Sankara (2018) by Ethel-Ruth Tawe

Sankara (2018)

ETHEL-RUTH TAWE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY, VISUAL ARTIST, SOAS (2018).

From my ongoing series “Social Justice Work is Science Fiction”, a statement by the Octavia’s Brood duo, this work draws inspiration to explore the process of envisioning and writing African social movements and histories into the future.

We are imagining a world free of injustice, a world that doesn’t yet exist

Brown, Imarisha 2015.

Thomas Sankara, an iconic pan-africanist revolutionary and leader of the Burkinabé, is venerated for his conscious reinvention and radical assertion of black identity on a global scale. His feminist politics and adamant call for anti-imperial solidarity led to his assassination in 1987, yet his vision and philosophies are embedded throughout pan-African consciousness. Sankara’s imagined Africa is decolonised, feminist, self-sufficient and pro-people.

While his works long remained in the shadows, recovering his legacy has allowed for his celebration within its own right. Sankara’s unconventional political career is an embodiment of afrofuturist creativity and radical thought that aims to dignify African cultural identities. In this work, reference to looted Benin bronzes reflects the haunting presence of cultural neocolonialism that is ever present in African politics and art, attempting to delink our identities through heritage displacement. Sankara gazes at his living legacy evident in the transmission of his vision into holistic forms of resistance and emancipation through reclaiming heritage. Sankara’s science fiction shall unfold into a lived-reality for future generations. #LaLutaContinua