" A Talisman for the Coffled "

In our revulsion at the cruelties of the Middle Passage to the Americas it is often forgotten that the export of Africans as slaves across the Sahara began many centuries before the Atlantic trade and continued for several decades longer. Ibn Battuta, an Arab traveler returning from Mali in the fourteenth century reported that the hardships of these long marches across the desert were considerable and that the routes were lined with the parched skeletons of those who succumbed to exhaustion and thirst along the way. The Africans were lined in coffles (a train of slaves fastened together) often more than a mile long with neck chains and led from their homelands, predominately from Central and West Africa, across the Sahara desert to be sold into slavery throughout Europe and the Mediterranean.

The Tuareg (Arab for abandoned by God) are a group of nomadic people that occupy the Sahara Desert and are often recognized for their leather and metal artistry although more notoriously known for their slave-stealing expeditions. These camel riders were feared village raiders and caravan traders who for thousands of years existed off of and single handedly controlled the trans-Saharan slave trade. Tuareg camel caravans exported more than 10 million Africans across the Sahara from 650 AD through the late 1800’s.

While in Spain, I happened upon an 18th century book in an antique shop that held images of African coffles led by dark-skinned men on camels. For a long time I was haunted by these impressions of Africans leading other Africans into slavery. In the Yoruba tradition (West African religion) of spiritually transposing objects of their nemesis into articles of protection, I used traditional Tuareg artistry to create a talisman for the souls of the Sub-Saharan slave trade and their ancestors.

The entire piece is 100% leather ornately decorated with antique metal objects. The centerpieces are variations of Zinder crosses with four points for birth, life, death, and rebirth. Also said to represent the four corners of the world and worn by the Taureg to protect them on their journeys across the desert. They have distinctive etchings, which are said to ward off evil and harm. Surrounding the crosses are Ethiopian Telsum boxes worn as amulets for protection. The four Kitabs at each corner are amulets, which contain paper scrolls of Qur’an scripture, and are themselves worn as talismans. Decorating the edges of the center are approximately 750 antique West African coins, some almost 100 years old, now believed to be for good luck; here they represent African lives traded for currency. Hanging from the bottom border Tuareg pendants the circle and a phallus are fertility symbols, worn as powerful talismans. Bordering the entire piece are extremely sharp porcupine twills. The backing is traditional Mali mud cloth, the pattern and color are supposed to represent strong supernatural powers that protect the wearer.

(72in x 84 in)