This Fine Artist and Sculptor has taken the name and character of the popular Ghanaian folk hero and skygod Kwaku Ananse – he with the ability to spin webs of cunning and wisdom. This is his fifth year presenting at Chale Wote.
Ananse’s Magneto Motherland installation is titled “Resistance for Redemption” and will encompass multiple elements of the arts, including live acts and models as he brings the abstract of this year’s theme (Magneto Motherland) to life.
Ananse will be utilising elements of nature in his multimedia installation, to share knowledge and insights about the resistance culture embodied in the formation of the transatlantic slave trade.
An example of this is how water played an important role in the resistance history of enslaved and former enslaved Africans; seen in the Igbo Landing, where over 70 Igbo men and women captured to be sent into slavery chose to die rather than to be in servitude. Another is Harriet Tubman’s role in the Combahee Ferry Raid (River raid) and how it reflects our African ancestors’ great relationship with the oceans and rivers.
As a comparison to the transatlantic slave activities and its non-existent postcolonial reform structures, “Resistence for Redemption” is being presented in the context of one man’s garbage being another man’s treasure.