Our Story Africa’s Climate
Commissioned by The Africa Centre, ‘Colonial Office‘ and ‘Leaders of resistance‘ were showcased as part of the Our Story Africa’s Climate exhibition in 2022. The exhibition aimed to highlight the impact of the climate emergency in Africa and diversify the conversation around climate change by centering African voices.
Colonial Office
Mixed media giclée print
594 x 420 mm
Colonial Office is an amalgamation of the grotesque, violent and calculated nature of environmental colonialism. The portrait was born from the faces of Walter Egerton, Percy Girouard, Ralph Moor and Sir Henry Hesketh Bell, four colonial governors who were instrumental in Britain’s colonisation of Nigeria. These men were four of seven who governed Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, and Lagos through 1914, under the imperialist fist of the British Empire.
Leaders of resistance
Mixed media giclée print
500 x 594 mm
Leaders of resistance pays homage to the roaring strength, leadership, activism, and power of the Abeokuta Women’s (1946) revolt in Nigeria. The protest is a key example of how environmental colonialism tried used food insecurity, violence, and misogyny to try to commodify and reframe indigenous relationships with agriculture and trade. However, both this piece and the 1946 revolt show what has been evident from the start; women can be found at the centre of any form of resistance against colonial forces.