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Fourth World Art
Rebellions of African People in the Diaspora
By Kimathi Donkor
We have here images of four paintings by the British artist, Kimathi
Donkor. (See his email to me below.) I was immediately
impressed by these paintings when I opened the files. They are
oils on canvas on linen and are of considerable size, 135 cm x
152 cm or larger. My first comment on seeing them was, This is
Fourth World Art. Or to put it in the Kimathi Donkor,
these are artworks that "depict rebellions of African
people in the diaspora." Clearly, this artist is sensitive
to the history of the African diaspora and highly skilled. We
see an aspect of white authorities that is not usually
represented by the status quo media or the more romanticized
self-congratulatory art usually found in the great museums
representing the Empire Builders.
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In this scene, the setting is the
Isle of Hispaniola in the late 19th century during what
some called the Haitian Revolution, that is, African
peoples introducing democracy to the Western World which
is being fiercely resisted by military forces.
Historically, these forces included the armies of
Napoleon Bonaparte as well as those of the British
Empire.
In this particular scene, soldier are
murdering or about to murder women and children, that
is, the most vulnerable. |
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This painting is part of the exhibition,
'Fall/Uprising'.
As explained by the artist, "the 1985 conflict
was sparked by the shooting and paralysis of one
grandmother of Jamaican origin (Mrs Cherry Groce) by a
police officer, followed a week later by the fatal heart
attack of another lady (Mrs Cynthia Jarrett) after being
pushed over by another police officer." (See below Kimathi
Donkor more detailed description of the event
below.)
The black youth represented here reminds us of the Paris
Rebellion of 2005. |
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As we all know Britain used to be a
colonial empire. Many of their former subjects are now
British citizens. Though the colonial relationship has
been eliminated, racism has not been eliminated. Their
former black subjects are still dealt with less than as
full citizens.
Of course, these images of the
British bobby is not one that we are used to in America.
We do not usually think of the British police in terms
of the police brutality that is so familiar to us who
are black citizens of the United States.
The artist provides a different face. |
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Here we have an attractive romantic
image of the Haitian revolutionary and French general,
Toussaint L'Ouverture.
What is interesting here is that
Toussaint is in the background and that one of the black
peasants is in the foreground, looking out to the viewer
with a broad smile of pleasure. These are Haiti's revolutionary youth |
A Final Note: These naturalistic
paintings are excellent in their execution and are readily
accessible to those who are not usually artistic inclined. They
will be exceptionally inspirational to Fourth World youth. I
recommend strongly that an audience of Kimathi Donkor's "rebellions
of African people" read Amin Sharif's Dark
Child of the Fourth World . In addition, a visit to Kimathi's
web site, www.kimathidonkor.net
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Kimathi Donkor, painter, was
born and educated in Britain, has family roots in
Jamaica and England as well as among the Akan people of
Ghana and Poland's Jews.
He attained his bachelor’s degree
in Fine Art at Goldsmith’s College, London, where he
also gained a post-graduate art teaching qualification.
After showing work alongside the
likes of Donald Rodney, Chila Burman, Keith Piper and
Pitika Ntuli, and then a year teaching art, Kimathi
withdrew from exhibiting.
He spent several years working in
publishing and as a human-rights campaigner. |
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He has also travelled in Africa, the
Middle East, Latin America, Asia, Europe and the
Caribbean.
In 2003 he was invited to exhibit the
painting 'Charles and Sanite Belair', in the group show
'The Jamaican Influence', thereby relaunching his
exhibiting career.
In November 2004 Kimathi held his
first major solo exhibition when London gallery owner
Bettie Morton invited him to celebrate the 200th
anniversary of Haiti's independence in a show of
monumental history paintings entitled 'Caribbean
Passion: Haiti 1804'. The exhibition is now on tour.
In 2005 he returned to the Bettie
Morton Gallery to show a further series of large oil
paintings under the title 'Fall/Uprising'. These works
explore the history of London's urban uprisings of 1985.
Kimathi is married and lives in
London. |
Dear Rudolph,
Over the past three years I have created and exhibited 2
series of large scale oil-paintings both of which depict
rebellions of African people in the diaspora.
