D ias pora Connections and D is continuities :
The P hotography of Ches ter H iggins
African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, July 2008, 159 168
Diaspora connections and discontinuities: the photography of Chester Higgins Abebe Zegeye* Graduate School, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa Rice Family Foundation, Visiting Professor, MacMillan Center, Yale University, New Haven, USA Renowned photographer, Chester Higgins, has captured in the sensitivities of people, interesting places, and fleeting moments in his art; and his creative canvas spans the world; it challenges and provokes but also offers solace in time of need. His work, when viewed by different people and different societal groupings, delivers new and often unexpected meanings. Although his photographs are difficult to categorize because absolute distinctions are constantly undermined by the viewer’s horizons of expectations and values that are brought to the viewing situation, Higgins has slotted some of his photographic images into sections described as ‘politics’, ‘writers’, ‘religion’, and ‘social life’. In this short essay an attempt is made to view some selected pieces and come up with innovative meanings. Since the unifying theme in the photography is that of Africans in the diaspora, a few pieces are sampled from each section. Keywords: Chester Higgins; photography; Negritude; images of the diaspora
Chester Higgins Jr has had an illustrious career as photographer. Scanning through this collection one is struck by the variety of sources, backgrounds, histories, personalities, and lives that he has so ably captured and archived. Until recently, when cultural critics began to consciously seek to understand photography as stand-alone, creative narratives, the histories of eminent people, memorable places, and re-livable moments were narrativized through the written word. This created a vast number of detailed accounts of people’s histories. However, photography puts a vibrant visual picture on the sterile word. Higgins’ works spans almost all the world’s continents. His creative canvas and social mise en scene are Africa, Asia, Latin America and its numerous islands, North America, and even Australia. It is a huge canvas from which the talk of a single diaspora is but an inadequate characterization of his work. How then can we appreciate the whole gamut of Chester Higgins’ photography, let alone explain theoretically the pluralities of meaning suggested by the polysemy of photography as picture, as symbol? An important starting point could be to consider Zegeye and Ahluwalia’s characterization of Omar Badsha’s photography in South Africa. The duo agrees that photography captures Moments which speak of history, spaces and the rituals that rulers, collaborators and subjects played out in front of the camera and its biased gaze. They are also about moments which return the gaze and serve as evidence; evidence of the discourse about art and struggle, as well as going beyond the frame and the heroic gesture. (Zegeye and Ahluwalia 2001, p. 5)
Photography speaks to and of histories in the plural; these histories and spaces are populated by the memories of ‘rulers, collaborators and subjects’. Photography, just as any *E-mail: zegeya@unisa.ac.za ISSN 1752-8631 print/ISSN 1752-864X online # 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/17528630802224072 http://www.informaworld.com
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other art form, can be domesticated and be put to the use of the oppressors in society. Equally, and because of photography’s visual elements, its systems of signs enable it to be viewed by different people; thus new as well as unexpected meanings can be encoded in the photographic images. That is why the ordinary people can archive, view, and read potentially alternative meanings to pictorial photography that would appear harmless in the eyes of the rulers. Chester Higgins’ photography challenges and provokes. It can be exhibited in a particular way to tell a single story; when it does so, it forces the viewer to adopt a single perspective on life; it can channel the viewer’s emotions and desires so that what results is a rehearsed and commonplace knowledge of reality. However, photographers and exhibitors of photographic works are aware of the ways in which their art can be disruptive of the single meanings that artists sometimes intend to construct and promote. In fact, and differently put, the very idea of choosing what to capture in photographs is itself a political act; it fills the frame with some preferred content and in the process excludes some of life’s content that might also have been captured. Any piece of photography is thus complete in its incompleteness. Further, the actual arrangement of photography for public exhibition and even private archiving inevitably necessitates a preliminary critique of preferred meanings. And in the criticism of photography, the context in which a piece is appreciated suggests meanings that go ‘beyond the frame’ and will even interrogate the idea of the ‘heroic gesture’ that Zegeye and Ahluwalia allude to. Chester Higgins’ photography is difficult to categorize because absolute distinctions are constantly undermined by the viewer’s horizons of expectations and values that are brought to the viewing situation. However, Higgins has slotted some of his photographic images into sections described as ‘politics’, ‘writers’, ‘religion’, and ‘social life’. In this short essay, I shall briefly attempt to view some pieces arbitrarily selected, and still hope to come out with innovative meanings. Since the unifying theme in the photography is that of Africans in the diaspora, I shall sample a few pieces from each section. ‘Politics’ and photography In this section one picture from Africa immediately captures the attention of viewers. The piece is that of former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. The overarching emotions associated with this work are those of an African hero who was imprisoned by apartheid on Robben Island for 27 years for leading his black people in resistance against dehumanization. Other positive memories that are evoked by the piece Mandela piece are those that relate to him as an astute politician who brought warring parties to the negotiating table; to claim South Africa as a country of immense possibilities for both black and white South Africans. The iconic picture of Mandela, not only in Higgins’ photography, memorializes emotions of love and bravery; he inspired many people in Africa and in the diaspora to greater heights of commitment to fight for human dignity. However, the instabilities of meaning that can be authorized by photography are situational; the context in which a piece is viewed and the actual Mandela understood do not lend themselves to unitary meanings. For example, Mazrui, writing in the context of African renaissances, questions whether or not the ‘positive’ values almost always attached to the photographs of Mandela do not mislead. Mazrui believes that it is possible to view Mandela’s politics of forgive and forget the past as compromising the liberation of Africans in the continent and those in the
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Figure 1. Nelson Mandela. Stockholm, Sweden. Freedom fighter in South Africa during apartheid. His first trip out of South Africa after his release from prison to visit an ailing Oliver Tambo. # Chester Higgins.
