Mo Laudi: Polelo (A New Language

Mo Laudi, Morithi wa Ubuntu (The shadow of humanity), 2019 Mixed media, QR codes, Acrylic and archival material on canvas 84 x 60 cm

Morithi wa Ubuntu (The shadow of humanity) is another assemblage piece. The light red, white, and beige color blocks create a disjointed grid. In the top left corner we see a photograph of what is known as the Queen Mother Pendant Mask: Iyoba, which is held in the Museum of Metropolitan Art, New York, far from its country of origin (Benin) to say the least. Ubuntu, the African philosophy that emphasizes the notion of ‘being self through others’ is also a euphemism for humanity. The juxtaposition of the Benin mask from the 16th century alongside four varying QR codes, a photograph of Ernest Mancoba on the upper right side, a sketch of three protestors with their fists in the air, and a few silhouettes of anonymous figures, makes the piece feel like an uncomfortable intermingling of time and space; just as perhaps the so-called Queen Mother feels inside the walls of the MET. We are reminded of colonial history African countries by the so-called West and of the practice of displaying sacred artifacts, pillaged from colonized peoples. If we look at the provenance of this mask, we see that it belonged to the court of Benin until 1897 when the British invaded which brough modern-day Nigeria under British rule. Again, Laudi synthesizes contemporality with the past, consequently making us as viewers re-wire our prescribed notions of humanity.