CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — It was broad daylight when Omar Diaw, better known by his artist name Chimer (Chimera in French), approached a blank wall on the side of a boulevard in Guinea. Guinea Established capital and started spray painting.
“They know who I am,” he said confidently. It was not clear who “they” were, but civilians and police stood by as Diaw’s fellow artists unloaded dozens of paint cans onto Conakry’s roadsides.
Graffiti has been popular in Diaw’s hometown for many years. senegalwhere modern urban street art first began in West Africa. But when he moved to Guinea in 2018 to explore new places, he said, such art almost didn’t exist.
“Graffiti was seen as vandalism,” he says.
Graffiti artist Omar Diaw stands in front of a mural in Conakry, Guinea, Saturday, September 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Misspa Appau)
To appeal to the public, Diaw took a gentle approach by using graffiti in his awareness campaign. One of his first efforts was to raise awareness about COVID-19 precautions.
“We had to seduce the public,” he said.
The port city of Conakry is facing rapid urbanization. Diaw’s graffiti has become an unmistakable part of the crowded, concrete landscape.
His larger-than-life photographs of famous Guinean musicians and African independence leaders now look small enough for an overloaded truck to pass by. Laundry was hanging above a portrait of Samory Touré, a West African resistance fighter.
Tags from Diaw’s graffiti collective Guinea Ghetto Graf are painted on murals throughout the city.
A street vendor walks past a mural depicting traditional dancers on a street wall in Conakry, Guinea, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Appau)
Graffiti as we know it today began in the United States in the 1960s and ’70s. The stone arrived in West Africa via Dakar, Senegal in 1988, and the region’s first graffiti artist, Amadou Ramin Gon, began painting it on the city’s walls.
The following year, Ngom, known by his artist name “Doctor,” and a group of fellow artists were commissioned to create a mural for an awareness campaign aimed at cleaning the streets of Dakar.
Ngom, 51, said that apart from such campaigns, he initially did graffiti mostly at night. He later changed his approach.
“We decided to do it in broad daylight,” he said. “Don’t copy what’s happening in America, Europe, etc. Paint graffiti that resembles African reality, taking into account our reality and values.”
Ngom, who later mentored Diaw as a teenager, said the community came to respect public artworks because they reflected their lives and experiences.
Graffiti artist Omar Diaw walks in front of his mural painted on a street wall in Conakry, Guinea, on Saturday, September 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Appau)
Because of public support, “the authorities had no choice,” Ngom said.
Recently, graffiti has become more active and part of political messages in Senegal. Anti-government demonstration. In Guinea, Diaw graffiti has addressed issues such as: Immigration.
Diaw said the Conakry governor supports much of his work and gives him full authority to do it wherever he wants.
As his latest work took shape next to a boulevard, passersby stopped to admire the portrait of Guinean military leader General Mamadi Doumbouya. 2021 Coup.
Graffiti artist Omar Diaw works on a mural depicting Guinea’s President Mamadi Doumbouya on a street wall in Conakry, Guinea, Saturday, September 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apau)
Ousman Sila, a 22-year-old driver, said he was already familiar with Diaw’s giant painting near Conakry’s airport.
“It reminds us of the Guinean musicians of old. It reminds us of history,” he said. “Graffiti is good for Africa, it’s good for this country, it’s good for everyone. I like it. And graffiti has changed the look of our city.”
The next step could be to bring in a wider range of artists.
“I really wish more women would join this movement, because people say it (graffiti) belongs to men,” said Aissata Camara, a mom who is unusual in Guinea’s graffiti scene.
