killing an empire
Oppression, racism, greed and hate, were the elements utilized to build the framework of the capitalistic society that we live in today; a society whose functions can be likened to a game. To keep the game alive, citizens or “players” are seduced by the “prizes.” The grand prize, true freedom, is coupled with a few other prizes of “lesser value,” like access to healthcare, fresh food and housing rights. In this game that many are forced to play, the majority never win; but instead of questioning the arbitrary rules and reason for the game’s existence, many would rather blame their plight on their self doing, their circumstance, or perhaps even the color of their skin.
King Leopold II of Belgium viewed his ownership of the Congo as his game. He stripped the country of its resources like ivory and rubber to build his country in Europe. Leopold didn't do this work peacefully, by means of the armed mercenary group Force Publique they placed the Congan people under forced labor, torture, murder, kidnapping, forced amputations, and many other atrocities and crimes against humanity. Under his rule, it is estimated that close to 10 million people or nearly half of Congo’s population at the time died from disease, violence, and forced labor.
And so in this painting you are looking at someone whose being was under attack just for being born in a place where human rights weren’t given to people born in colonies, a place where rights were earned and not given.
So, no longer disillusioned by the prizes, but mocked instead, this black woman, a past player and survivor of the sadistic and brutal regime of Belgian King Leopold II, is shown resurrected. And with the same hands that were once taken from her, she assassinates the creator of this sick game in cold blood, because “being” and the right every human has to experience true freedom is nonnegotiable.
What inspired the painting
While watching a video about the violence living under a capitalistic society has put us through, I felt the urge to write. While writing this poem, I had an epiphany, a revelation that capitalism and what it preaches will make society most happy, are like the varying level of prizes in a sweepstakes a game. There is a grand prize, lesser prizes and a majority that loses. And there is a majority that never asks to play.
Thinking about this idea of being forced to play, made me think about what Black people around the world have to live through. Some, like those who lived under the rule of Belgian King Leopold II experienced a level of brutality and torture that is uncomfortable to even fathom. With over half of the Congo’s population dying from disease, malnutrition, and violence, and many having hands and feet amputated, it is difficult to think about what some were forced to live through.
Learning and researching more about this, is what compelled me to want to start this painting. I wanted a black woman, who is regarded as the weakest person in this society and most taken advantage of, to exact vengeance on a system that has actively worked at denying her humanity. Having survived through a horrific past, she's back from the dead. The hands that were taken from her, reappear, as they float with her body. Coming back to a world, where the same game is being played, she refuses to allow future generations of people who look like her to experience what she did, not anymore. With one bullet, she aims for a headshot. Pronounced dead at the scene, for the very first time, the world reaches the ultimate turning point.