defense purposes based on their ancestral decision. From the roof, they can see enemies from a distance, and burial grounds are much further up in the hills unreachable by car as they want to keep it private.

At the cassava and mango stalls on both sides of the Kara Highway, Muslim ladies in gold and silver peddle.

Their fields are a bit far and only accessible by dirt paths. I don’t see any fruit trees around the villages. But 20 kilometers away in Kara and its outskirts, roadside markets sell local mangoes, bananas, cheese and cassava. However, if the Tambermas have opted for growing fruit as a cash crop, their lifestyle would be a bit closer to modernity. They have little experience of eating fruits and vegetables, let alone having the means to grow them and the tenacity to bargain. They are animists, not agriculturists. With the money I pay to photograph in the villages, they share the sum among all households. (So did the fishermen in Fadiouth, Senegal.) Moreover, most of the sellers in strategic locations are powerful Muslim women, and will not tolerate outsiders to elbow themselves in.

Cheese and yogurt on the roadside.

Cassava and Yam can grow in relatively poor soil. They provide day-long sustenance for laborers and are the most important food for Africans. 

Baobab trees, a pod and seeds.

As an icon in Africa, every village in the region has at least one mature Baobab tree, the white seeds of a pod have medicinal value, like the magical Nere tree that is everywhere. Folks gather here to chitchat, hold important tribal meetings and welcome visitors. That’s where I see modern clothing. Older people tend to wear traditional clothing. A few women wear antelope horn hats, and young men wear fur hats. On both sides of the road out of the village, men in blue appeared twice herding cattle. The shepherds have a way of communicating with the cattle, and the herds protect the shepherds, driving me out of the bush twice.

The Tamberma are said to believe they are the caretakers of the land, not the owners. The true owners are the gods of the subterranean land, the sun, moon, and stars. They are animists. Having your ancestors by your bedside provides comfort. They embrace the teachings and blessings of their ancestors. In my sixty years of traveling, I have never seen people of any other culture so attached to their ancestors than the Tamberma folks.

Like the ancient Chinese tradition, ancestor worship is a celebration performed by certain people in African tribes, involving percussion, chorus and rhythmic dancing. Although Tamberma have no written language to speak of, the names and deeds of their ancestors are remembered by later generations. The songs and dances they create help carry such memories. European and American countries have bought slaves for more than 400 years. During this period, tribal peoples were broken up and scattered all over the New World, and they had rebuilt their homes. How many generations of ancestors can they remember?

In Gur’s language context, these specific people are called Edenou, and the spiritual prayer is called Apo Ede. Whenever the days of worshiping the ancestors are approaching, the ex-tribesmen who have gone away will try to go home to participate. Returnees bring their own food and drinks. During the ceremony, a gourd ladle filled with water is given to the returnees to drink as a sign of peace. Afterwards, these returnees explain what they are asking for from their ancestors, what difficulties they need to solve, and then promise to behave appropriately in the future in order to get the advice. Edenou, the ancestor advocate, identifies promises and grants what’s been asked. This is not a religious ceremony or Voodoo witchcraft, which is often misunderstood by outsiders.

Anéjo, Fola Lawson’s birthplace, hosts this event every year, but the Lawson brothers have chosen to break away from the tradition. There must be a reason for this as all three daughters have Christian names. Sadly, with the onslaught of modernization and urbanization, the spread of powerful organized religions, natural disasters, and global population displacement, ancestor worship is rapidly disappearing, as the same in developed countries, including China.

Other Journeys:

I arrived in Dakar, Senegal, on May 13th. I requested the driver to take me to a traditional fabric market. Literally thousands of fabulous African designs dazzled me, and the prices weren’t cheap. The hustle and bustle and noise prevented me from concentrating on a closer look. Later, I went to a small shop measuring 2.5×3 meters, and the stock was much less than its neighbors’. Since the store was small, I had to look up near the ceiling, and a piece of red and yellow cloth caught my eye. I pointed in that direction. The slim-body clerk didn’t use a ladder, and took the fabric down like a monkey. It was a bit dirty and probably not attractive to the average female clientele. I spread the piece out a square meter, big blood-red palms with 12 black dots and fingers on both sides of the edges jumped at my eyeballs. Seeing this jaw-dropping design, I didn’t bother to bargain or ask about its dimensions; just paid and left. I knew this design must have a story, but I forgot to ask its ins and outs.

