#pan-africanism

#pan-africanism

Walking through Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imaginationat the Museum of Modern Art, I noticed that the exhibition didn't have definite sections or texts, and the wall labels abstained from naming the nationalities of the photographers. It was an invigorating experience to be in a show that eschews geographic boundaries set up by Western nations, as well as rejects a cause-and-effect narrative that centers Western colonialism as a framework for understanding African aesthetic production.

Here is another outstanding example, from writer-director Yemi Bamiro, about the remarkable career of Kwame Brathwaite, a photographer, musician and African American activist who was a unique politico-aesthete. With his brother Elombe, he virtually invented the phrase Black Is Beautiful in the 1960s by photographing the Grandassa Models in Harlem: young African American women who became the sensational template for beauty, doing away with the usual cosmetic products and the usual white standard of femininity.

The Thomas Sankara Mausoleum honors Burkina Faso’s revolutionary leader, designed to reflect the enduring legacy of Sankara and his twelve aides through innovative architectural elements.

When I started doing exhibitions, I saw how deep the need was for us to reflect who we are. It became important to construct narratives that resonate with our identities and histories.