Independent Africa Faces Forward

They came. They saw. They organized. Before he was globally celebrated for his works in found metal, El Anatsui first pursued sculptural forms in ceramics and found wood. He notes, “I look at textures of my work in process and I think about the texture and grain of Africa’s history; I look at the authentic colors of the different types of wood and they remind me of the real colors of history.” The Ancestors Converged Again is a relatively rare example of figurative art in wood from this Ghanaian master. Using the expressive forms of the wood he gathered, Anatsui transforms scraps into embodiments of once-distant, now-present spiritual and historical figures through minimal sculptural interventions and the process of ordering and re-ordering his sculptures. Eyes wide, taking in the troubled current moment in which they have been called together, these ancestors confer—and plan their response.

Ebenezer Ako-Adjei (1916-2002), Edward Akufo-Addo (1906-1979), J.B. Danquah (1895-1965), Emmaneul Obetsebi-Lamptey (1902-1963), William Ofori Atta (1910-1988) Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972)
They organized Ghana’s first political party, channeling constructive impatience into a campaign for independence.

• The ‘Big Six’ were the leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), a political party founded by J.B. Danquah in 1947 to push for self-government.
• On Feb. 28, 1948, a peaceful demonstration in Accra for pay owed by veterans who fought for Britain in World War II was met with gunfire, killing three people. Horrified by the incident, the ‘Big Six’ called for full and immediate self-rule. They were all arrested.
• In prison, the group earned their collective nickname, and became a symbol for the country’s self-determination. One—Kwame Nkrumah—would use the added notoriety to build a new political party, which would eventually carry him to power.

“...Unless Colonial Government is changed and a new Government of the people and their Chiefs installed at the centre immediately, the conduct of masses now completely out of control with strikes…will continue…Working Committee United Gold Coast Convention declare they are prepared and ready to take over interim Government. We ask in name of oppressed, inarticulate, misruled and misgoverned people and their Chiefs that Special Commissioner be sent out immediately to hand over Government to interim Government of Chief and People and to witness immediate calling of Constituent Assembly.”

—Telegram from United Gold Convention leaders (Accra) to Secretary of State (London), Feb. 28, 1948

Theirs were the inescapable voices of Egyptian possibilities. He was the voice of Egypt’s political future, the military officer who helped overthrow the monarchy, led Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970, nationalized the Suez Canal from British and French interests, and became an icon, however fleetingly, of secular pan-Arab nationalism. At the height of the Cold War, Gamal Abdel Nasser promoted a political philosophy of nonalignment and solidarity among formerly colonized peoples. The illustrations surrounding Nasser reflect memories of his regime. Transistor radios depict Nasser's favorite method of disseminating propaganda; working women and factories, the rise of Egyptian industry; and “No Photo” signs, warnings of spies. While Nasser himself was subject to the many failings of charismatic, one-man rule, his image and voice nevertheless became an inescapable icon, in Egypt and beyond. She was perhaps his only true rival on the mid-century radio. “The Voice,” not just of Egypt, but of the entire Arab-speaking world, Om Kalsoum was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated vocal artists. Her supreme talent, musical virtuosity, and glamour made her a global celebrity, as she interpreted modern and classical Arab verse through improvisation and vocal stylization. For the artist Chant Avedissian, with an interest in the iconic images of Egyptian history, Nasser’s and Kalsoum’s pharaonic cultural influences filled his eyes—and ears.

Gamal Abdel Nasser He was the indomitable voice of Egypt’s revolutionary mid-century.

• A military officer, Nasser helped to overthrew the monarchy, led Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970, nationalized the Suez Canal from British and French interests, and became an icon of secular pan-Arab nationalism.
• Never short on an ambition, Nasser saw himself as a potential leader for Arab-speaking countries, for Africa, and for the greater Islamic world. From 1958-1961, he led Egypt and Syria jointly in a United Arab Republic.
• Nasser’s legacy is complicated—he was a symbol of anti-colonial solidarity, built the Aswan Dam, and led the industrialization of Egypt, yet he also ruled a police state and fought and lost two wars with Israel.

“Let them kill Nasser! What is Nasser but one among many? I am alive, and even if I die, all of you are Gamal Abdel Nasser!”

—Gamal Abdel Nasser, after surviving an assassination attempt in 1954 Om Kalsoum “The Star of the East,” “Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid”—she was nothing less than The Voice.

