One Syli

Personal collection / —

Classification

Heritage / Family heirloom

Materials

Printed banknote on security paper, framed.

Historical period

1981

Place of origin

Guinea, Conakry

Issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea in 1981, this one-syli banknote bears the portrait of Hadja Aissatou Mafory Bangoura, the great-great-grandmother of Mounir Sakho. A prominent figure in Guinea’s struggle for independence from French colonial rule. Her presence on the nation’s currency reflects her place in Guinea’s political and cultural history. Preserved within the artist’s personal archive, the banknote represents an intersection of national recognition and familial inheritance, where an ancestor’s legacy becomes part of a country’s everyday material history.