The work of making racial justice a reality must be rooted in community – in our individual and collective experiences, hopes and contributions. Create Not Destroy’s design was created in response to dialogue and workshops with local communities.

My immediate intention for the globe design was to create an image that was stark and bold with questions for the viewer to ponder and consider about the ramification of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and its damning legacy. 

I wanted to reference the graphic nature of poster art and protest art, so in my piece I have painted a protest. On the placards the protesters hold I added information and comments about the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans. I also wanted to relate the historical struggle for abolition to our struggles today for equality and justice. 

As I engaged with the community in Birmingham in preparing this work, I wanted to represent their feeling of loss but also of unity.

Based in London and the West Midlands with history steeped in early London graffiti art culture and graphic design. Create Not Destroy specialises in Videography, Photography, Mural Art and Design.

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Jay's design responds to the theme ‘Mother Africa’, which explores the richness and reality of Africa before the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans; the impact of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and European colonialism on Africa; and considers and celebrates Africa’s present and future.

For this commission, I have been deeply inspired by my time in the London Lucumi Choir, where we sang songs to the Orisha (Yoruba gods and goddesses) alongside my own spiritual interests in the concept of ‘The Divine Feminine’, an archetypal deity that appears throughout all world cultures. I bring this back to the Mother Africa theme, by relating it to the three most famous Orisha of the Pantheon: Yemaya, Osun and Oya.

Yemaya (Mother of Oceans) represents the older Mother. She is gentle and nurturing, and like many Divine Feminine figures is also full of power, exerting her rage when necessary. She represents the ‘new world’, where African diasporic women have had to learn to be both nurturer and protector.

Osun represents the young Mother, full of energy, naivete, sweetness and softness. She represents the old world, before many of our ancestors were taken. Sweet innocence and true connection with nature.

Oya bridges the two, representing the middle passage. Oya is a Warrior Goddess. Our ancestors had to be strong in the middle passage – Maroons, renegades, warriors.

All three energies represent Mother Africa. African diasporic women such as I have had to tap into these energies throughout our lives to survive in this world.

Finally, Ghanaian Adinkra symbols, beautiful in gold, represent the qualities we have found amongst our communities as women, to keep moving forward through adversity:

• Sankofa: learning from the past
• Asese ye duru: divine mother earth, sustaining life,
• Bese Saka: abundance, plenty, togetherness
• Akoben: battle cry
• Aya: hardy fern, grows despite difficulty
• Akoma: patience, tolerance
• Wawa aba: toughness and perseverance
• Nkonsonkonson: a reminder of strength in community.

For Jay, art is a primal practice that connects us to Ancestral Strength, Sacred Healing and the Divine Cosmos. Growing up in East London, Jay was surrounded by a multicultural environment, and a close proximity to Epping Forest. 

From her time spent in forests and taking trips to the beaches of her ancestral home Antigua, Jay possesses a long-lasting love for divine nature. This theme is present throughout her artwork, where she makes romantic references to water and flora. An Obeah woman and Spiritworker, Afro-Caribbean cosmologies lie at the forefront of Jay Percy’s psyche and art. 

Themes include African diasporic loss of indigenous spirituality, in addition to reminders of the strength we can all find by reconnecting with the animist practices respective to ancestral homelands, prior to colonisation.

 Jay works with acrylics and hand sews cowries and crystals directly onto canvas. She combines her love of highly saturated colours and royal golds with African Orisha worship, psychedelic print, and a fundamental belief in the right to explore one’s own consciousness.

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Donna's design responds to the theme ‘The Reality of Being Enslaved’, which makes real the experience of those people who were enslaved, from their capture, captivity and voyage to lives and deaths enslaved in different contexts, places and generations.

This design responds to the theme The Reality of Being Enslaved and in particular the story of Voyage. Whilst researching my design, I came upon the poem Slavery written by Hannah More, one of the most prominent female writers championing the abolitionist cause in eighteenth century Britain. I was particularly drawn to the lines of the poem which referred to light and darkness. 

I was reminded of the slave ships, or ‘Guineamen’ as they were known, and the horrific realities of the tortured human cargo crammed into their dark hulls. My design references the great maritime art of the eighteenth century and presents a subverted view of the golden age of sail. The glorious ships with their billowing white sails bathed in sunlight stand in stark contrast to what lies beneath. 

