This dynamic piece is one of my favorite collages by SLAY. Uhuru Sassa (pronounced A'-huru sa-sa) means Freedom Now. When I first saw this drawing, I was blown away. There's so much depth to his art work, and every intricate detail has meaning. In this drawing, he uses a collection of unrelated images and techniques in contiguous relationships to tell a harmonious story of the reality of his incarceration.
The picture begins, as all things, with the African man in the Egyptian or Pharoaic headpiece, because all history is a current event. He stares at the woman of life with concern, because she is not alarmed at the direction we're headed toward as a people with no repentance toward God. The penitentiary is a modern day slave ship for the hues of man, in which men are displayed as wild animals in a zoo. The smoke is the endless visions of free-dominion. Freedom picks her afro as she waits to become... herself. The more we grow, mature and ascertain in life, the more she is uncovered before us.
Freedom's Clothing
kilabu - books • Miaka - years • Moyo - heart • Mlango - door... that we must open or close • Mto - river... that we must cross • Mungo - God... that must be foremost and first in our lives • Mume - husband... who we must become as men of honor • Mke - wife, Mwenzi - companions • Mwalimu - teacher... for we all have something to give • Mwanafunzi - learner • Mwivi - thief... that we must watch for • Mtume - prophet... that we must watch the times and signs • Mfame - king... of which we possess the regality • Mkristo - Christian... that are like and of Christ • NGuve - strength... that we've bore throughout the time.
The Times
The Hebrew date Abib (Nisan) is upon Freedom, because this is the month that God brought Noah out of the Ark • 1863... the year the Emancipation Proclamation was effective • Feb. 21, 1965.. the day Malcolm X was assassinated • April 4, 1968... Martin Luther King, Jr was assasinated • Nov 4, 2008 Barack Obama was elected into Presidential Office
Uhuru Sassa, Freedom Now...
that we must possess all levels and dimensions
The winds of change blow down into the solitary mind where a vulnerable state of change erupts. The little men represent "thoughts." The hour glass measure the time encasing our prayers that faith is trying to free with the sledge hammer, which is symbolic of the Word of God. The thought pulling the money is "the love of money," the root of all evil. One bound by the bars is desperately trying to maintain his peace but so much is hindering him. The lower left is our brokenness as the thought labors for wholeness, oneness and completeness.
Love...
Cupid holds the arrows of love in her quivers and she's taken her cool off. Divine-selections strapped to her thigh. The screaming face with tears and sewn eyes means that sometimes love hurts and he's screaming for our dreams to be free... but you can't tell everyone your dream. The woman with the sewn mouth is saying "even a fool is wise in silence." With torn paper saying... see deeper into this piece, because these are just the small things I've seen in silence. Lastly, the keyhole with the eye peeking in means...
Unlock the mysteries... Freedom NOW!
Uhuru Sassa by SLAY
