This fresco is named OMOTUNDE. It is the sixth I have
produced--there are three in France, indoors, and two in Benin,
outdoors. To date, this is the largest one I have painted.
You may wonder why a mural? It began with an idea from the
Africatown Community Development Corporation (ACDC), located in
Africatown, Plateau, Alabama. They wanted images of Africa that
would welcome people to Africatown. The mural is the first thing
people see as they turn onto the road that leads into the community.
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
Omotunde mural | Africatown
As an artist, I believe murals take the place of speech and serve to visually challenge passers-by and provide them with information that they might not have ordinarily seek out; admit it, when we are driving or evening walk,most of us are caught up in our daily preoccupations. Art stops us! It demands that we pause, slow down our brain, and makes us think—what do those images mean, what do those symbols represent?
Omotunde is a Yoruba word that translates into “the child who returns home. In making this the name of the Africatown mural, I wanted to symbolically reconnect the people of Africatown with their African roots. The symbols, words, and images that I have used in the Omotunde mural serve to reconnect and reunite Africatown and its people with Africa and her people.
I envisioned this mural, as a journey through 35,000 years of African history. The images, symbols, colors, writings are intended to remind the people of Africatown and other Americans of African descent who their ancestors really were. I wanted them to SEE Africa, which for most are just images from books and movies, and take pride in the enormous impact that Africa and African descended people have had all over the planet.
Most people don’t know that Africa contributed the first mathematical formulas, designed and built some of the most magnificent monumental structures, developed a powerful scientific spirituality that has resulted in the computer science that we use daily, had its own African philosophy before Plato and Aristotle, held an African vision of the world, and practiced African ways of life that promoted the sustainability of cultural transmission. I was confident that showing strong symbols and mathematical equations in the mural, would be more telling than simply drawing the human forms.
Jeki Esso, also known as Joelle Esso is a Mural Designer. Singer, dancer, actress, author / illustrator of 15 children books, Jeki is a multi talented artist from Cameroon, living between France, Benin and the USA. Director of Akanga cultural center (bookstore/gallery/library/artistic events).
