Remembering Nati
40" x 32"
charcoal pencil

If a woman does not have children, her arm becomes her cloth.

It is by wrapping her arm around her neck that a woman shows her state of affliction and misfortune. It could be said that she wraps her shoulders with her arm, as she would have done with a cloth. Being childless is a calamity for a woman. The child underlines the existence of a woman and reinforces her woman's role.

From the Proverbes Joola de Casamance, by Nazaire Diatta, ACCT.