The base of the globe has been inspired by the 1791 Brookes slave ship diagram – one of the most recognisable images from the campaign to abolish the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans in Britain – which provided the public with a clear visual representation of conditions on board slave ships for the first time. From a distance the base appears as a pattern but on closer inspection the figures of the enslaved are revealed. 

Extracts of the poem wrap around my globe design, delivering a visual metaphor for the abundant wealth and pleasure that the sweat of the dead has procured for others.

Donna Newman is the Artist behind Eden-Designs Murals.

A freelance artist based in the Midlands, she has been working as a professional muralist and painter for over 15 years. Donna responds to clients with creativity and flair producing original, playful designs in a wide variety of subjects. Working predominantly as a commissioned artist within school settings, she seeks to inspire young people by transforming their learning environments with her vibrant artwork. 

Her unique and innovative designs always seek to educate through their creative interpretation of the curriculum and she often works directly with school groups to create bespoke artwork through collaborative children’s art workshops. A self-proclaimed addict of public art trails, Donna has worked closely with Wild in Art on over 50 sculpture commissions.

http://www.eden-designs.co.uk

Kassessa’s design responds to the theme ‘Stolen Legacy: The Rebirth of a Nation’, which brings to life how Britain was transformed and enriched as a result of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and the free labour of the enslaved. It explores the legacy of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans in building the financial and trading power of Britain; strengthening the Church and the might of universities; and establishing dynastic influence and power.

Part 2 of a series AFROPINK.

My globe concept is based on the legacy stolen from African people. With my work I suggest that we still feel the scars from the inhumane treatment of humans during this time which I believe has led to a loss of self-love for Africans.

In this painting I feature boats that crossed the Atlantic and I show people in the water, thrown overboard. I want to draw attention to the loss of life and the insurance policies that were used to protect the slave owners and transporters, not the enslaved people. Despite the fact that the enslaved people were humans, and therefore priceless, they were treated as cargo.

I wish that the world will start looking at Africans with fresh minds and love this great continent - its people and cultures. 

My colour palate has different shades of pink as the dominant colour tone and I thought about the idea of Afro Pink which speaks to the love I want to send to Africa, to Africans, to everyone.

Kassessa is a visual self-taught artist from Angola. From an early age, he was interested in art and developed a great passion for creating plays, toys and art crafts. He creates different concepts and translates them into different artistic expressions through live events – stages and exhibitions – or through printed, digital, sculpture and painted mediums.

He enjoys working with different materials and he expresses himself through his art, highlighting and bringing awareness to different societal issues and the people they affect.

Tamika's design responds to the theme ‘Abolition & Emancipation’, which shares the story of the campaign for abolition, its key events, heroes and allies. It also lays bare the full, messy motivations and process of abolition, which were not as pure as often represented.

The Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans is an abstract concept for most of the world. Macro concepts such as “Africa” and “the West” are frequently used loosely in conversation.

The British, having established a system for slaver compensation prior to emancipation, kept painstakingly detailed records of the enslaved who were displaced to their colonial dependencies. For those of us in post-colonial Caribbean countries, the registers of the enslaved make the experience much more micro; individual details of the enslaved in our respective countries is quantifiable, even if only for a short space of time. 

This globe design superimposes a snapshot of the register of enslaved people from Golden Grove plantation in Cat Island in the Bahamas from 1822, alongside some of the earliest photographs of the colonial Bahamas by J.F.Coonley (1889) and William Henry Jackson (1905) from the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ National Collection. 

It contains the names of Charlotte: an enslaved woman who, based upon archival records, played a large part in the uprising of enslaved people at Golden Grove in 1831 – and who made several attempts on the lives of her slavers – as well as her children, William and Guy. 

The advent of photography on the heels of the end of apprenticeship in British colonies contributed to a purposely skewed and romanticised representation of people and place. But the registers of the enslaved take us closer to truths surrounding the conditions of their existence – one of the most glaring is that slavers truly regarded them simply as chattel.

Tamika is a documentarian and multimedia visual artist. A Bahamian native, Tamika’s work examines the complexities of living in a place shrouded in tourism’s ideal during the age of climate concerns. 

Emphasising the importance of Bahamian cultural identity for cultural preservation, Tamika documents aspects of Bahamian life not curated for tourist consumption to intervene in the historical archive. This work counters the widely held paradisiacal view of the Caribbean, the origins of which arose post-emancipation through a controlled, systematic visual framing and commodification of the tropics.

https://www.tamikagalanis.com

Gayani's design responds to the theme ‘A Complex Triangle’, which explores the complexity of Britain’s relationship with Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean across generations, and the legacy of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans on the UK’s role and reputation in the world.

