NAME: Rebecca C. Fenton
IDENTIFIES: American
EXPERIENCE ABROAD: Three months in Antioch Education
Abroad’s Arts and Culture in West Africa program in 2007,
studying painting at the National Arts Institute in Bamako.
(Returned in 2008.) Currently pursuing an MA in Art
History at Indiana University, specializing in Mande culture.
IN
Mali, a former French colony, few people speak
English. So Fenton – a fine arts undergraduate experiencing
West Africa for the first time – uncovered inroads into the
culture through art and mimicry.
She was assigned a Malian mentor
as part of the program. “Working with
someone who is sincere in the way
they approach things is a great way to
relate to people,” she says.
Relating to Malians beyond the
studio presented greater difficulties.
Fenton suppressed her own personality
as she “tried to shape my behavior and gestures to the way
they did things.” It was her hope that this effort to adopt
Malian social norms indicated good faith. “I also tried to be
really extra kind to people to make up for being so awkward,”
she adds.
However, her ineptitude at basic skills – such as
eating without cutlery – proved to be a boon. “It was
embarrassing,” she admits, “but it put me in the position of
someone who needed to be instructed. That urge became
part of my identity there.”
When she returned to the U.S. for her last undergraduate
semester, Fenton felt deflated by the all-too-familiar – and
unchallenging – environment. She explored her experience
through art, obliterating parts of images to make sections
inaccessible. This practice clashed with her knowledge-
Photo by Daye Koné
Rebecca Fenton, Nicholas Hockin (program director of the AEA
Arts and Culture in West Africa program), and a very young, very
sleepy Malian.
,T
WHATEVERWEDON,
KNOWISPOTENTIAL.
J0953_GroundswellR.indd 11
hungry researcher self and has become a conflict that she’s
harnessed to drive her work.
Fenton returned to Mali a year later as an AEA program
assistant, and hopes to go back again to research her
dissertation on Malian dress and self-presentation. “For
the fashion-conscious in Mali, dress is an incisive way of
interacting in the social sphere,” she says, describing how
Malians emphasize elements of their identities by putting
symbols and texts on their bodies and in their attire.
“Being in another country and culture showed me that
identities are much more flexible and multiple than I
previously thought,” she says. “We can draw on aspects
of identity as resources in different situations.”
12/18/13 11:18 AM