Paper short abstract:

The film deals with odd graffiti covering the walls of Libreville. It follows their writer, André Ondo Mba, an eccentric character and a self-proclaimed prophet who claims to perform the divine creation through his public writings.

Paper long abstract:

The film deals with odd graffiti covering the public walls of Libreville in Gabon. Their writer, André Ondo Mba, is an eccentric character, a self-proclaimed prophet who claims to perform the divine creation through his public writings. The film focuses on the graffiti, their very puzzling message, as well as their integration in the urban landscape. It also follows Ondo Mba while he writes new graffiti in the city and then explains his creation in perplexing but often very poetic words. The main objective of the film is to show how Ondo Mba's personal mythology, though extravagant, resorts to a political and religious imagination which finds in fact many echoes in contemporary Gabon.

Director : Julien Bonhomme

Runtime : 26 minutes

Year of production : 2008

Country of Production : France

Location : Libreville (Gabon)

Language : French (French & English subtitles)

Production/distribution : a DVD version of the film was released in Richard Baxstrom & Todd Meyers (eds.), anthropologies, Baltimore, Creative Capitalism, 2008.

Please note that Julien Bonhomme has also proposed a paper to another EASA panel (Grappling with uncertainties: ethnographies of the imagination, Convenors: Vlad Naumescu & Ramon Sarró). The paper, titled « God's Graffiti. Prophetic Writings and Politico-religious Imagination in Postcolonial Gabon", is directly based around the film God's Graffiti.