Namafu Amutse (Namibia), Mbaye Diop (Senegal), and Olivia Mary Nantongo (Uganda) appropriate the hybrid space Wandala to liberate African images from their traditional contexts. In their artistic work, they address colonial legacies, stereotypical body images, and social tensions

In her photographs, Namafu Amutse stages Black bodies and raises questions about a fluid and dynamic African identity. Mbaye Diop addresses the tension between tradition, colonial legacy, and modern transformation, using his own body as an expression of resistance and exhaustion. Olivia Mary Nantongo, in turn, uses her body as a malleable sculpture to experiment with femininity, anger, and rebellious imagery, consciously defying exoticizing expectations.

“Why is Africa so riddled with holes and undermined?” asks Cameroonian political scientist Achille Mbembe. Wandala creates a discursive space in which questions of representation, memory, and cultural self-empowerment can be re-examined. The exhibition shows ways of shedding the face of enslavement and rejecting the victimization that, for centuries, served as a willing counterpart to plunder and oppression—with the long-overdue challenge of new narratives.