Much ancient knowledge about the healthgiving and healing power of plants comes from Africa. This knowledge was passed on from generation to generation, from continent to continent, to enable people to heal, survive and even connect with the sacred. The history of these plants that are now known and grown throughout the world is entwined with the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans.

If the enslaved became ill in the horrendous conditions on the ships that transported them from Africa to the Americas, they would not receive medical treatment and risked being abandoned to the sea – thrown overboard – even before they died. Knowing this, the enslaved learned to look after their health by hiding medicinal leaves and seeds in their clothes or hair, to which that they could add to water or chew on to get better on the voyage.

My globe shows many of these plants and flowers. Coca from the kola nut – which acted as a sedative; cannabis sticks and leaves which were bitten or chewed when ill, and the aloe vera leaf which could be bitten to satiate feelings of hunger when there was no food. 

Ocra and bitter melon all come from Africa and are still today used as herbal medicines worldwide. The eggplant – also originally from Africa – has medicinal properties and is now grown all over the world in hybrid species. The peacock flower is actually very tiny, but its impact in the Caribbean is very large – it is still drunk regularly to maintain and improve health – so it is shown much enlarged on my globe. Pods from the cotton bushes, one of the most profitable crops produced by enslaved labour in America, are also included - raw cotton was exported to be processed in Britain and then sold all over the world. 

The background of the globe is sugar cane; not native to  Africa but grown in the Caribbean with enslaved labour and this is symbolised by the chains amongst the plants. 

In modern societies, our access to medicine is often restricted by corporate monopolies – we have lost touch with these natural and ancient healing powers. The image of Justicea in the centre of the globe holding a very unbalanced scale and without a sword – her power has been taken away – represents this.

The gold paint on top of the globe represents the natural resources of Africa’s gold and botanical treasures before it was plundered.

I have painted this globe in a naïve, childlike style as a tribute to my parents, both of whom I lost very recently: my mother was a primary school teacher and I often drew artwork for her classes, and my father was an established artists and sculptor.

Gayani lives in Birmingham and is an artist, vegan chef and ethical floral designer originally from Sri Lanka who has lived in the UK for 27 years. Her work is based on nature, especially plants and flowers. She has been a Wild in Art artist since 2017. She has been glass painting for 26 years and is preparing to have an exhibition to celebrate 4,000 pieces of glass art that are from her collection. She uses art as therapy to help others (and herself) to overcome grief and improve mental health.

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Gabriel's design responds to the theme ‘Echoes in the Present’, which focuses on how the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and its related history has present day negative consequences: systemic inequalities and injustice; entrenched racism and prejudices; and the generational echoes which have traumatic physical, behavioural, psychological and material impact.

In this painting I reference the Brookes diagram which showed how enslaved Africans were positioned on ships from West Africa to the Americas and Caribbean.

People were positioned in a cramped order, way over safe capacities, and head to head. I decided to depict two children who are head to head and holding hands. They are trying to comfort each other in this frightening experience of transatlantic travel.  

I'm interested in how this relates to the African diaspora in Britain today. I imagine Echoes in the Present to be the divisive nature of colonial borders which continue to be promoted amongst Black people.

However, in resistance, we are united – like the two children in my piece. We can choose to hold onto each other and be one others' support as we move towards racial justice together.

Gabriel’s artwork combines the twin disciplines of printmaking and painting, primarily in oil on paper. Through his singular technique, Choto seeks new pathways into the painted image by taking cues from the surface quality produced by the printmaking process.

His evolving, experimental practice involves layering painted areas of naturalism over the delicate compositional architecture of etching, resulting in paintings where physical presence and absence imply a metaphoric liminal state. 

Sensitive and intimate, these images include close family members, depicting quiet moments of contemplation or affectionate domestic scenes taken from old photographs, progressing into self portraits where through constructed situations the artist examines his own identity.

Choto’s intimate paintings draw on themes of home, pride, identity and diaspora.

Glory's design responds to the theme ‘Still We Rise’, which recognises and honours the enslaved and their descendants who resisted, who succeeded, and who broke new ground. We honour the well-known and celebrated, and shed light on untold legacies and events.