 Goree Island, Senegal

A few days later, an American friend informed me that this piece of cloth was related to King Leopold II, the tyrant of Belgium in Europe. Deploying 19,000 soldiers, he invaded the African Congo in 1876 and then owned it personally. In 1885, he established the Congo Free State when, in fact, caused great atrocity and drastically reduced the native human and elephant populations because of the ivory trade. At that time, the European competition for colonies in Africa was coming to an end. Meanwhile, industrial technology in Europe and the United States was greatly developed. Bicycles and cars completely changed the way of life of human beings, resulting in a great need for rubber to make tires. Later, other European colonizers followed this example and latex became the world’s new commodity. Leopold II then established the International African Federation, which was a scientific, humanitarian and charitable association in name, but in contrast, he and his partners enslaved natives to set up rubber plantations and extract latex in large quantities. If the harvested weight did not meet the quota, one finger or foot would be cut off first, and gradually the palm. If this slave had a family, theirs would be cut off on behalf of the working father. In 40 years, the punishment of torture, disease and malnutrition killed and destroyed tens of thousands families reducing the population, by estimation, from 20 to 10 million. As of December, 2022, the Netherlands apologized for their catastrophe from the 17th-19th centuries.

This bold and uncompromising design of this piece of fabric is unparalleled. I have used it in one of the diptych series, and cutting rubber is a totem for this series. This fabric will be used as an installation in future exhibitions.

2. In Senegal, I made 2 trips to the westernmost point of West Africa facing directly to the Americas, called Pointe des Almadies. It was part of the sea route to transport slaves from Goree Island.

Pointe des Almadies and Tamberma

Pointe des Almadies and Tamberma

3. Fadiouth, three hours southeast of Dakar, was a small transit port for slaves. I was able to photograph old fishermen and some female residents. There is a scenic cemetery near the mouth of the river. Here, as in the town’s inhabitants, Muslims, Catholics and animists coexist.

Fadiouth, Senegal

Fadiouth retired fishmen are well-dressed. 

4. Senegal Goree Island – The Door of No Return,

A world-famous slave export island, marks the beginning of many Africans and their descendants in diaspora. Many descedants later come back to Africa to find their roots including President Obama and his wife, Michelle. Even though they know it can’t be done, they come to pay tribute to the tragic history of their ancestors. Once an African native passes through the Gate of No Return, his total belonging and identity will be forever lost.

The Goree Island Slave House showcases the use of iron shackles.

Goree Island, Senegal

Social unrests caused by political chaos and climate change are displacing Africans, supplying the world with endless cheap labor once they become refugees.

Rubber plantation and laborer

Another fingernail biting piece of history

Alligators are known to cannibalize people in swamps and rivers in Africa and the southern United States. The slaves escaped through waterways and took the chance of being bitten/eaten. In front of other slaves the masters would push the re-captured slaves into the alligator pool, using one to put fear into hundreds.

The portrait is of a lady from Haiti, who was born deformed and was not bitten by an alligator.

Beautiful last scene

There is a Tamberma woman walking around with a smile, bare-chested, curious as to what I am doing. I ask to photograph her in her home. Then I see the 12 cut lines on each side of her beautiful face, more than any natives I have come across on this journey. The practice of scaring a face to remember ancestors begins in childhood.  What are the stories of their ancestors that are so precious that one is willing to live with these scars in one’s lifetime?

Wanting to know because of my ignorance, I go with the flow, I am beginning to see the light.

Pok Chi Lau

December 21, 2022

Origin: Mixed-raced Chinese and African in Cuba. Cuba banned the import of African slaves in 1860. From 1847-1874 private estate plantations, government construction, and mining companies hired 125,000 of indentured laborers from southern China. The Chinese soon intermarried with black female slaves and propagated. From 2009 to 2019, I made portraits of mixed-race descendants holding photographs of their Chinese ancestors. They still recognized their Chinese ancestors, but I didn’t ask them if they had the knowledge of their ancestors on the African side.    

Cuban African-Chinese mixed-race portraits, including two people on the lower right participated in a small Cantonese opera troupe in 

More of Pok Chi Lau’s work can be seen at https://pokchilau.format.com/

NOTES

The dimension of the “Imagining Ancestors” diptych print – mildly imposing

1. The most economical dimension is W101.6xH135.47cm (W53.33xH40”) F well dear, or exhibition(destroyed afterwards) printed on Epson Premium Luster Photo Inkjet Paper (44″ x 100′ Roll).  
2. For collection, they should be printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 Matt FineArt Paper (44″ x 39′ Roll)
3. Is larger than the above dimension, printing each part of the diptych separately and bud them together when installed. 
4. For a different viewing experience, some of the work should be shown in light boxes.