"Dugutiki"

My cousin lived in a village in Mali while he was in the Peace Corps and Badra Togola was his Dugu Tiki, or headman.  In the painting he sits in front of a hut where the elders would meet.  I love the shapes and textures of this piece - the woven screen, mud walls, and the bit of corrugated iron over the entrance. 

Badra would not touch anyone, even to shake their hand.  As a young man a witchdoctor put a curse on him so that every hundredth person he touched would change gender.  While painting this piece, I wondered how much of his personality was shaped by living with that curse.