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