• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Site Directory
  • Home
  • Alex’s Lounge
  • P.O.U. Health and Fitness
  • POU Comments of the Week
  • P.O.U. Daily Link Sweep
Pragmatic Obots Unite

Pragmatic Obots Unite

Shooting down firebaggers & teabaggers one truth at a time...

Wednesday Open Thread: Black/African Nationalists and Revolutionaries

January 1, 2014 by pragobots 136 Comments

In 1969, COBRA revised their philosophy and artistic concept to expand their concern for black liberation and civil rights on an international level. Inspired by the words of Malcolm X, “All black people, regardless of their land base, have the same problems, the control of their land and economics by Europeans or Euro-Americans.”, they changed their name to AfriCOBRA: African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists. Other works by Jarrell at the time became politically and socially charged with the aesthetics put forth by AfriCOBRA. Homage to a Giant (1970) is Jarrell’s first tribute to Malcolm X. This work is used by Jarrell to speak for the black struggle against oppression and the death of student protestors fighting for that cause. Four images of Malcolm X are painted alongside those of Huey Newton, Jesse Jackson and Stokley Carmichael. “B” makes its usual appearance representing “blackness” and “badness” as well as a quote from Ossie Davis’s eulogy at Malcolm’s funeral.  

“AFRICOBRA II” was held in 1971 at the Studio Museum in Harlem before it traveled to five other museums and galleries. Jarrell exhibited Revolutionary and Black Prince (both 1971) at the show.  Revolutionary is a homage to Angela Davis. She wears a Revolutionary Suit that was designed by Jae Jarrell for the AFRICOBRA II exhibition. Prints were made of the work. However, in the original, the cartridge belt is attached to the canvas, an idea of Jae’s. The words “love”, “black”, “nation”, “time”, “rest”, “full of shit”, “revolution”, and “beautiful” burst out of her head on the canvas. The message “I have given my life in the struggle. If I have to lose my life, that is the way it will be,” travels down her chest and left arm. “B”, as usual, represents “blackness” “bad” and in this painting “beautiful”.  Black Prince is Jarrell’s second tribute to Malcolm X. “B” appears in the painting, as well as “P”; “PRINCE” and “BLACK” which travel throughout Malcolm’s face and hand. The quote “I believe in anything necessary to correct unjust conditions, political, economic, social, physical. Anything necessary as long as it gets results,” is painted across his chest and arm.

 “AFRICOBRA II” traveled to Howard and Jarrell exhibited Together We Will Win (1973), showing black “warriors,” children, women and workers “offering solutions to African people’s problems,” and Liberation Soldiers, (1972), depicting the Black Panthers. 

In winter of 1977 Jarrell and Jae visited Lagos, Nigeria, as part of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, making this the couple’s first international exhibition.  On Jarrell’s return, AFRI-COBRA formed their next show “AFRI-COBRA/Farafindugu”; farafindugu inferring “black world” in Mandinka. The exhibit, at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, featured two works by Jarrell created as a response to his journey to Africa: Mojo Workin and Soweto (both 1977). Mojo Workin featured a contribution from his then six-year-old eldest daughter, Jennifer. She created the drawing The Magic Lady and with Jarrell’s painting it was believed that mojo was expressed when others encountered the work. Soweto reflects the struggles of African people, specifically those suffering from the apartheid in South Africa. The painting is named after the city of Soweto, where a massacre of students occurred in 1976. Continuing to be inspired by his travels to Nigeria, Jarrell completed the work Zulu Sunday which was created to express similarities between African Americans and Nigerians through a celebration of a Sunday afternoon social affair. The painting shows Zulus dressed in ornate traditional dress, socializing on the street, unified by a sunburst.

