Hyena and Other Men

Hyena and Other Men

Artist Statement

THE HYENA AND OTHER MEN (2005—2007) (Hugo, 2019)

These photographs came about after a friend emailed me an image taken on a cellphone through a car window in Lagos, Nigeria, which depicted a group of men walking down the street with a hyena in chains. A few days later I saw the image reproduced in a South African newspaper with the caption ‘The Streets of Lagos’. Nigerian newspapers reported that these men were bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers, debt collectors. Myths surrounded them. The image captivated me.

Through a journalist friend, I eventually tracked down a Nigerian reporter, Adetokunbo Abiola, who said that he knew the ‘Gadawan Kura’ as they are known in Hausa (a rough translation: ‘hyena handlers/guides’).

A few weeks later I was on a plane to Lagos. Abiola met me at the airport and together we took a bus to Benin City where the ‘hyena men’ had agreed to meet us. However, when we got there they had already departed for Abuja.

In Abuja we found them living on the periphery of the city in a shantytown – a group of men, a little girl, three hyenas, four monkeys and a few rock pythons. It turned out that they were a group of itinerant minstrels, performers who used the animals to entertain crowds and sell traditional medicines. The animal handlers were all related to each other and were practising a tradition passed down from generation to generation. I spent eight days travelling with them.

The spectacle caused by this group walking down busy market streets was overwhelming. I tried photographing this but failed, perhaps because I wasn’t interested in their performances. I realised that what I found fascinating was the hybridisation of the urban and the wild, and the paradoxical relationship that the handlers have with their animals – sometimes doting and affectionate, sometimes brutal and cruel. I started looking for situations where these contrasting elements became apparent. I decided to concentrate on portraits. I would go for a walk with one of the performers, often just in the city streets, and, if the opportunity presented itself, take a photograph. We travelled around from city to city, often chartering public mini-buses.

I agreed to travel with the animal wranglers to Kanu in the northern part of the country. One of them set out to negotiate a fare with a taxi driver; everyone else, including myself and the hyenas, monkeys and rock pythons, hid in the bushes. When their companion signalled that he had agreed on a fare, the motley troupe of humans and animals leapt out from behind the bushes and jumped into the vehicle. The taxi driver was completely horrified. I sat upfront with a monkey and the driver. He drove like an absolute maniac. At one stage the monkey was terrified by his driving. It grabbed hold of my leg and stared into my eyes. I could see its fear.

Two years later I decided to go back to Nigeria. The project felt unresolved and I was ready to engage with the group again. I look back at the notebooks I had kept while with them. The words ‘dominance’, ‘codependence’ and ‘submission’ kept appearing. These pictures depict much more than an exotic group of travelling performers in West Africa. The motifs that linger are the fraught relationships we have with ourselves, with animals and with nature.

The second trip was very different. By this stage, there was a stronger personal relationship between myself and the group. We had remained in contact and they were keen to be photographed again. The images from this journey are less formal and more intimate.

The first series of pictures had caused varying reactions from people – inquisitiveness, disbelief and repulsion. People were fascinated by them, just as I had been by that first cellphone photograph. A director of a large security company in the USA contacted me, asking how to get in touch with the ‘hyena group’. He saw marketing potential: surely these men must use some type of herb to protect themselves against hyenas, baboons, dogs and snakes? He thought that security guards, soldiers and his own pocket could benefit from this medicine.

Many animal-rights groups also contacted me, wanting to intervene (however, the keepers have permits from the Nigerian government). When I asked Nigerians, ‘How do you feel about the way they treat animals?’, the question confused people. Their responses always involved issues of economic survival. Seldom did anyone express strong concern for the well-being of the creatures. Europeans invariably only ask about the welfare of the animals but this question misses the point. Instead, perhaps, we could ask why these performers need to catch wild animals to make a living. Or why they are economically marginalised. Or why Nigeria, the world’s sixth-largest exporter of oil, is in such a state of disarray.

Annotations

The work is from the series Hyena and other men, where Pieter Hugo Would travel around Africa looking for the performance artists.

What is denoted?

The series depicts men plating and being violent towards the Hyena’s, the work also shows monkeys as a permanence artist.

What is Connoted?

The work communicates the message of power with the way that they are all posing to make sure that the work stands out and links together when they are all posed. I think the way he has made them work together stands out to shock the viewer so it can show the message of dominance and make people think that they are debt collectors.

How are you affected as a viewer?

When looking at the work the viewer is drawn in my the way he has framed the animals to perform to the subjects and makes them stand out when it comes to power. The other way people will be affected is being annoyed by the way the animals are being treated with such force to the viewer and can be a problem, the power with all this works well to make the viewer understand what the life can be and how it looks like.

What makes this work significant to you (and or your project)?

I like the way he has used different backgrounds and locations to show that they are in more than one location, this will play into my end work as it shows that it looking the same will make the work look boring and makes it not work together and so this is not strong. I also adore the way that Hugo, has used different angles so that way it makes sure they stand out. I like the different composition angles with them not al, being the centre of the shot with some of them being on the right while some being on the left and some in the centre.

What are the strengths of the source you are looking at? What are the weaknesses of the work? (How would you do things differently? What do you think can be improved?)

The strengths of this work are that they all tell the story of power to show what the work is about and who they are all. I think a major strength is allowing them to pose naturally allowing the shots to look more organic and have more meaning when reading into the work. A weakness I think is that the work lacks empathy and this means that it is a one-sided story. This weakness can just be overcome by asking locals all about the Hyena and other men. This is my favourite project that Pieter Hugo has undertaken.

What ideas (or visual styles) will you take forward to think about in your work?

My work is not going to feature animals as I want my project to look slightly different. I am planning on making sure that the backgrounds aren’t all consistent as this will not be similar to this body of work. The other idea is that I am going to take forward is the notion of different angles and positioning to make sure that the portraits tell the story. This is the key work that I am in love with and I am going to try to do this justice and linking it together to make it a portrait of Kent.

Who is the intended audience?

The indented audience was to show people in Nigeria that the subjects are normal and that they are just actors. I think the work has been done with a contemporary theme to the work as this is not something most people have recreated before. I think this has also worked to build on his work on Nollywood.

What context have you seen the work in?

I have only seen this work on his website and online, this only allows me to see it from a digital preservative and is harder to get the magnetite of the power in the main photographers that he has worked.

Bibliography

Hugo, P., 2019. Hyena and Other Men. [Online]
Available at: https://pieterhugo.com/THE-HYENA-AND-OTHER-MEN
[Accessed 9 12 2019].