Replacing Rhetorics: Afro positivism versus the White Man’s burden
ARTIST STATEMENT
Western dialogue about Africa has, since the beginning of European involvement on the continent, been intrinsically entangled with racist rhetoric such as “The White Man’s Burden” or “The Civilizing Mission.” These are narratives that claim White European superiority over Africans and with it a duty to improve African civilization (or the alleged lack thereof). In reality, these “charitable” words were used to justify the colonization of an entire continent and the oppression of the indigenous populations. As African countries have gained independence and blatant racism has become less socially acceptable, Western superiority has been framed more in terms of wealth, superior infrastructure, and “better” democracy. As for Africans, recent media coverage has pointed almost exclusively to the dictators and war-lords such as Idi Amin, Kony, or Gaddafi.
The rhetoric of The White Man’s Burden prevails. It continues to affect the way the West interacts with Africa, from the United Nation’s lack of neutrality in the Congo Crisis of 1960, to the conditions imposed on loans to African countries by the IMF and the World Bank, all the way down college students’ “voluntourism” which mainly results in Facebook “likes” and a half-finished well.
One way to address this issue is by educating Western audiences about more positive aspects of African history and culture. For this project, I have chosen an artists’ approach in the hopes of reaching a wider audience and perhaps creating a more dynamic dialogue. I have highlighted eight leaders whose names should be as commonly known around the world as Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh, or William Wallace. These portraits are screen prints, a medium traditionally used to create political or propaganda posters. Their scale references the tradition in Western art history of showing historical events and important people on large canvases. The simplicity of the black on brown portraits is meant to show these leaders as iconic, while the torn edges of the paper symbolizes their break from colonial narratives and expectations.
Each portrait is accompanied by a short biography about the unique lives each person led along with an explanation of why they are included here. Perhaps most telling are the similarities among them: all lived with the very real threat of imprisonment, exile, and assassination hanging over their heads for choices they made. With one exception, all are now dead; Lumumba, Sankara, and Kato were assassinated. Western media coverage of their actions was heavily tainted with the legacy of colonialism and The White Man’s Burden rhetoric which continues to this day.
Clara Lang-Ezekiel (2017)
Patrice Lumumba - (1925 –1961)
Patrice Lumumba was the first Prime Minister of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as The Belgian Congo. He famously made a stirring and provocative speech at the celebration ceremony for The Congo’s independence though he had not been scheduled to speak for fear of offending the Belgian king in attendance at the ceremony. His speech along with his firm stance against the continued economic colonization of the Congo led to his assassination by Belgian secret service and the C.I.A. on January 17, 1960. His story was repressed during the long years of Mobutu’s dictatorial regime but still continued to inspire artists such as the Congolese painter Tshibumba who disappeared after completing his series on Congolese history; he presumed to have been assassinated by the Mobutu regime.
screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
Seretse Khama (1921 – 1980)
Seretse Khama is perhaps the most well- known of this series due to the recent movie A United Kingdom about his love story with a white woman. Khama’s marriage to British typist Ruth Williams led to exile from his own country of Bechuanaland, later to become Botswana, and ultimately his giving up the throne which he was meant to inherit. This is where the movie ends, but what is extraordinary about Khama is that after losing his throne he led Bechuanaland to independence from the United Kingdom and was elected Botswana’s first president in 1966. HIs son with Ruth Williams is currently serving his second term as president of Botswana which now has one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
Winnie Mandela (1936 – )
Winnie Mandela, née Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela, is the most controversial person portrayed here due to her actions in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, in particular her involvement in the murder of 14-year-old James Seipei, as well as the charges of corruption brought against her. But the fact remains that with- out her actions, South Africa would never have had Nelson Mandela as its first black president. She was the instigator of the movement to free Nelson Mandela from prison, and the violence of the movement she was involved in, which Nel- son Mandela refused to condemn, factored into the beginning of the peace talks between Nelson Mandela and the Apartheid government. I chose to portray Winnie Mandela as a young woman to point out her achievements independently of her marriage to Nelson. Before meeting him, Winnie was already the first black social work- er in South Africa with a bright future ahead of her. The year Winnie Mandela spent in solitary confinement clearly changed her; she emerged from prison hardened and willing to do anything to fight apartheid. Winnie Mandela’s actions after her time in prison substantiate the South African saying: “You strike a woman, you strike a rock.”
screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
Thomas Sankara (1949 – 1987)
I feel a particular connection to the story of Thomas Sankara since my parents were living in Upper Volta in 1983 when Sankara took over the government in a peaceful coup d’état and renamed the country Burkina Faso (The Land of Upright Men). In the four years that followed, Sankara revolutionized Burkinabé society. He led the country into food self-sufficiency; created huge campaigns against desertification and illiteracy; vaccinated millions of people against measles, polio, and meningitis; battled corruption in the government; reinforced the infrastructure of the country; and became a vocal advocate for women’s rights, appointing an unprecedented number of women to his government and in his army. This list of accomplishments is all the more admirable since he achieved them all in four years; Sankara was assassinated in 1987 at the age of 37. The irony of making a portrait of Sankara is that he refused to have portraits of himself distributed during his regime, not wanting to elevate himself above other Burkinabé people. True to his ideals, Sankara died owning next to nothing; his possessions are listed as one car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge, and a broken freezer; his salary as president of Burkina Faso was $450 a month.
screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
David Kato (1964 – 2011)
David Kato is known for being the first openly gay man in Uganda, a country where being gay is still illegal. Kato was the leader of the Ugandan gay rights movement, and fought hard to defeat an anti-homosexual bill in 2011 that not only would have imprisoned people for being gay, but in some cases, would have condemned them to death. Kato was also involved in suing the Ugandan newspaper, Rolling Stone, for publishing pictures of “known homosexuals” and calling for their deaths. Shortly after winning the lawsuit Kato was murdered in his home. His funeral was the site of protests by fundamentals and anti-gay activists. Though the movement he started still endures, the anti-homosexuality act was passed in Uganda in 2014, the only difference to the 2011 one being that it replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment. The bill was invalidated shortly thereafter by the Ugandan Constitutional Court due to a technicality. While the international community has pressured the government against passing the bill, the anti-homosexual movements in Uganda continue to receive heavy support from American fundamentalist groups. Homosexuality remains illegal in Uganda and punishably by up to seven years in prison.
Screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
Wangari Maathai (1940 – 2011)
Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to ever receive the Nobel Peace prize, which she won in 2004. Maathai founded the Green Belt movement in 1977, which focused primarily on environmental politics and women’s rights. In addition to her environmental and feminist activism, Maathai fought against the increasingly dictatorial tendencies of her government, leading to her arrest and threats of assassination in 1992. Luckily several international organizations along with several US senators such as Al Gore came to her defense pressuring the Kenyan government to release the pro-democracy activists and drop all charges. This was not the last time Maathai was arrested. Her long career of activism includes included hunger strikes, protests of all kinds, being called a “mad woman” by the Kenyan president, and a period of living in hiding in her own country despite being celebrated internationally. In 2002, KANU, the ruling party since Kenya’s independence, was finally defeated and Maathai was appointed Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources. Two years later she was awarded the Nobel Peace prize.
screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
Léopold Senghor (1906 – 2001)
Léopold Senghor was a renowned Senegalese poet, co-founder of the Négritude movement, and first president of independent Senegal. The Négritude movement originated in francophone African countries, it reclaimed the French derogative term nègre and used Marxist principles to encourage a unified identity and pride of the African diaspora. Before Senegalese independence, Senghor fought for France during World War II and after two years in a prisoner-of-war camp, joined and remained involved in the French resistance for the rest of the War while pursuing a teaching career. Upon Senegal’s independence, Senghor was elected to be its first president, having already authored the newly independent country’s national anthem. What is perhaps most important about Senghor’s leadership is that he brought Senegal through the difficult transition out of colonialism without suffering a military coup making it a rare example of peace on a continent that has suffered innumerable coups d’état since colonialism.
screen print on parcel paper
aprox 75 x 60cm
2017
Queen Nzinga (c. 1583 – 1663)
Queen Nzinga is the only pre-colonial leader featured in this series therefore she is the only one to have lived before the invention of photography. There are a few etchings of her (which I used as references for her crown) and several sculptures have been erected of her in Angola since its independence, but her portrait conveys her fighting spirit and formidable nature rather than a likeness of her face. She ruled over the kingdoms of Ndongo and Mataba (in present day Angola). During her fathers’ reign, the Portuguese began raiding the kingdom for slaves and silver. When her brother inherited the throne she was sent as a diplomat to negotiate with the Portuguese. In an attempt to humiliate her the Portuguese ambassador only set out one chair in the room, hoping to force Nzinga to sit on the floor at his feet. Rather than be intimidated the young woman ordered one of her servants to get down on all fours and she sat on his back, keeping herself at the same height as the ambassador.
Having already earned her reputation as a skilled diplomat, Nzinga continued to rise. The patriarchal society she lived in should have made her nephew the next king but Nzinga manipulated the Portuguese into supporting her claim, becoming queen in 1626. She then turned against the Portuguese by forming an alliance with the Dutch (making her the first African leader to ever create an alliance with a European power). She continued to fight the Portuguese her entire life, retreating to the kingdom of Mataba where she provided a haven for escaped slaves and formed a commercial state powerful enough to trade with Portugal and other European nations as equals. Her death in 1663 left the kingdom vulnerable to invasion, and Angola remained a Portuguese colony until 1975. Nzinga is remembered to this day as a great diplomat, powerful athlete, and skilled military tactician.
screen print on paper
aprox. 175 x 124cm
2017