Untitled (1), Mosque of the Divinity, from the series Spiritual Phenomena

Malick Welli is a self-taught photographer trained in business studies who was born in Kaffrine and now lives and works in Sénégal’s capital, Dakar. He is best known for his portraiture, but also works as a documentary photographer for various international publications. Welli’s work has been shown recently at the Cairo Biennale. This photograph depicts the Mosque of the Divinity in Dakar. The mosque was envisioned in its present location by a holy man named Mohamed Gorgui Seyni Guèye in 1973. It was built by architect Cheikh Ngom and completed in 1997 and has become an important pilgrimage site. Islam is the predominant religion of Sénégal, having been practiced there since the 11th century. This photograph is from the series “Spiritual Phenomena,” which explores various religions and spirituality on the African continent. In each image in the series, two individuals from a particular spiritual order hold a red book, representing Mao Zedong’s ‘Little Red Book.’ During the post-independence era, African became a site for a proxy battle between democracy and communism, West and East. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, and Mozambique were some of the countries where coups and mutinies were backed by international forces struggling to maintain dominance on the continent.