Monday, December 03, 2007

Port-Gentil Art

The Grand Village neighborhood of Port-Gentil is filled with fabulous storefronts painted with advertisements, or more exactly, images of what's for sale inside. This is a favorite of mine, with a sportswear store on the right and a barbershop on the left.
Closeup of sportswear store:

And here's the barbershop, with your choice of hairstyle before you enter the establishment:
And this piece of art below is the centerpiece of the town's largest traffic circle (while it's far from being an actual circle -- with roads shooting in and out from every angle and traffic lights flashing on and off simultaneously -- I don't know what else to call it). The man depicted here is Gabon's first president, Leon Mba (last name pronounced "mmmmmm-Ba"). The whole setup here is typically Gabonese, with a streetlight turned directly toward him for nighttime illumination, some random tile formation acting as a base for the painted plywood structure, and my guess is that the antenna-like object above his head was meant to one day be covered with some waterproof material, providing shelter from the rain. You'll also note that some of the city's electric wiring is dangling precariously behind Leon's neck. I'll have to look again next time I drive by, but it's very likely that poor Leon is being used in place of an actual electric pole to hold that up.

There are many more great images out there that I'll try and catch over the next few days!