Last night I went to the Djenne Manuscript library to help chose the three winners in our Calligraphy competition. I am rather jumping the gun when I divulge that the winner is the tablet and paper to the left in the picture.(Schhh...The prize giving ceremony in the presence of my new pal the Prefect Mory Cisse is tomorrow morning...)Second price is the middle tablet and the third is to the left.
I would have preferred the middle one as first prize, since I find it lighter and more elegant, but I had to bow to the other jury members.
There is a long way to go to find the way back to the quality of the calligraphy and illumination work in some of the Djenne manuscripts of only a few decades ago, however. But perhaps we can stimulate a renaissance in this art? Arabic calligraphy is alive and kicking in the Maghreb and in the Middle East.