The artistic rebirth of Anta Diop indicates Adé Olufeko’s attempts to pull the astute figure from the grasps of academic dialogue and fringes of mainstream journalism, and place him within the consciousness of everyday people, most of who crave objective enlightenment on African discourses.
Resurrection serves a purpose of generating widespread attention for ideas propagated by the forgotten, and that seems to be what Adé Olufeko set out to achieve with his digital painting of one of Africa’s intellectual saviors, Cheikh Anta Diop. The painting, Diop on canvas, was created in 2014 and made its public debut at the 16th African Business Conference of Harvard Business School, where Olufeko participated as an invited speaker on its digital media and business panel.
Olufeko sets Anta Diop’s face within a splash and strokes of paints, allowing Diop to look away from the viewer, in defiance, perhaps, at his numerous critics mainly from the global academic establishment who considered as heretical his promotion of Africa as the origin of human civilization. The artistic rebirth of Anta Diop indicates Adé Olufeko’s attempts to pull the astute figure from the grasps of academic dialogue and fringes of mainstream journalism, and place him within the consciousness of everyday people, most of who crave objective enlightenment on African discourses.
Sayeed O. Salahdeen
In all due respect Mr. Ade Olufeko your digital presentation of Dr. Cheik Anta Diop IS DISINGENUOUS AND DISRESPECTFUL. HOW IT REFLECTS HIS CONTRIBUTIONS AND SACRIFICE TO RESTORING AFRICAN NEGROID ANCIENT HISTORY IS NOT VISIBLE. I hope you elevate your awareness and accept my personal and professional observation.