The latest, 'Fall/Uprising' marked the 20th anniversary
of the civil conflict between residents of the Brixton and
Tottenham districts of London, and the Metropolitan police in
the autumn of 1985, and was shown in November and December of
2005.
To give you a brief background, the 1985 conflict was
sparked by the shooting and paralysis of one grandmother of
Jamaican origin (Mrs Cherry Groce) by a police officer, followed
a week later by the fatal heart attack of another lady (Mrs
Cynthia Jarrett) after being pushed over by another police
officer.
Both incidents occurred during raids on the women's homes
in pursuit of their absent, adult sons. Popular protests were
met with confrontational policing which led to three days of
fighting, millions of pounds worth of damage, the death of one
policeman and one journalist as well of hundreds of
injuries and arrests.
The aftermath of the civil conflict included changes to
police firearms procedures (removing guns from hundreds of
officers), and one of the biggest successful appeals in British
legal history when the three men convicted of the murder of
PC Keith Blakelock (during the conflict) were found not guilty -
after spending six years in prison.
The paintings in 'Fall/Uprising' mirror many of those
events, and was well received, except by the Metropolitan
police, who attempted to close down the exhibition. However,
they failed and several thousand pounds worth of paintings were
bought by members of the 'British-African' public.
The other exhibition was 'Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804',
also first shown at the Bettie Morton Gallery, in Brixton,
London in 2004. This series of largescale works was originally a
celebration of the bicentenary of the Haitian revolution, and
thus needs little explanation.
'Caribbean Passion: Haiti 1804', was also well received
and has subsequently been toured to Nottingham, England in 2005.
I am writing to ask if you might feature the paintings on
one of your Arts and Literature page, as your visitors might
find them interesting. I have taken the liberty of attaching
four of the images in this e-mail. If you were minded to include
them with just minimal comment, then you may - however, I would
welcome any review type comments, or indeed any suggestions as
to how you might like to show the pictures.
Both series in full, and other details can be viewed at
my web site, www.kimathidonkor.net,
to which I would also be grateful if you would create a link.
Naturally, you would need to mention, not only my authorship,
but that the images are copyrighted.
Yours sincerely,
Kimathi Donkor
Toussaint L'Ouverture at Bedourete 2004, oil on linen, 136 x
183cm
Bacchus & Ariadne 2004, oil on linen,
132 x 152
Madonna Metropolitan 2005, oil on linen,
152 x 152cm
Coldharbour Lane 1985 2005, oil on canvas,
152 x 152cm
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Dear
Rudy,
Thanks for your very positive and swift response to my e-mail,
as well as for letting me know about Amin Sharif's fascinating
concept of the
Fourth World.
Do keep up the good work with 'ChickenBones', I have
visited it many times and find it to be a very necessary and
welcome intervention on the web - I wonder whether you are
familiar with www.ligali.org
which offers a
service for UK surfers which has some parallels with your own
provision for US surfers. Yours sincerely, Kimathi
posted 19 February 2006
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Fourth World Essays
Afro-America
& The Fourth World
The
Black Middle Class & a Political Party of the Poor (essay)
Dark
Child of the Fourth World
The
Fourth World and the Marxists
The
Fourth World: In the Belly of the Beast
New
Orleans: The American Nightmare
On
the Fourth World: Black Power, Black Panthers,
and White Allies
Why I Support
the Latino Demonstrators
Other Fourth World Essays
African
America –
A Fourth World (Waldron H. Giles)
Dark Child of the Fourth World Reaches Out
(Dennis Leroy Moore)
Fourth World Introduction (M.P. Parameswaran)
Fourth
World: Marxist, Gandhian, Environmentalist
(M.P. Parameswaran)
The Fourth World Multiculturalism (Rose Ure Mezu)
Fourth World Programme
M.P. Parameswaran)
Neo-Liberalism Dictatorship of the Market
M.P. Parameswaran)
The Rise and Fall of the Socialist World
M.P. Parameswaran)
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update
19 February 2012
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