Roméo Mivekannin (b. 1986, Bouaké, Ivory Coast)

Le Colon, Afrique du Sud (part of Barnum series)

2020, acrylic and elixir baths on free canvas, 186 × 146 cm.

Photo by Jean François Rogeboz, courtesy galerie Eric Dupont, Paris.

A white colonist rests his feet on a young African, while a second figure sits on the ground next to them. As in his other works, Mivekannin has substituted his own face for the young men’s. While the colonist looks away, they look at us, as if to remind that the continuing exploitation of Africa involves us too.

READ MORE ABOUT THE BACKGROUND…

This is one of a series of works produced for an exhibition inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. The book called for the recognition of the human rights of people of African descent, and referred to France’s colonisation of West Africa from where Mivekannin comes.