Mental Migration: Reconstructing the Neo-African Reality

Cropped from "I think I'm alone now," oil, acrylic and wood dust on canvas, 2021.

The subjects in my paintings fit into the sociopolitical context of what I refer to as Mental Migration. Emigration has been a practice that has marked the life experiences of most Africans especially in the Sub-Saharan parts. At first this migration was forced - in terms of idigenes captured using military force of both their compatriots and slave traders from Europe and transported under inhumane conditions to the "New World" to work on the plantations as slaves. This marked the beginning of seismic moves to incorporate Africa and other militarily/politically repressed parts of the world into a fledging global economy. This prioritised the needs, dreams and aspirations of certain groups of people and polities over the needs and aspirations of the incorporated slaves, and by extension - and future colonialist endeavours - those of their compatriots.

Fast-forward to the 20th and 21st centuries. The European and other imperialist powers have continued to wield enormous influence not only over the experiences of Africans, but also their thinking patterns. These two centuries have marked an end to colonialism in a theoretical sense, but the tenets thereof are staunchly preserved and proliferated. Neo-colonialism has paved the way for enforcing the new world order established at the end of the previous millennium and consolidated subsequently.

Johnny Existential, oil and wood dust on canvas, 2021

Back to the crux of the matter: I present the realities of the Neo-African (by this I mean Africans home and abroad who have been born into a neo-colonial world and hence have to grapple with its realities and histories) as one marked by the common human desire for a better place, a place often sought out by migration of some sorts: of ideologies, of culture, of prowess and skill in exchange for survival; a displacement of identity and sovereignty in exchange for basic well being. This time around, crosscultural migration didn't need to be enforced. The seeds had been sown in the past; the future was pregnant with the fruits.

While I sympathise with all Neo-Africans on being unwittingly caught up in this migration struggle, I also identify with the adaptive nature of our life experiences. Neo-Africans do see the need to chart a new course for their destinies, one void of the trappings of too many external influences upon their inherent and societal identities. However, they either do not know how to free themselves of neo-colonial dominion or they know but are too powerless to act against its timestamped blueprints.

"Can I have this dance", oil and acrylic on canvas, 2021

The overall blueprint is fairly simple but very complex in its workings: "Neo-Africans, you have to choose between being poor, living within the boundaries of insecurity, ineptitude, corruption, nepotism, banditry and mutiny, and lack of rule of law - realities we neo-colonialists have helped preserve carefully for our benefits - or you join the brain drain mechanism. Come to our countries and enjoy some measure of basic provision for your well being in exchange for the dignity of being born, bed and blissful under the tutelage of the identities in your own lands." This blueprint has been followed religiously both by the neo-colonialists/neo-imperialists and the impoverished Neo-Africans.

The biggest danger and most potent weapon of impoverishment is the outright modification of the thinking patterns, behaviours and aspirations of the average Neo-African. While previous generations of Africans before us still enjoyed some level of cultural and sociopolitical awareness and identity, hence sustaining some progressive thinking (as most notably exemplified by Pan-African and Nationalist movements of the 40s, 50s and 60s), generations that proceeded them have increasingly and alarmingly degenerated in thought and consciousness of identity. Ideas like "globalisation", "balance of power and trade" etc are notorious for their effects of facilitating this downward spiral. It is laughable that the idea of balance of trade for instance has instituted an entirely antipodal mechanism in practice, which has carefully and brutally usurped balance, typing the scales in the favour of the Neocolonialist machinery.

"School of thought 1", oil and acrylic on canvas, 2021.

I therefore present, in my paintings, the dichotomy of perceivable reality and the new realities we desire and need to negotiate and construct as Neo-Africans. The emphasis in my paintings is not exclusively on the subjects (whom I use broken patterns on their skin to represent the many disparate influences and realities that form their ever changing person and how they are constantly fusing these pieces, as in a puzzle, to reconstruct the African identity). The emphasis is rather split evenly between the subject and the spaces in which the subject is presented. These spaces are not entirely literal depictions. I introduce elements of fantasy to discuss the role that the spectra of our imaginations need to play in recreating our literal and mental spaces, hence improving our life experiences.

"I Miss Me", oil and acrylic on canvas, 2021.

Of course, these spaces I Depict in my paintings aren't entirely fantastical either. I carefully retain elements that form our environmental consciousness, yet call us to the attendant possibilities of development arising from reconstructing environmental cues in fantastical contexts. This explains why architecture and natural spaces play important roles in my work.

It is my utmost desire to inspire Neo-African viewers of my paintings to transport themselves - their minds - into the rain of their experiential possibilities. This is partly a spiritual process of awakening but mostly a conscious and arduous process of acknowledging history and working hard to enhance its gains and minimise its losses in the present and future. By fitting the familiar within the context of the fantastical, Neo-Africans can master mental Migration, not on neocolonialist terms, but on their own terms.

Cropped from "See the Sun", oil, acrylic and wood dust on canvas, 2021.

My work is not only relevant to the African audience; I have painstakingly worked towards making the contextual latitude of my projects as inclusive as possible. Anyone anywhere in the world can identify with the duality of brokenness in their own personal lives and the desire for improved experiences. I present this duality very clearly in my work. This behoves the non-African to look past my subjective representation of skin which is in no way a take on the racial question but rather a testament to my own personal reality, as well as its reflection in the people around me.