Iklan Aesthetics in Niger: Identity and Adornment from Servility to Self-agency

Abstract

| african arts AUTUMN 2022 VOL. 55, NO. 3 Silver pendants, camel saddles, and leather bags are typically featured in museums and books as examples of Tuareg art. These finely crafted objects were made for upper-status families or so-called nobles by artisans belonging to a class referred to as inaden. Such an approach emphasizes the striking objects commissioned by men and women who held the highest status in Tuareg society but ignores the objects produced by and for people in the lower strata, including the descendants of enslaved people. Commonly referred to as iklan, they constitute a diverse, socially and economically marginalized group with a distinct culture that has driven markets while creating new styles of visual representation. Iklan are referred to as buzu in Hausa and bella in the Songhai language in Niger.1 Since the colonial period, ethnographers have translated the term iklan as “slave” or “captive.” Iklan (sg. akli/ekli) can best be described as a socially stratified group constructed from the descendants of outsiders who found their way into Tuareg society either because they were captured or purchased, or because they joined a Tuareg group in search of protection. As we will see, the very name iklan presents problems of translation and identity, especially in relation to the larger Tuareg society in contemporary Niger. This article provides a nuanced look at Tuareg visual culture by concentrating on how formerly enslaved communities have been forging new identities in the twenty-first century (Fig. 1). It considers how iklan have used visual culture to engage in resistance strategies. As asserted by Michel de Certeau, marginalized groups subvert “rituals, representations, and laws imposed upon them” and transform them into something quite different, deflecting the power of the dominant social order (1984: xiii). It is through this lens that we can understand and interpret iklan aesthetics as “tactics” to gain autonomy from hierarchies of power. We examine the choices contemporary iklan communities, as a historically marginalized population, are making to represent their identity, sometimes adopting elite Tuareg aesthetics, often drawing inspiration from newly available goods in the market, or adopting the aesthetics of neighboring people. These various responses to the abolition of slavery and the breaking down of endogamous social categories reveal how the formerly enslaved use visual culture to negotiate their status and resist against the hierarchies that historically marginalized them. We take a comparative approach and concentrate on two Tamasheq-speaking regions of Niger: the Tillabéri region along the Niger-Burkina Faso border and the Tahoua-Agadez region within Niger (Fig. 2). We explore the different tactics used by iklan in aesthetic expression and consider the various institutions and market forces that have contributed to the refiguring of iklan self-identity. A comparative approach allows for a detailed understanding of how postcolonial economic policies, access to markets, nongovernmental organizations, and societal change have impacted the visual culture of iklan in rural Niger, as they solidify their identities in response to established social hierarchies but also forge new ones far removed from the history of enslavement. This article draws from both independent research and collaborative work on both sides of the Niger-Burkina Faso border, where iklan communities have managed to grow and survive despite multifaceted obstacles.2 The activism of various NGOs in these two areas, as well as the tendency for low-status individuals in Tuareg culture to express their sentiments without reserve, meant that iklan actively shared Iklan Aesthetics in Niger Identity and Adornment from Servility to Self-agency