Official representations of the nation: comparing the postage stamps of Sudan and Burkina Faso

African Studies Quarterly, Spring, 2008 by Michael Kevane

A small, modest paper comparing the imagery on postage stamps of Sudan and Burkina Faso cannot answer these questions, but the questions that are addressed here are motivated by these larger questions. One thing is clear: the sovereign and internationally recognized state of Sudan has rationalized its long war against the SPLA and much of the population of southern Sudan by mocking rebels as malcontents overly distrusting of northern good intentions. The imagery on the stamps issued by Khartoum suggests the southerners are fully justified in their suspicions of a hegemonic project by the north. The stamps of Sudan are not at all like the multi-cultural expressions of tolerance and diversity seen in Burkina Faso.

References:

Adedze, Agbenyega. "Commemorating the chief: the politics of postage stamps in West Africa." African Arts (2004a).

Adedze, Agbenyega. "Re-presenting Africa: Commemorative Postage Stamps of the Colonial Exhibition of Paris." African Arts (2004b).

Baron, Beth. Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2005.

Billig, Michael. Banal Nationalism. London: Sage, 1995.

Brunn, Stanley D. "Stamps as iconography: Celebrating the independence of new European and Central Asian states." GeoJournal 52, no. 4 (2001): 315 323.

Cerulo, Karen. Identity Designs: The sights and sounds of a nation. Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995.

Child, Jack. "The Politics and Semiotics of the Smallest Icons of Popular Culture: Latin American Postage Stamps." Latin American Research Review 40, no. 1 (2005): 108-137.

Cusack, Igor. "Nationalism and the colonial imprint: The stamps of Portugal and Lusohpone Africa and Asia." Paper presented at UK Political Studies Association annual conference, University of Leicester (2003).

Delobsom, Dim. L'empire du Mogho-Naba. Paris: Domat-Montchrestien, 1932.

Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Jones, Robert A. "Science in National Cultures: The Message of Postage Stamps." Public Understanding of Science (2004): 75-81.

Lauritzen, Frederick. "Propaganda art in the postage stamps of the Third Reich." Journal of Decorative Propaganda and Arts (1988): 62-79.

Levin, Jessica. "Sculpted Posts: Architectural Decoration on Gabonese Stamps." African Arts (2004).

McCrone, David. The Sociology of Nationalism. London: Routledge, 1998.

McQueen, Humphrey. "The Australian stamp: image, design and ideology." Arena 84 (1988): 78-96.

Mwangi, W. "The Lion, the Native, and the Coffee Plant: Political Imagery and the Ambiguous Art of Currency Design in Colonial Kenya." Geopolitics 7, no. 1 (2002): 31-62.

Newman, R.S. "Orientalism for Kids: Postage Stamps and "Creating" South Asia." Journal of Developing Societies 5 (1989): 70-82.

O'Sullivan, Charles J. "Impressions of Irish and South African national identity on government issued postage stamps." Eire-Ireland 23 (1988): 104-15.

Posnansky, Merrick. "Propaganda for the millions: images from Africa." African Arts (2004).