Boubacar Sadek

Salt comes from the north,

gold from the south, money from

the white man’s country, but God’s words, holy things, interesting tales,

we can find them only in Timbuktu.

Ahmed Baba (Timbuktu, 1556-1622)

When caravans transported precious material from Taoudenni – a famous mining center in northern Mali – to Timbuktu, the workers would write messages for family members on slabs of salt. These messages, often decorated with verses of the Koran, were destined to disintegrate when the salt slab was actually used. Through this ephemeral art form, Sadek connects everyday life with painting. For this piece, he copied a poem by Ahmed Baba, one of the greatest African scholars of the 16th century.

Boubacar Sadek was born in Timbuktu, Mali, in 1974. He lives and works in Bamako. He is one of the last master calligraphers in Mali. He recopies manuscripts from the 15th and 16th centuries, preserving the traditional artistry he learned from his uncle and continues to transmit to his own children. He exhibited with other Malian calligraphers at documenta 14 in Athens as part of the Learning from Timbuktu project, curated by Igo Diarra.