Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah

Sierra Leone

The third artist featured in the exhibition is Sheku Fofanah, who lives and works in Cline Town, a neighborhood in Freetown, the vibrant metropolitan capital city of Sierra Leone. Nicknamed “Goldenfinger” because of his talents as a designer and kotu, or builder (aka: artist) and because of his dabbling in the production and trade of gold jewelry, Fofanah is the resident kotu of his neighborhood’s Ordehlay Society, Gladiators Power. However, he creates a number of masquerade ensemble genres, including Fairy, Ordehlay, Hunting, and others for clients in the city and in various towns and communities throughout Sierra Leone, as well as in The Gambia and the United Kingdom. He is much sought after and respected for his talent as a designer, and his keen ability to successfully blend the “fancy” and “fierce” aesthetic common to Sierra Leone masquerade arts. Fofanah began building masquerade ensembles at the age of sixteen when his father, who was also a kotu, passed away. He is at the time of writing, forty-four years old.