Hundreds of mourners on Saturday gathered in the Malian capital, Bamako, to pay their final respects to the late photographer Malick Sidibe, who won international acclaim with his vibrant black-and-white images that captured daily life in his native nation.
The send off for Sidibe, whose coffin was draped in the national flag, took place on a soccer pitch in a working class neighborhood of Bamako, with soldiers giving the iconic artist full honors, as several women in the crowd began weeping.
Young Malian photographers in attendance expressed their sadness at the loss of a mentor.
Photo: Reuters
“It is incredibly sad for young photographers,” freelance photographer Ousmane Diarra said. “It was Malick who bought me my first camera. He was really our guide.”
After the 80-year-old’s death was announced on Friday, French Minister of Culture and Communications Audrey Azoulay hailed him as “the father of African photography.”
Sidibe’s vibrant images of life in Bamako in the 1960s, when Mali gained independence from France, were a social commentary chronicling both popular culture and traditional society.
He captured candid images in his studio as well as on the streets of Bamako, including at nightclubs, beaches and sporting events.
He was the first African to have a solo exhibition in Paris’ prestigious Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, and his works adorn the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Getty Center in Los Angeles and several other museums worldwide.
Malian Minister of Culture and Tourism N’Diaye Ramatoulaye Diallo called Sidibe “a great humanist.”
“Malick Sidibe showed us the unity, but also the diversity, of Mali through his art,” she said.
Alpha Diallo, a photographer from Guinea, who attended the funeral, said: “Mali, Africa and the entire world have lost a cultural titan.”
Sidibe’s younger brother, Tieoule Sidibe, recalled how his sibling had been “the pillar of the family, who helped all members of the community.”
After the funeral, Sidibe’s coffin was to be transferred to the village of Soloba, where he is to be buried alongside other family members.
“You can never dream of coming so far when you are from a small village and never went to school,” Sidibe said in 2009 on hearing that he had been awarded the top prize at Spain’s prestigious PHotoEspana festival.
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