Dear Archives is a globe installation which gathers my mental montage on unpopular but renown historical figures. Growing up, I vividly remember Roots, Twelve Years A Slave and The Color Purple being audacious portrayals of the horrors of African slavery or racial injustice. It felt like either we don’t go far back enough, or we don’t see history holistically. 

Still We Rise is a theme that honours victors, not victims. By this, I mean African, Black westerners who were met with prejudice and used the opportunity to overcome, and not remain victims, by being proactive not reactive.

James Forten innovated the original sail, owning a sail loft business worth millions circa 1800. He was friends with Paul Cuffee, a sea captain who built the first racially integrated school in Massachusetts.

Septimius Severus, an African Roman Emperor came to Britain in the second century to strengthen Hadrian’s wall.

Black Aristocratic Art is a blog I created to honour the side of art history which is often overlooked, or simply unknown. It is important for Black communities in the West to acknowledge African individuals who pioneered in their spheres of influence.

As a figurative painter, Afro-Caribbean and British citizen at birth, I assess ethnic minority identities in the western world by creating iconic narratives through my portraiture.

Living in London has taught me to use ethnic isolation as a platform of distinction rather than a victim collective, and to understand other artists who have felt non-British because of their ethnicity. Painting is the bridge that transforms my thoughts into visual action against misrepresentation. Each painting has a voice of its own; they ask questions that must be answered.

Art history is a critical subject for me, because not long ago I realised that ethnic minority artists find themselves underrepresented in historical portraiture. Before a painting of mine reaches its finished form, it requires investigation into my model, and their stance in society. 

The women I paint are artists, business owners and intellectuals sharing their stories by inserting themselves into the narrative of European art history. I want Europe’s diverse history to create a harmony between ethnic minorities and majorities in the gallery space, with the common denominator of healthy nationalism.

Pauline's design responds to the theme ‘Expanding Soul’, which celebrates the spirit and culture of the African diaspora that, even in the face of incredible suffering, has endured and found vibrant expression across the world in music, art, food and so much more.

For the theme Expanding Soul I thought about all the things that Africa has given the world; but there were so many elements it was impossible to include everything on one globe!

I decided to focus on music, the geometric patterns of African cloth that have influenced so much textile and fashion design, and the spiritual symbols of West Africa.

In recent years I have often produced site-specific installations in metal and mixed medium work for the public realm. As a multidisciplinary artist, I also work in a range of other mediums within my engaged practice, including textiles, photography, and video.

Regardless of the medium, my individual art practice is generally informed by the multiple layers of diverse cultures and heritage of the African diaspora.

As a visual artist and curator, Pauline Bailey has led numerous art projects centred around engagement, equality, and diversity working with a range of excluded and vulnerable groups to find creative expression, particularly to address issues around heritage, identity, sense of place, health and wellbeing.

She is one of the core members of the Black Arts Forum and Handsworth Creative based in Birmingham and also co-founder of the Daughters of Africa Foundation in the Gambia. 

Pauline has curated and exhibited work nationally and internationally and is continuing to develop opportunities for emerging artists internationally alongside her individual visual arts practice. Pauline’s practice has always centred around identity and belonging, and she also has a strong interest in other themes such as ‘dereliction’, the natural environment, found/recycled materials and objects of the everyday.

Pauline’s individual art practice is generally informed by the multiple layers of diverse cultures and heritage of the African diaspora.

www.paulinebailey-arts.co.uk

Jess's design responds to the theme ‘Reimagine the Future’, which gives us free rein to imagine the society we can create when we have a full understanding of our shared history; the place the UK can hold in the world when it acknowledges its past; and who we can be as people and a country when we give full dignity to all.

A Code For A Better Future draws heavily on what every community can do to create a better world for tomorrow. 

Using the Adinkra symbols that originated in Ghana, West Africa – which have been used for creating fabrics, logos and pottery for many centuries – this design creates a code for how we as humans need to behave to imagine a world that is equal for all.

Identifying four core categories seen throughout the Adinkra symbols – education, co-operation, love and peace – the pattern that has been created on the sculpture resembles a code. Using symbols such as ‘Sankofa’ meaning ‘learn from the past,’ as well as ‘Bi Nka Bi’ which symbolises peace and harmony, this pattern asks the world to educate themselves on the past, and work together to find a better future. 

The colours and layout for this design are inspired by the lost wax pouring techniques of Benin. The symbols are arranged as though being poured from the top as well as rising up from underneath; as though molten gold being poured through a mould. 