diaspora. In particular, Mazrui finds embarrassing what he calls Africa’s ‘short memory of hate’ which the likes of Mandela have promoted: the Irish have long retention of memories of atrocities perpetrated by the English. The Armenians have long memories of atrocities committed against them by the Turks in the Ottoman Empire. The Jews also have long memories about their martyrdom in history. . . . Is a short memory of hate a precondition for the African renaissance? Nelson Mandela lost twentyseven of the best years of his life. Yet on being released, not only was he in favour of reconciliation between Blacks and Whites, he went on to beg white terrorists who were fasting unto death not to do so. He furthermore went out of his way to go and pay his respects to Mrs Verwoerd, the widow of the architect of apartheid. Is Africa’s short memory of hate sometimes ‘too short’? Is it nevertheless necessary for the African renaissance? (Mazrui 2004, p. 53)
Writers in the African diasporas The contradictory meanings yielded by a rigorous viewing of the Mandela pictures are also felt in the Higgins photography that features African writers, Black American writers, and those in Caribbean. For example one of the enduring pieces is that of Leopold Sedar
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Senghor, writer, poet, philosopher of the Negritude Movement and former president of Senegal. Viewing his picture in this selection of Higgins’ photography evokes in the viewer those moments associated with Senghor’s use of Negritude poetry to fight French colonialism. In his artistic works, Senghor strove to project Africans as beautiful people; his poetry was therapeutic, aimed as it was to heal Africans of the psychological wounds inflicted by the colonizer. Senghor was also the first president of Senegal. However, it means going beyond the ‘frame’ of Senghor’s picture in Higgins’ collection to come to the shocking understanding that Senghor fought hard to make Senegal a province of France, a move that if successful would have reversed the political gains made by Senegalese people during decolonization in the 1940s. The uniqueness of Higgins’ photographic oeuvre is that it provides for the viewer a ‘continuous and contingent maelstrom of unguaranteed political argument and debate’ in the way it encourages and predisposes the viewer to approach the images in a ‘pluralistic manner’ (Zegeye and Ahluwalia 2001, pp. 8, 7). In his collection of photography, Higgins has immortalized the pictures of Alice Walker (1983), Aimee Cesaire (1965), and Derek Walcott
Figure 2. Leopold Senghor. Dakar, Senegal. Head of State, Poet/Co-founder of the Negritude Movement and French intellectual. # Chester Higgins.
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Figure 3.
Alice Walker. New York, novelist and author of The Color Purple. # Chester Higgins.
Figure 4.
Man at cross in prayer. Accra, Ghana. # Chester Higgins.
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Figure 5. Aimee Cesaire. Head of French Department of Martinique, Poet/Co-founder of the Negritude Movement and French intellectual. # Chester Higgins.
(1965) as representing different African consciousnesses in America and the Caribbean respectively. Walker is not only a black American writer; she is a female author who has written, amongst other great works, the novel, The Colour Purple. Cesaire is creatively known for initiating the debates the eventually congealed into the Negritude Movement of which Senghor was also a founding member. The Negritude Movement was both a literary and a political movement. In literature, Negritude emphasises the vitality of black cultures all over the world; in political circles, the Negritude Movement struggled to impart among Africans a consciousness that they could rule themselves; that the educated should to return to the masses and forge a collective identity with which to confront white racism. The theme of return to the source popularised in the political programme also urged Africans to make use of deeply embedded spiritual resources to shape their new destinies. This theme resonates in the works of writers from Africa, to America and the Caribbean, thereby establishing a strong connection of cultural sensibilities informing these writers from different continents. On the other hand, the return to the source, particularly in the works by Alice Walker, ‘forced’ African patriarchy to revisit its cultural assumptions; The Colour Purple in particular advances a feminist perspective that is either suppressed or buried in the works of Senghor and Walcott. To be honest, none of these works of art are mentioned in the captions to the photography of Higgins. However, photography works through associations and it is surely
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Eye of Allah, Islam. New York. A young Moslem woman. # Chester Higgins.
poetic licence to link the photography art work with verbal narratives. It is another way of recontextualizing the pictures without suggesting that as narratives in their own right they cannot evoke the positive meanings that are well elaborated in works of fiction.
