Adinkra

In May 2026, The Window Galleries on Friar's Entry showcased work by Mimi Kassi.

Mimi Kassi’s Adinkra is a journey of reclamation from the displacement of the 1897 Benin Kingdom loot to the bold visual language of the Black Power movement. Working across gold leaf, raffia, wood, iron, and jewellery forms, Kassi restores narratives disputed by colonial extraction and builds an ongoing dialogue between past loss and present empowerment.

The project began with Akinkra No, Kassi’s first collection, born from a deeply personal and historical response to the removal of African artefacts during events such as the 1897 Great Benin Kingdom loot. Now held in Western museums far from home, these objects carry cultural, spiritual, and historical weight that extends well beyond their physical form. Rather than directly replicating them, Kassi produces a stylised reinterpretation that reclaims their presence.

As someone of West African heritage, specifically from Ivory Coast, she describes the process as an act of honouring her ancestors and restoring a sense of ownership over stories that colonialism disrupted. The collection’s title draws on the visual and philosophical language of Adinkra symbols, a system of communication rooted in heritage, identity, and meaning.

Kassi’s second collection evolves naturally from the first, shifting focus from looking back to looking outward toward resistance, unity, and collective identity. Here, she draws particular inspiration from the Black Power movement, which is too often reduced to caricature but, at its core, embodies unity, self-determination, and solidarity. The work recontextualises emblems like the Pan-African flag and the Black Power star alongside influences from the African diaspora and the motherland.

Together, the two collections form a continuous conversation between past and present, loss and reclamation, and oppression and empowerment. As Kassi puts it, her work exists as both tribute and resistance, honouring those who came before her while asserting presence, identity, and agency in the here and now.

Follow Mimi’s work: Mimi Instagram

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