Zoé Samudzi: “Sibathontisele” at 15: Zimbabwean Ethnopolitics and the Work of Owen Maseko

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Art Curator and Scholar Zoé Samudzi offers a reflection on the ethnopolitical and historical implications of “Sibathontisele” (2010-present), a series of paintings by Zimbabwean artist and genocide survivor Owen Maseko. The talk traces a throughline between the Gukurahundi genocide (1982-87), the subject matter of the series, and the relationship between Maseko’s repression as a Ndebele artist and the Zimbabwean state’s historical revisionism regarding the genocide. This talk will be moderated by Folarin Ajibade, Assistant Professor of African History at Bard College.


This CHRA Talk is co-hosted with American and Indigenous Studies and Bard Studio Art.

Zoé Samudzi is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of African-American and Africana Studies at The Ohio State University. She is also a Global Blackness Fellow with the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Johannesburg, and a fellow with African Museums and Heritage Restitution (AFRIMUHERE). Her work engages visuality, genocide memory, and African postcoloniality. Samudzi is an associate editor with Parapraxis Magazine, a popular magazine dedicated to psychoanalytic thinking.