Figure 7. Sister of the House of Casa Branca, Salvador, Brazil, Candomble. African Naturalism. # Chester Higgins.
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Vodun purification in Gonaive, Haiti. African Naturalism. # Chester Higgins.
Religion and popular music of the Africans in the diaspora A permanent feature in Chester Higgins’ photographic oeuvre is his capacity to be drawn to contexts of religious prayer. These contexts afford Higgins the opportunity to recuperate moments of collective solidarity among Africans. It matters little whether the gatherings are women from Ghana or the religious symbolism captured in or announcing the vibrancy of Islam as one of Africa’s tenacious value system or the pensive mood of the Sister of the House, Salvador, Brazil. In particular, religion offers not only solace in times of need; it can also be a way of hibernating to avoid confronting life’s problems; a form of escapism. However, Higgins’ photography will reject being viewed in a one-sided manner. For example, the vodun purification ritual 4 (African naturalism) recalls to mind the possibility of an alternative social theology that Africans in the Haiti diaspora authored in order to make sense of the whirlwind of poverty and economic instability that characterises Haiti. Historian C.L.R James (1998) has associated vodun practices with those spiritual values held by Haiti communities; they refused to be subdued in the brief period when the people of Haiti were under French rule.
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Bob Marley. Jamaican reggae singer and prophet of Rastafarism. # Chester Higgins.
In Higgins’ photography, the contradictory lives of the people of African descent are immortalized in the pictures on Jamaica. Jamaica is presented as country of extreme contradictions; on one hand, there is the photo of young boys, haggling over who has won the card game. This dispute is highlighted in the picture: and juxtaposed to this carefree
Figure 10. Robert Mugabe. New York. Freedom fighter, field commander and Head of State of Zimbabwe. # Chester Higgins.
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wasting of youthful lives is the towering image of Bob Marley, the legendary singer whose reggae beat has united the world against social tyranny. Marley’s fame echoes in Zimbabwe where in 1980 he graced the newly independent country that had successfully shaken off the yoke of British colonialism. The irony, though, is that in Higgins’ collection of photography, the man who took over from the British, Robert Mugabe, has grown increasingly tyrannical, to the extent that he has turned his guns on his own people. Again, Higgins’ picture of Robert Mugabe is as ambiguous as the man himself; the liberation hero sliding into dictatorship. These meanings can only be read into the photography because by its very nature, photography is both metaphorical and metonymic. This is where the strength of Higgins’ photography lies. Conclusion It is not possible to discuss all the pictures that form the oeuvre of Higgins’ photography. The aim of this short essay was to explore the extreme sensitivities that define his photographic consciousness; he chooses what to immortalize and what not to take seriously. Photography as an art form defies being viewed in a single dimension. This paper has deliberately highlighted the examination of those photos that readers are likely to be familiar with. The idea, though, was first to create links and connections in the lives of the people whose images were captured, whether they are in Africa, America or the Caribbean. The essay also attempts to reveal the complexities of each picture by analysing the conflicting systems of signs inherent in each picture. A little background to the people featured in each work was intended to create a broader social, artistic, and ideological form within which to comprehend the different agency of those immortalised in the photos. Photography opens up memories of those people whose lives are captured, whether these lives are depicted in a positive light or not. It is appropriate to end with the words of Abebe Zegeye and Pal Ahluwalia, that photography is a ‘narrative that forces the viewer to consider alternative modes of representation, to reinterpret history and to reconceptualise space and society’ (Zegeye and Ahluwalia 2001, p. 7). In depicting Africans in diaspora through photography, Chester Higgins forces the viewer to consider connections and disconnections in the values that inform the lives of Africans scattered across the globe. References Ce´saire, A., Return to my native land. London: Penguin Books. James, C.L.R., 1998. Letters to Constance Webb. In: A. Pettinger, Always elsewhere: travels of the black Atlantic. London and New York: Publisher/publishers. Mazrui, A., 2004. The language of Francophone and the race of the renaissance: A Commonwealth perspective. In: O. Uduka and A.B. Zack-Williams, eds. Africa beyond the post-colonial: political and socio-cultural identities. Ashgate: Burlington, 50 65. Senghor, L.S., 1991. The collected poetry. Charlottesville, VA: University Virginia of Press. Walcott, D., 1965. The castaway and other poems. London: Jonathan Cape. Walker, A., 1983. The colour purple. London: The Women’s Press. Zegeye, A. and Ahluwalia, P., 2001. Travelling cultures. In: O. Badsha, Imperial ghetto: ways of seeing in a South African city. Pretoria: South African History Online, 5 27.