Provenance

Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, 24 February 2005.

Private Collection.

Notes

Pieter Hugo’s controversial Hyena and Other Men series capture the images of the Gadawan Kura. Roughly translating to “Hyena Handlers” or “Guides”, the term refers to a troupe of performers who travel throughout Northern Nigeria, trading on mysticism and superstition.¹ The men are traditional storytellers who perform for crowds on the streets with their animals, selling medicines and charms.

A typical ensemble consists of several men, hyenas, monkeys, and rock pythons. As an enduring family tradition, the members continue a practise handed down over generations. Their interactions with the animals are complex, alternating between gestures of care and acts of harsh control.²

The two lots featured in this sale Jamis and Mallam Galadima Ahmadu, Ahuja Nigeria (lot 315) and Mallam Umaru Ahmadu with Amita, Nigeria, 2005 (lot 347) capture these men and the animals they co-habit with. To continue family tradition, the young children are usually trained to tame the hyenas from birth and are encouraged to feed the animals to expel their fears.³

In Hugo’s composition, themes of dominance, co-dependence, and submission are ever-present, elevating the image beyond pure journalistic and ethnographic observation. Rather than simply portraying a troupe of performers in West Africa, the work reflects the complex and often conflicted bonds between humans and animals.

Each work functions as both direct depiction and carefully staged encounter between photographer and subject. The young men’s steady gazes engage the viewer, asserting their presence. In Mallam Umaru Ahamadu with Amita, Nigeria, 2005 (lot 347) the baboon’s upright posture and tethered restraint convey the tension inherent in the human and animal relationship. The hyena in Jamis and Mallam Galadima Ahmadu, Ahuja Nigeria (lot 315) exhibits no mirroring of human behavior but rather shows obedience like that of a dog companion. When observing both captured animals, the chain becomes both a literal and metaphorical link, a symbol of control and interdependence, and the paradoxical mixture of care and coercion that characterises the handlers’ work.

^1. (2020) Pieter Hugo: The Hyena and Other Men, Huxley-Parlor, online, https://huxleyparlour.com/critical-texts/pieter-hugo-the-hyena-and-other-men/, accessed 14 August 2025.

^2. Pieter Hugo (no date) Pieter Hugo, The Hyena and Other Men (2005—2007), online, https://pieterhugo.com/Text-THE-HYENA-AND-OTHER-MEN, accessed 14 August 2025.

^3. (2025) Pieter Hugo’s Hyena Men – Fascinating photos from Nigeria, Public Delivery, online, https://publicdelivery.org/pieter-hugo-the-hyena-and-other-men/, accessed 15 August 2025.

Exhibited

Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, Gadawan Kura - The Hyena Men, 27 February to 25 March 2006, another example from the edition exhibited.

Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, The Hyena and Other Men, 29 November 2007 to 12 January 2008, another example from the edition exhibited.

Literature

Pieter Hugo and Adetokunbo Abiola (2008) The Hyena and Other Men, Munich: Prestel Verlag, another example from the edition illustrated, unpaginated.