I used a vinyl stencil technique to create the design. This involved spraying the whole globe gold and, once dry, attaching the vinyl stencils to the sculpture. I then sprayed the whole sculpture black, and peeled the stencils off to reveal the gold symbols underneath. 

This method provides an extremely clean and precise finish, and creates a very smooth surface. The overall aesthetic of the sculpture is intended to be elegant and simple, but with a very important message.

Jess Perrin is an illustrator and designer, living and working in Birmingham. Jess studied Graphic Communication and Illustration at Loughborough University, specializing in animation and character design. She completed her Master’s Degree in Visual Communication in 2019, and loves to create graphic digital work with a strong narrative.

Her love for design of all types can be seen throughout her work, particularly playing with colour to portray meaning and evoke emotion. Throughout her professional life, Jess has found a love of pattern design, and is particularly influenced by folk art from around the world as well as drawing inspiration from the natural world and the stories people have to tell.

Jess has created over 40 sculptures with Wild in Art since 2017 for a number of trails across the UK, raising over £120,000 from the sale of her work for various charities.

Find Jess on Instagram

The Galtons are a family from Birmingham who made their wealth from manufacturing

 and selling guns. It is believed that Samuel Galton Snr. (1720-1799) first got involved in the gun trade in the 1750s when working with his father in law James Farmer. He later established his own gun making firm on Steel House Lane. By 1773, his son Samuel John Galton Jr was managing the family firm, a year later becoming an equal partner. A member of the Lunar Society, Samuel John Galton Jr was known as a successful businessman with

 involvement in a variety of ventures, including canal development. His son Samuel, later succeeded him. It has been estimated that 150,000 guns made in Birmingham from the 1760s were exchanged for enslaved Africans. Some of these guns were manufactured by The Galton’s. 

In 1824, Cadbury’s Chocolate founder, John Cadbury (1801 – 11 May 1889) opened his first Cadbury’s shop at 93 Bull Street. Previously an apprentice to a tea dealer in Leeds, John sold cocoa and drinking chocolate, which he prepared himself using a pestle and Mortar from 93 Bull Street. In 1831, he moved from this shop to a factory in Crooked Lane so that he could start producing chocolate on a commercial scale. His new property was a four-story warehouse.

John Cadbury’s first shop on Bull St, 1824 | © Cadbury

In 1809, this monument of  Admiral Horatio Nelson created by British sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott Jr, was erected  in the Bull Ring, Birmingham. Vice-Admiral Horatio 

Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte, KB (1758 – 1805), was a British naval commander, fighting in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. 

Considered a national hero, the statue was erected to commemorate his war efforts. The monument is a sister statue to one erected in Barbados, in the capital city Bridgetown, in the area known as Trafalgar Square, opposite Parliament Buildings. The statue erected in 1813, was moved to The Barbados Museum and Historical Society in 2000 Following the discovery of a letter, he wrote onboard HMS Victory. The note expressed his vehement opposition to William Wilberforce’s campaign for the abolition of the slave trade.

Image by Memorino - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Established in 1965, The Lunar Society was a group of free thinking scientists and industrialists founded by Matthew Boulton (1728 – 1809), an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. Meeting regularly, The Society brought together some of the UK’s leading eighteenth century intellectuals, including Joseph Priestley, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood, James Watt, and William Withering.

At Soho House, the original men would gather for dinner to discuss and debate philosophy, arts, science and commerce. Their meetings took place at the time of the full moon, this enabled the members to proceed home; their journey back lit by the full moon. Other than debating and discovering, they also built canals and factories, managed world-class businesses — and changed the face of Birmingham.

This lodge was the gatehouse to Heathfield Hall, home of James Watt (1736-1819) steam engineer, inventor and scientist. Born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, the Scottish inventor is considered to have made substantial contributions to the Industrial Revolution with the advances he made in the technology of the steam engine. Known for patenting the double-acting engine and an early steam locomotive, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1785. 

Whilst he is revered for his inventions, especially ‘the separate condenser’ created  in May 1765, as a solution to the problems he saw with a model Newcomen steam engine he was repairing, his legacy has been tarnished by his involvement in the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans. The Watt enterprise was involved in the occasional purchase and trafficking of enslaved people in the West Indies, North Carolina, and Scotland, prior to the famous Joseph Knight case which made slavery illegal in Scotland in 1778.  

Image By Allen Edward Everitt - http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1977V43/images/138529, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41205908