Abstract
Images possess great visual power, because they embody contents which references varying aspects of a person, community or nations existence and history. Ancient civilizations have been constructed by analysing the visual configuration of images to uncover the historic consciousness of the period they where created. Contemporary discourse on the power of images has thus, embraced and emphasised gravity of images as a unique form of communication and medium of research. Postage stamps constitute one of such images with great visual powers; because it’s designs reflect specific country designations. This paper focused on addressing one research question; how can the visual configuration of stamps be interrogated as visual reference to delineate the modernity of a nation? Adopting visual analysis as methodology of enquiry, this paper examined Nigerian postage stamps from the 1850s to this contemporary age to delineate her transmogrification from primitivism to modernity. Findings from this study led to the conclusion that, through analysis of the changes in stamp designs which very often is impelled by social, cultural, religious or political forces, the entirety of a nations development can be reconstructed, as postage stamps offer insights into paradigm shifts because they constitute a form of visual documentation of a nation’s historic transformation. Through postage stamps as adopted in this paper, Nigeria’s transmogrification into a modernity (modern state) is vividly delineated with the changes in designs found to be influenced by colonialism, nationalist activism, decolonization politics and Pan-Africanism. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s2p47
Highlights
The power of objects and images and their gravity in historiographical studies are detailed in fields such as anthropology and the humanities, showing that the entirety of past civilizations can be constructed through the interrogation of objects and images in the context of their creation
Stamp collecting and their study might be a hobby for some people, but it is a vital form of historical reference, as government-issued postage stamps and their mailing systems have always been involved with the history of nations. It is on this premise, interrogating images that speak by espousing the power contained in their visual configurations that this paper is situated to unravel Nigeria’s transmogrification from primitivism to contemporaneity through the visual documentations found on postage stamps from its inception in the 1850s
Postage stamps as imagery contributes to the construction of national narratives, and such national narratives can only be constructed when stamps are “read as multilayered, identity-political texts in their time- and space-specific contexts” (Raento and Brunn 2008: 75)
Summary
The power of objects and images and their gravity in historiographical studies are detailed in fields such as anthropology and the humanities, showing that the entirety of past civilizations can be constructed through the interrogation of objects and images in the context of their creation. Douglas Harper writing on the symbolic power of images ‘Talking about Pictures: a Case of Photo Elicitation’ opined that, “images produces different kind of information, evokes feelings, and memories that are due to the photograph's or object’s particular form of representation” (Harper 2002:24), likewise, Gunther Kress in ‘The Grammar of Visual Design’ corroborates this view point that because images or artifacts depicts places and things combined “in visual statements, they foster greater complexities and extension of meaning” (Kress and Leeuwen 1996: 10) It is evident that, meanings are extended because of the evoking powers of images since they contain certain vital semiotic codes, which elicit varying culture/civilization-specific meanings. To understand why images can elicit extended meanings or evoke certain emotions and feelings or enable the reconstruction of past civilizations as has been demonstrated by fields such as archeology, it suffices to first elucidate the power of images to provide a base for the hypothesis put forward in this paper
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