Karen Stracener

This work relates to one of my poems titled “My Africa”. They seek to complement and scrutinize the present day Africa (Sub-Sahara). Both literature and art piece in series are one of the phases of my first major project as an artist. They serve as introductory to this story.

The poem mentions the fact that Africa was here and has ever been here before I was conceived. It also painted the fact that I had lost my memory of where I came from and how I looked so that she was the first person I saw from birth and who also has accepted me. I grew up to know her and to appreciate her beauty. But for how long would my eyes not be opened that I should see her atrocities that I began to question this beauty that I’ve always known.
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The “art piece” is a relief that hangs on a wall. It was sculpted from a wood locally known as “asamfora”, by reason of its beautiful fair colour, which denotes one of the basic principles of beauty of the Ghanaian, and at large, Africa’s (Sub- Sahara). The work is 50” in length and 26” in breadth.

From the on-set, Africa, on the world map, has the most beautiful outline with arguably, one of the friendliest natural environment (if not the best).
The black background represents the mysteries that surround the continent with its dark history. The red, yellow and green within the dark ground are the domineering of all colours on the continent. They are beautiful and identify Africa from the rest of the continents. They have, of course, their own meanings in respect to each country; yet, these meanings run throughout the continent.
• Red represents the toil the continent had to go through to reach liberation.
• Gold or yellow, (silver on the piece) stands for its ever abundant natural resources.
And,
• Green denotes its evergreen vegetation, which supports almost every plant worldwide.
• The basket signifies the security Africa enjoys from and within it’s culture.
• On the piece, the dark reddish brown colour, is what I used here to represent the continent’s rich diversely dynamic cultural heritage and values.

This piece showcases the unique riches and beauty which the continent has, to project its pride in.

The poem:
MY AFRICA
When I look back into history
Here I am is a mystery
Deeper I get at knowing my previous
Darker my memory it grows
It is a wonder my wandering soul to find
In void of my previous, I became
My first sight to see was beauty amazing
It was beauty beyond beauties
Adorned with beauty beyond imaginations
Never lacking in any beauty
She was complete with beauties
Whose chunk any ant to bite
That many a time, I soliloquized,
Is that all your beauty to have?