• One of the twentieth century’s most celebrated global vocal artists, Kalsoum was known for her talent, musical virtuosity, and glamour.
• Kalsoum interpreted modern and classical Arab verse through improvisation and vocal stylization. She was known to riff and extend a song at considerable length, if the audience’s emotions were with her.
• Throughout the century’s turmoil, Kalsoum maintained a reputation as a patriotic Egyptian and a devout Muslim—and a good friend of Nasser’s.

“O Nile, you have been praised by God and celebrated in the Torah. The origin of civilisation around you is a fact, and its outcome is your virtue. It was born and you were its cradle… The people, who were privileged and protected over centuries, are thankful to you. They express their gratitude to the Lord for His creation. And may God keep on His blessings.”

—Om Kalsoum, singing one of her signature songs, “Al Nil” (lyrics by Ahmad Shawqi)

He led a new generation into higher education and leadership. Tom Mboya—already accomplished, at the age of 28, as the leader of a workers’ union and for his assumption of the mantle of Kenya’s nascent independence party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU)— met with then-Senator John F. Kennedy in 1959 to promote a campaign to bring hundreds of Kenyan students to the United States for higher education. The effort already had the support of individuals like Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Convinced by Mboya’s vision of the need to train a new generation of post-colonial leaders, the Kennedy Family Foundation agreed to fund the early “airlifts.” Over 800 students—including future leaders like Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai—studied and traveled in the United States from 1959 until 1963, the year of Kenya’s independence. Inspired by the first airlift, Barack Obama, Sr. won a related scholarship to pursue graduate studies at the University of Hawaii in 1959. Graduating at the top of his class, he met and married American student Ann Dunham. Their son, Barack H. Obama, Jr. was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.

Labor leader and Pan-African visionary, he moved a generation to self-improvement and liberation.

• A labor activist from an early age, Mboya organized his fellow Nairobi civil servants into the Kenya Local Government Workers’ Union in the early 1950s. Mboya became general secretary of the national Federation of Labour, where he won an international profile by helping striking dock workers in Mombasa get a 33 percent pay raise.
• Simultaneously, Mboya joined the nascent independence party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU). When the British banned the party and most of its leaders its years during the Mau Mau conflict, Mboya was entrusted with the party’s control.
• Mboya is celebrated for organizing the initial ‘airlifts’ that provided scholarships to young Kenyans seeking study in the United States—a program with an impressive legacy of achievement.
• An outspoken critic of government corruption, Mboya was serving as a government minister when he was assassinated in 1969. The cause of the murder has never been determined.

“I have news for you. There is no Superman. It’s up to us.”

—Tom Mboya

“Pan-Africanism is changing the arbitrary and often illogical boundaries set up by the colonial powers in their mad scramble for Africa. Many…are asking us what sort of governments we hope to set up when our freedom is won…What we shall create should be…enriched by our ability to borrow…what is good from other systems, creating a synthesis of this with the best of our own systems and cultures.”

—Tom Mboya, speaking at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, 1958

Strike a fashionable blow for freedom European traders introduced factory-printed cloths to African markets in the 19th century. Early fabrics were based on Indonesian batiks. As advancements in photographic reproduction developed, portraits began to appear on cloth. Known as “fancy” cloths, these printed textiles became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s, when many African nations attained independence, and remain important historical documents of an era filled with new possibilities. This work features the official portrait of Kwame Nkrumah, the first leader of independent Ghana. Although Nkrumah was not Asante, he chose to wear the red, yellow, and green colors—associated with both Asante kente cloth, worn widely in Ghana, and with unconquered Ethiopia—as a symbol of his leadership and pan-African pride. Due to the light sensitivity of fabric, the selections in this case will be rotated with works depicting further African independence leaders approximately every six months.

Osagyefo (“Redeemer,” in Fante), he was a symbol of independent Africa’s great expectations—and dimmed hopes.

• Breaking with more moderate politicians seeking eventual independence, Nkrumah formed the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) as a platform through which to organize a campaign of strikes, protests, and non-violent non-cooperation against the British.
• Nkrumah’s CPP won early elections under British rule and, when independence came in 1957, he became the new nation of Ghana’s first prime minister. Ghana had become the first colonized African nation south of the Sahara to win back its freedom.
• Nkrumah was an outspoken advocate for Pan-Africanism, as both a cultural and political platform, from which he anticipated Ghana would lead the rest of the continent from occupation. He became a global symbol for black liberation.
• In government, Nkrumah’s government became increasingly authoritarian. He won a referendum in 1960 that made Ghana a republic; he became president (and ‘president for life’ in 1964).
• Ghana’s army staged a coup in 1966, ousting Nkrumah from power. He would live the remainder of his life in exile. Ghana would face a series of intermittent, disruptive military coups in the following three decades.

