Forming The League

It’s finally happened: I’ve started to get names for some of the women I paint— well, not names but titles… dare I say positions of AUTHORity. In short, as Black women, no sojourn is anything without our knowing who we are and the role we occupy as beings of continuation of past; BEING into the future. Thusfar, the following figures have been emblazoned as VGB’s archetypes. A Council of Sojourners…

The Aviator— She represents the one who can soar and see the broad picture. She knows where she’s come from and has departed, and knows where she is headed. Her eyes are on the horizon. She beholds a new day.

Confirmed “The Astronomer”— Deprogramming means making a departure from how the coloniser tells time. It means nolonger demonising the luminaries above and their means of helping us know times and seasons, and trusting those around us who can interpret the skies.

Affirmed “The Seer”— Who amongst us has the gift of sight? This gift is often institutionalised out of us so that we become the perfect pawn for capitalism: compliant and non-revolting. But the Seer’s role is to receive revelation through vision and imagination. Seers are brave, bold and unrelenting— they have no fear of names, titles, celebrity status. If the truth needs to be told, they tell it as they have been entrusted and gifted to see it.

The Cartographer— In the journey, in your lineage and in the culture we need the map-makers. Who is willing to sojourn to unknown geographies, codify the way, draw out the landscapes and denote the edifying and violent paths?