Tag Archives: Former U.S. President Barack Obama

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Kehinde Wiley Redefines African Leadership in ‘A Maze of Power’

Maravi Post Reporter

American artist Kehinde Wiley unveiled a series of large-format portraits of African leaders in Morocco earlier this month, building on his now famous 2018 portrait of former U.S. President Barack Obama sitting casually amid a wild cascade of leaves and flowers.

His exhibition, entitled “A Maze of Power,” opened at the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, after previously showing in Paris and Dakar, Senegal. The artwork borrows from classical easel painting techniques, posing African leaders in a style mainly associated with European royalty and aristocracy.

The maze “is a series of daily challenges of how to wield that power, how to negotiate their offices,” Wiley said. In one portrait, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, former president of Madagascar, is depicted sitting confidently astride a horse. And Alassane Ouattara, president of Ivory Coast, is seen clenching his brow as he grips a sword in his right hand.

“It’s about them and their personal decisions. And if we pull really far back, it’s about the representation of power for hundreds of years that starts in Western Europe,” Wiley told The Associated Press at the opening of his exhibition.

“A Maze of Power” arrived in Morocco seven months after first showing at Paris’ Musée du Quai Branly — Jacques Chirac. It’s part of the Moroccan museum’s efforts to become a hub for African art ahead of the next year’s opening of the Museum of the African Continent, across the street in Rabat.

Wiley said that after his Obama portrait, he was able to leverage his connections to gain audiences with leaders from across Africa and persuade them to sit for him. In addition to Obama’s, the portraits also echo Wiley’s earlier works, in which young Black men appear in poses most associated with paintings of kings and generals.

Showing his would-be subjects a book full of classical paintings to draw inspiration from, Wiley said he prepares for painting by taking hundreds of photographs of each leader and then placing them in settings both real and abstract.

Although he wanted to show political power, the leaders’ individual political choices were not relevant to the series, Wiley said.

The leaders depicted include some marred by corruption scandals and others who ignored presidential term limits and repressed protestors. There are also two whose militaries are fighting each other in eastern Congo: Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/13/85/35/08/ED_PYR_1385358_20250502132659.mp4
Malawi, Regional, SADC, Top News

Former US Preident Obama calls today’s times ‘strange and uncertain’ in high-profile speech;16th Nelson Mandela annual lecture

Lloyd M’bwana

PRETORIA-Former U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday was making his highest-profile speech since leaving office, urging people around the world to respect human rights and other values under threat in an address marking the 100th anniversary of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela’s birth.

According to The Associated Press (AP), while not directly mentioning his successor, President Donald Trump, Obama’s speech in South Africa countered many of Trump’s policies, rallying people to keep alive the ideas that Mandela worked for including democracy, diversity and good education for all.

Obama opened by describing today’s times as “strange and uncertain,” adding that “each day’s news cycle is bringing more head-spinning and disturbing headlines.”

These days “we see much of the world threatening to return to a more dangerous, more brutal, way of doing business,” Obama said.

His words were met with cheers by a crowd of about 14,000 people gathered at a cricket stadium in Johannesburg for the speech, which was streamed online.

“Just by standing on the stage honoring Nelson Mandela, Obama is delivering an eloquent rebuke to Trump,” said John Stremlau, professor of international relations at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, who called the timing auspicious as the commitments that defined Mandela’s life are “under assault” in the U.S. and elsewhere.

“Yesterday we had Trump and Putin standing together, now we are seeing the opposing team: Obama and Mandela.”

This is Obama’s first visit to Africa since leaving office in early 2017. He stopped earlier this week in Kenya, where he visited the rural birthplace of his late father.

Obama’s speech highlighted how the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was imprisoned for 27 years, kept up his campaign against what appeared to be insurmountable odds to end apartheid, South Africa’s harsh system of white minority rule.

Mandela, who was released from prison in 1990 and became South Africa’s first black president four years later, died in 2013, leaving a powerful legacy of reconciliation and diversity along with a resistance to inequality, economic and otherwise.

Obama has shied away from public comment on Trump, whose administration has reversed or attacked notable achievements of his predecessor.

The U.S. under Trump has withdrawn from the 2015 Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal while trying to undercut the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.”

Instead of commenting on politics, Obama’s speech was drawing on broader themes and his admiration for Mandela, whom America’s first black president saw as a mentor.

When Obama was a U.S. senator he had his picture taken with Mandela. After Obama became president he sent a copy of the photo to Mandela, who kept it in his office.

Obama also made a point of visiting Mandela’s prison cell and gave a moving eulogy at Mandela’s memorial service in 2013, saying the South African leader’s life had inspired him.

Many South Africans view Obama as a successor to Mandela because of his groundbreaking role and his support for racial equality in the U.S. and around the world.

Moses Moyo, a 32-year-old Uber driver, was among the thousands lining up for Obama’s speech. “I think he’ll speak about how Mandela changed the system here in South Africa, how he ended apartheid and gave hope for the poor and encouraged education,” he said.

Many people in South Africa are discouraged by corruption, he added, as the ruling African National Congress struggles to maintain the legacy that Mandela and others established.