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
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