Malick Sidibe- Pho to graphs

Malick Sidibe's was a photographer in the sixties and seventies focused on the youth of Bamako, when they gained independence there was an "open door for a Pan-African and diasporic aesthetics through rock and roll." Sidibe was considered to be the James Brown of Photography. After Bamako gained independence the national culture had been nearly destroyed by Colonialism. In this essay by Manthia Diawara she notes several different theologist specifically Aime Cesaire and Frantz Fanon. Cesaire refers independence as an "authentic state of being," meaning to say that having been governed over for countless years the Bamako people were denied the chance to interpret themselves and create an identity.

Having such a big influence in the sixties, James Brown started a cultural upheaval of the youth and further influenced the style, music and ideals of becoming Nommo themselves. The Nommo are twin offsprings of the Almighty God and posses both male and female organs thus relying on no one to reproduce; being both used as a singular and plural the Nommo is believed to be part god and part human, part fluid and part solid, part water and part snake. This idea of being perfect transformed the youth of Bamako to see Nommo-like qualities in James Brown, using his voice and power to understand the language of the instrument and the freedom of movement.

Malick Sidibe references this type of movement in his photographs, this new body language of the sixties. What Diawara says is the most important thing about Sidibe's art is "its ability to transform the copy into an original and to turn the images of the youth of Bamako into masterpieces of the Sixties' look." I would be so blunt to say Sidibe's greatest achievement with these photographs is his understanding of change and the ways in which independence changed his way of working, his outlook on culture and an understanding of their actions not devoid of politics but a tribute to what Manthia Diawara calls the diasporia aesthetics.