The Art of Graffiti in Senegal

Graffiti is everywhere in Senegal. It is a big part of the culture here. I've never seen so much graffiti in one place in my whole life. It's on the highway, walls... basically anything that has a surface. Graffiti artists here are seen as just that: artists. They are not seen as vandals. Their work is concerned with political and social issues, community, and spreading positive messages. To be a graffiti artist in Dakar is to take on a career. The idea of that when graffiti is something that is considered vandalism in the U.S. is just crazy to me. Some of the pieces I see every day were even commissioned by the mayor.

Docta: Calm, cool, and collected.

Grafixx teaching us the basics

One of the workshops we attended at Mame Yelli Badiane was a graffiti workshop. They actually wanted graffiti on the walls of their school to beautify it. We worked with Docta, who is considered to be an Old School artist and Grafixx, who is considered to be New School.

As an English teacher and word fanatic, one of the coolest things I learned from the workshop was the way graffiti artists view letters. I'm not going to share their whole lecture, but I share the coolest part of it... graffiti letters. Check it out:

There are 4 classes of letters. It helps to look at letters like people.

There are those letters that stand on two feet. They are the strongest:

A M N K R W X K H

Then there are those letters that sit down. They have a belly:

O Q G U J D B S C

There are 3 letters that sit down with no belly:

Z E L

And finally, there are those letters that stand on 1 foot:

Y T I F V P

I've never thought about letters in that way before. Now I look at all of the graffiti around here wondering if people thought about the strength of their letters and words before they started painting. 

After the workshop, Docta and Grafixx started on a large project at the school. Here are some pieces of our day before my camera battery ran out:

Nate sanding the wall Cranston would eventually paint on.

Me cheesing at the wall Docta and Grafixx would eventually paint.

Ame So and Matt prepping the wall.

Cranston starting his piece:

Cranston starting his piece from Jen Heymoss on Vimeo.


And these are some of the finished products:

Finished products. See the "Peace" wall? That was Cranston taking advantage of his opportunity to create a piece in the daylight without the fear of being arrested. :)

Notice the boy in the picture drinking from the water bottle? That's because the system is in place at Mame Yelli Badiane. More about that later!

Peace,
Jen