“We face neither East nor West: we face forward.”

—Kwame Nkrumah, conference speech in Accra, 1960

“I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me.”

—Kwame Nkrumah

The fashion for Pan-African solidarity endures. Sotiba, a textile manufacturer in Dakar, Senegal, made several versions—some with gold, some without—of this fancy cloth with a photographic engraving of American activist Malcolm X. It has been suggested that this version may have been intended for the foreign market because its gold turns black when worn in Senegal’s hot, humid climate. Moreover, cloth is often bought to save—like an insurance policy or a long-term savings certificate—rather than to be cut up and worn. Due to the light sensitivity of fabric, the selections in this case will be rotated with works depicting further African independence leaders approximately every six months.

El Hajji Malik El-Shabazz, “Brother Malcolm” blazed a path of intellectual and spiritual discovery that provided a model for observers worldwide.

• Malcolm Little converted to the Nation of Islam, an African-American organization that combined Islamic teachings with black nationalism, while incarcerated between 1946 and 1952. He adopted the new surname “X.”
• Malcolm X quickly became one of the Nation’s most prominent leaders and public advocates, articulating positions of black racial pride while giving voice to a generation of black Americans’ frustrations during the civil rights movement. He was the intellectual leader of the United States’ growing Black Power movement.
• Malcolm X publicly fell out with the Nation of Islam’s leadership in 1963. He credited his hajj to Mecca the following year as a second conversion, taking the name El Hajji Malik El-Shabazz.
• Newly awakened to a sense of global solidarity with brothers and sisters throughout the formerly colonized world, Malcolm became an advocate of Pan-Africanism—arguing that African-Americans’ struggles intersected with global struggles for liberation.
• Malcolm X was assassinated while speaking in Harlem on Feb. 21, 1965. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison.
• His memoir, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), would become a global touchstone—the story of a man’s journey from a troubled childhood to human rights activist and global icon of black solidarity.

“…During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass—while praying to the same God—with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same…I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man…”

—Malcolm X, in a 1964 letter from Mecca, following his hajj. “As long as we think that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, you’ll never get Mississippi straightened out.” —Malcolm X, New York, 1964, addressing his newly formed Organization for Afro-American Unity

She dances and sings her own truth, with poise and pride.

Ben Enwonwu is arguably one of 20th-century Africa’s most important and influential artists. Recognized worldwide for his modernist examinations of Nigerian and pan-African ideas and images by mid-century, his work came to represent African self-determination, innovation, and excellence in an era in which the continent was finally regaining its sovereignty.

The Africa Dances series, begun in 1949 as a response to performances observed in his home city of Onitsha, became a subject to which Enwonwu would return throughout his career. In the series of sculptures made between 1980 and 1984, the artist isolated each figure in space, imbuing their features with a liquid flow that captured the essence of a body in motion.

This piece is a cold-cast resin predecessor to a 1982 bronze casting of Africa Dances. Identical in form to the later bronze, the cold-cast resin version was likely cast, because of its material, by the artist himself. Enwonwu also likely painted the surface of this piece in order to understand how the light would play across its form.

Mama Africa, she was the voice of a continent struggling for—and winning—freedom and dignity.

• Raised on the outskirts of Sophiatown, a township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, Makeba rose in prominence singing in South Africa in the early 1950s. Her appearance in an anti-apartheid documentary caught the attention of Harry Belafonte, who invited her to the United States in 1959.
• In the U.S., Makeba recorded a large number of songs, in Xhosa, Zulu, and English. She became a global celebrity, and one of the continent’s most recognized faces and voices, bringing African music to many Western audiences for the first time. She was the first African artist to win a Grammy, in 1965, with Belafonte.
• The South African government refused her re-entry to the country in 1960; it would ban her records and revoke her passport in 1963. Makeba, meanwhile, became a vocal and highly visible critic of the apartheid regime, both in her songs and in her growing role as a civil rights activist.
• After marrying Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968, Makeba and her husband left the U.S., first for Guinea. She would tour Europe and Africa in the decades that followed, performing at a number of new African nations’ independence celebrations.
• Nelson Mandela invited Makeba to return to South Africa in 1991—the freedom she had called for had finally come to her homeland. She was named a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and continued to speak out for humanitarian causes.

“I do not sing politics. I merely sing the truth.”

—Miriam Makeba