Totem–like sculptures began to be created in 1995. The three sculputures making up the Ensemble series (1995) each stand over five feet tall and are painted with brilliant colors, topped off with a small animal. For the first time, in Days of the Kings (1995), horse racing appears in Jarrell’s sculptures. Sixteen totems serve as tributes to African Americans in horse racing. Epiphany (1996) memorializes the Million Man March, held in Washington, D.C. the previous year, an event that Jarrell described as one of the most important of that century. This piece, and other works, were later exhibited at the 1996 Summer Olympics

 

 

Pages: Page 1 Page 2

Filed Under: African Americans, Arts and Culture, Education, History, Open Thread Tagged With: AFRICOBRA, Artist, Black Nationalists, OBAC, Wadsworth Jerrell, Wednesday Open Thread

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • People
  • Recent
  • Popular

Top Commenters

  • GreenLadyHere13
     · 221992 posts
  • Alma98
     · 205516 posts
  • rikyrah
     · 181521 posts
  • nellcote
     · 100353 posts

Recent Comments

  • Alma98

    Hi rikyrah 👋🏽

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 7 minutes ago

  • LAMH

    Oh I’ve heard about this one. Also check out PokerFace on Peacock

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 15 minutes ago

  • LAMH

    Um…this looks like a completely different person!!

    https://x.com/xeis/status/1929330727524405346?s=46

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 16 minutes ago

  • rikyrah

    UH HUH

    Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1) · 17 minutes ago

Most Discussed

  • Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1)

    53 comments · 4 minutes ago

  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – A Southern Haunting

    80 comments · 16 hours ago

  • Friday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II

    180 comments · 2 days ago

  • Saturday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II

    80 comments · 1 day ago

Powered by Disqus

Twitter

Tweets by @PragObots

Recent Posts

  • Monday Open Thread: The Life of Robert Reed Church (Chapter 1)
  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – A Southern Haunting
  • Saturday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II
  • Friday Open Thread: African-American Military History: World War II
  • Thursday Open Thread: African American Military History – World War II

Tags

#HTGAWM #TGIT African American History African History Black History Civil Rights Movement Divas Forward Friday Open Thread Funk Grammy Winners Great Bands Hip-Hop How To Get Away With Murder Jazz Kerry Washington Legends Monday Open Thread Motown Records NFL Obama Biden 2012 Olivia Pope Open Thread P.O.U. Sunday Jazz Brunch POU Weekly NFL Picks President Barack H. Obama President Barack Obama President Obama R&B racism Rap Saturday Open Thread Scandal Shondaland Shonda Rhimes slavery Songwriters Soul Sports Sunday Open Thread Thursday Open Thread Tuesday Open Thread Video Viola Davis Wednesday Open Thread

Footer

A-F

  • African American Pundit
  • Afrospear
  • All About Race
  • Angry Black Lady Chronicles
  • AverageBro.com
  • Black Politics on the Web
  • Blacks 4 Barack
  • Blue Wave News
  • Brown Man Thinking Hard
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Democracy Now!
  • Democrats for Progress
  • Eclectablog
  • Extreme Liberal's Blog
  • FactCheck.org
  • Field Negro
  • FiveThirtyEight

G-S

  • GrannyStandingforTruth
  • Hello, Negro
  • Jack & Jill Politics
  • Latino Politico
  • Margaret and Helen
  • Melissa Harris Perry
  • Michelle Obama Watch
  • Mirror On America
  • Momma, here come that woman again!
  • New Black Woman
  • Obama Foodorama
  • Obama for America 2012
  • Positively Barack
  • Raving Black Lunatic
  • Sheryl Kaye's Blog
  • Sojourner's Place
  • Stuff White People Do

T-Z

  • Talking Points Memo
  • The Black Snob Feed
  • The Field
  • The Hill
  • The Mudflats
  • The Obama Diary
  • The only adult in the room
  • The Peoples View
  • The Reid Report
  • The Rude Pundit
  • The Starting Five
  • ThinkProgress
  • This Week in Blackness
  • Tim Wise
  • Uppity Negro Network
  • What About Our Daughters
  • White House Blog
  • Womanist Musings

Copyright © 2025 · Log in