We Will Not Forget: How African Artists Confront the Post Colonial Legacy

Published in Art + Australia — Vol 60, No. 2 (The Recurrent)

By Remy Mallet, Founder of DakArtNews

A generation of contemporary artists are turning to the past—not out of nostalgia, but as a way to reshape the present. In this article, I follow five powerful voices from West and Central Africa—Romuald Hazoumè (Benin), Tidiane Ndongo (Mali), Alexandre Kyungu Mwilambwe (Democratic Republic of Congo), and Roméo Mivekannin (Benin/Côte d’Ivoire), Modou Dieng Yacine (Senegal)—whose practices reimagine the archive through material gestures. Working with materials marked by violence, migration, and resilience, their art revives cultural memory while confronting global inequalities. From discarded jerrycans to mud-dyed cloth, rubber, and colonial-era portraits, these artists draw from local histories and craft traditions to question the boundaries of identity, territory, and representation. Whether transforming oil containers into masks, inscribing ancestral memory onto rubber and cloth, or reappropriating classical European imagery onto stained bedsheets, these artists operate at the intersection of historical memory, political resistance, and spiritual reflection. What emerges is not only a geography of trauma, but also one of reinvention—a cartography in which African artists reclaim the right to name, map, and narrate their own histories.

Read the full article on Art + Australia 👉https://artandaustralia.com/60_2/p322/we-will-not-forget-how-african-artists-confront-post-colonial-legacies