Paper short abstract:

I examine bus portrait art as a status economy for peripheral men in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. This portraiture reflects an Abidjanais imaginary situated within an African diaspora. As a politics of representation, men’s search for status fuels a cultural movement and an associated economy.

Paper long abstract:

The absence of formal sector work in many African cities leaves many men unable to achieve an aspirational/idealized wage-earning masculinity such that socially they remain boys. They may contest their denigrated status by investing in practices that supplant this dominant narrative. Specifically "black urbanism," a mode of surviving in and belonging to the city for marginalized subjects, entails identification among members of a global black diaspora (Simone, 2010). It may fuel lucrative economies whereby the urban periphery transmutes supra-local cultural referents to buttress local identities. Examining the politics of representation in these status economies tracks the dollars and dreams on Africa's urban periphery.

This paper discusses the practice of baca [bus] portrait art in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. Basing my analysis on participant observation research I conducted with men in Abidjan's informal economy from 2008 to 2009 and supplemented with my photos of baca portraiture from the field, I explore the nexus between bus art, the informal economy, and masculinity to understand how peripheral men's search for status generates a cultural movement and an associated economy. Baca drivers are master navigators of the periphery endowed with relatively high skills and capital. Their commissioned paintings of iconic black men reference their linkages with the African diaspora and serve as social signals within Abidjan. As a theoretical intervention, the imaginaries depicted in these portraits speak to a politics of representation among peripheral black men globally.

Simone, AbdouMaliq. 2010. City Life from Jakarta to Dakar: Movements at the Crossroads. New York: Routledge.