Cheri Samba
Zairian, b. 1956
Lutte contre les moustiques (Battle against Mosquitos), 1999
Acryllic on canvas, 90 x 109 cm
Tang Teaching Museum (2011, current location unknown)
In Samba’s painting, which resembles the style of political cartoon, a couple fights off a swarm of mosquitos surrounding their bedroom. The man says to his partner, “Dear, you kill those on the right while I fight those to the left,” to which she replies, “I’m am, my love. I already killed two, but it seems they keep getting up.” The two try to kill the mosquitos surrounding them, but the mosquitos are seemingly invincible. In Samba’s home of the DRC, the heating climate is proliferating populations of mosquitos that carry malaria, one of the country’s leading causes of deaths. Decades have passed with citizens pleading the government to act, as it is not an issue individuals can take on themselves. The painting’s caption says “In Africa, malaria kills more than AIDS does, especially children. The malaria virus, referred to as ‘the mosquitos,’ seems to be more powerful than the whites and blacks that live in Africa.” Samba’s incorporation of the characters (one of whom was modeled after a 1989 anti-AIDS postal stamp) and the text raises calls for action against malaria. The heating climate in the DRC provides more suitable conditions for the populations of mosquitos that carry the virus, and this painting shows how issues with the environment directly affect the health of those who live in it.
Dylan Bess ’21
Bibliography
Jewsiewicki, Bogumil. “Cheri Samba and The Postcolonial Reinvention of Modernity.” Callaloo, vol.
16, no. 4, 1993, pp. 772–795. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2932209.
This article provides a very in-depth analysis of Cheri Samba’s and Paul Gauguin’s incorporation of modernity in their artwork. The article talks about how Samba models much of his work after the environment and reviews La lutte contre les moustiques.
Essar, Dennis F. “Contemporary African Art: Two Portraits.” Canadian Journal of African Studies\/
Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, vol. 31, no. 2, 1997, pp. 371–377. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/486186.
This text reviews Cheri Samba’s art and past with reference to Bogumil Jewsiewicki’s book about the artist. It references his attitudes towards his home country of Zaire and how he has incorporated activist perspective about Zaire into his work.
Présentation de Samba par Raoul Mbock.” SlateAfrique. May 2, 2013. Web PDF. Accessed April 24, 2019.http://www.pascalpolar.be/Polaruserfiles/file/about/polar/samba/2013 Carnetdevoyage_raoul-mbock.pdf
This text (written in French) includes an analysis of Samba’s travel book Paris and quotes by the artist. In the text is included a quote where Samba describes why he adds text to his paintings: “the painting, by itself, cannot suffice. So, what I write is not necessarily what one sees in the image.” He includes text to make his message clear and unmistakable.
“Environment and Object: Recent African Art.” Tang Teaching Museum. Web. Accessed April
30, 2019. https://tang.skidmore.edu/exhibitions/88-environment-and-object-br-recent-african-art
This exhibition from 2011 includes the picture source for Lutte contre les moustiques, as the piece was sold in auction and is not available elsewhere.