Illustrating Time, Light and Shadows

Alama's Walk Time, Light & Shadows

In Swahili 7 am is called the 1st hour of the day and 6 pm is the 12th hour. The movement of the sun is rhythmic and predictable in equatorial East Africa. This celestial harmony sets the rhythm for all life. After the morning coolness and long shadows, the sun gradually brings warmth. At noon the sun is overhead and shadows hide under you, the day gets very hot until it begins to cool in the 9th hour of the day. The characters on the facing page show how the shadows fall during different times of the day. The shadows are long in the morning and shorten towards noon when they hide under you. That's when they are the shortest. Then they start to lengthen again until dusk and disappear with the sun. In the graphic novel, they show the time and direction of Alama's walk. 

The dawn sky reveals a splendor of colours, beckoning Alama to pray and bathe in its beauty. Animals, birds and roosters also awaken to graze and sing. Memories of my childhood awaken as I illustrate. I lived perhaps 300 miles south of Alama in Nairobi, the big city. When I close my eyes, I can still see and smell the mist and rain that bring out the beauty of the sun against the blue skies and opaque clouds. Dark rain clouds put on a spectacular show at the time when the rains arrive. The rains are brought by the monsoons from the Indian Ocean. New growth of seedlings and vegetation sprout, bringing gazelles, goats and creatures of every sort to feast in this season of abundance. The rivers and waters swell and replenish giving joy to the desert shrubs, trees and vegetation, and inviting birds, grazers, carnivores and vultures to fatten.

Illustrating this book, I began to feel the vastness and open spaces of the desert, the barren landscape and blue sky over the flat horizon. I thought about Alama, his reverence and prayers to colours of the rising sun. I began to respect and appreciate Indigenous wisdom drawn from environment and I started learning from him. Ultimately the desert scrubland is Alama’s home and land of his ancestors he knows and loves. Alama survives by digging up roots and tubers to drink from, catches desert hares with his homemade traps and harvests honey from his hollowed out tree branch beehives. I tried to capture these  elements and feelings visually in people, landscapes, colours and nature. While illustrating this book, I often became Alama, dreaming, walking with a stick and slowing down to reflect in the emptiness of the blue sky.

Once again I remember the colours of the sky, and shadows that predictably tell time, the smell of arriving rains and refreshing after rain smells mixed with the cooling earth. These are the feelings, colours, memories and dreams of my childhood that come alive as I read One Who Dreams is called a Prophet and illustrate Alama’s Walk, The Oracle Speaks.

Sadiq Somjee

September, 2021