Pierre Edouard Leopold Verger, alias Fatumbi or Fátúmbí was a photographer, self-taught ethnographer, and babalawo who devoted most of his life to the study of the African diaspora — the slave trade, the African-based religions of the new world, and the resulting cultural and economical flows from and to Africa.
Life
At the age of 30, after losing his family, Pierre Verger took up the career of journalistic photographer. Over the next 15 years, he traveled the four continents, documenting many civilizations that would soon be effaced by progress. His destinations included Tahiti ; United States, Japan, and China ; Italy, Spain, Sudan, Niger, Upper Volta, Togo and Dahomey ; the West Indies ; Mexico ; the Philippines and Indochina ; Guatemala and Ecuador ; Senegal ; Argentina, Peru and Bolivia ; and finally Brazil. His photographs were featured in magazines such as Paris-Soir, Daily Mirror, Life, and Paris Match, and in 1955 his graphic composition of three women bearing vases of flowers on turbaned heads was selected by curator Edward Steichen for MoMA's 1955 world-touring The Family of Man exhibition, seen by 9 million visitors. In the city ofSalvador, Brazil he fell in love with the place and people, and decided to stay for good. Having become interested in the local history and culture, he turned from errant photographer to a researcher of the African diaspora in the Americas. His subsequent voyages are focused on that goal: the west coast of Africa and Paramaribo, Haiti, and Cuba. After studying the Yoruba culture and its influences in Brazil, Verger became an initiate of the Candomblé religion, and officiated at its rituals. During a visit to Benin, he was initiated into Ifá, became a babalawo of Orunmila, and was renamed Fátúmbí. Veger's contributions to ethnography are embodied in dozens of conference papers, journal articles and books, and were recognized by Sorbonne University, which conferred upon him a doctoral degree in 1966 — quite a feat for someone who dropped out of high school at 17. Verger continued to study and document his chosen subject right until his death in Salvador, at the age of 93. During that time he became a professor at the Federal University of Bahia in 1973, where he was responsible for the establishment of the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Salvador; and served as visiting professor at the University of Ifé in Nigeria. The non-profit in Salvador, which he established to continue his work, holds more than 63,000 photos and negatives taken until 1973, as well as his papers and correspondence. His life has been documented in a book by Jérôme Souty and a movie.
