Imaging the Present
Imaging the Present
An Iconography of Slavery in Contemporary African Art
In this chapter, Claire Griffiths considers the contribution of three contemporary West and West Central African artists to the wave of global commemorative initiatives memorializing the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its abolition over the past few decades. She considers how African artists have instrumentalized European iconographies of slavery and abolition in order convey a powerful message relating to pressing issues of development, economic marginalization and exploitation in Africa today, such as the exploitation of African oil by multinational corporations. This is given prominence through a radical re-configuration of the enslaved bodies depicted in the established European abolitionist icon, the Brookes slave ship, in the work of Beninese artist Romuald Hazoumé. Another Beninese artist whose work responds to and re-defines trans-Atlantic iconographies of slavery and abolition is Pélagie Gbaguidi in her Code Noir series. Finally, the prize-winning installation De 1848 à nos jours by Moridja Kitenge Banza also offers contemporary commentary on the making of postcolonial Africa through a re-working of the ‘Brookes’ image. The iconography of slavery is thus being re-interpreted and built upon by contemporary African artists, who use it as a platform to address a global audience.
Keywords: Africa, Slavery, Abolition, Iconography, Art, Brookes, Contemporary, Memory
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