The Africa Re-Union, a landmark artistic initiative, is to be unveiled at the FNB Art Joburg, transforming the fair into a stage of reclamation and imagination, where art became manifesto and memory became movement. It reverses the context of the infamous 1884 Berlin Conference — where Africa was carved and divided without consent — by restoring the continent as author of its own story and architect of its own destiny.
Conceived and co-created by pan-African thinker and founder of Brand Africa, Thebe Ikalafeng, realised on canvas by South African artist Mark Modimola, and anchored in history by Professor Kwesi DLS Prah, the Africa Re-Union is not simply an artwork but a provocative declaration to reimagine the African story and history.
The monumental 3m x 2m canvas inverts Africa—literally and philosophically—using the Equal Earth projection to restore the continent’s true scale and dignity. Rendered without borders, it corrects centuries of cartographic distortion that made Africa appear small, coinciding with the African Union’s recent call to rectify the misrepresentation of Africa in global maps.
At the heart of the work stands a round table — because here there is no hierarchy, every voice matters equally. Seated are some of the diverse and impactful voices that have shaped Africa’s past and are re-imagining its future: Ghana’s founding president Kwame Nkrumah, Kenyan environmental advocate Wangari Maathai, South Africa’s Nelson Mandela, the frontline independence leaders Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda, host of hte founding of the OAU, Haile Selassie, Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau’s Amílcar Cabral, Senegalese thought leaders Léopold Senghor and Cheikh Anta Diop, proponent of the United States of Africa, Muammar Gaddafi, Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, youth activist Zulaikha Patel, the diaspora W.E.B. Du Bois, Dambisa Moyo and freed slave Sojourner Truth, South African sanusis, South African singer, Mirriam Makeba, the first artist to address the United Nations in 1963, cultural activist and sanusi, Credo Mutwa, pan-African advocate for a brand-led renaissance and convenor, Thebe Ikalafeng, and advocate of the African renaissance, former South African president, Thabo Mbeki. Their presence affirms that Africa’s story has always had authors—even when unrecognised. It’s a gathering of the diaspora, the enslaved whose voices were stolen, the revolutionaries and artists, the freedom fighters and feminists, writers, sanusis and youth across private and public sector and the civil service. Together, they embody the unfinished conversation of Africa’s identity, memory and destiny.
One chair is left empty at the table. It is the most important seat of all — a call to action. It belongs to the unborn child who will inherit this Africa, the ancestor whose spirit still hovers, the diaspora longing to remain rooted, and every African alive today who must rise, sit, and take their rightful place at the table of history. The empty chair is not absence; it is invitation.
In a symbolic act of permanence, the original canvas will not be sold. Ikalafeng has instead gifted it to the UNISA Art Gallery, ensuring the work lives where Africa’s future is being studied and shaped. At the largest university on the continent, Africa Re-Union will be preserved not as a commodity, but as a covenant — a manifesto for generations to come. Only 2063 signed limited reproductions will be made available to ensure the conversation goes far. The number is a reminder of the AU agenda 2063 for an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa.
“The Africa Re-Union is not a return to the 1884 Berlin Conference table, but the setting of our own table—equal, sovereign, and unapologetically African. It is both remembrance and declaration: Africa is whole again. This time, no one will define us but us,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, Conceptual Author and Chief Curator of the Africa Re-Union.
“For me, Africa Re-Union is about shifting the canvas of our imagination. It’s to challenge how we see ourselves and how the world sees us — not as fragmented, diminished, or peripheral, but as whole, central and sovereign. This work is both a mirror and a map, and reflects our past, but points us toward a future we must author ourselves,” says Mark Modimola, Visual Artist of the Africa Re-Union.
“Johannesburg has always been a city of convergence, where Africa meets the world. To host the Africa Re-Union at FNB Art Joburg affirms our city’s role as a crucible of ideas, creativity and cultural leadership. This is more than an artwork — it is a call to re-centre Africa in history and in the future,” said Vuyisile Mshudulu, Director of Arts, Culture and Heritage for the City of Johannesburg.
The Africa Re-Union will be unveiled in a live performance at the Joburg Art Fair opening night, led by celebrated actor Aubrey Pooe and acclaimed poet Napo Mashiane, with costumes designed by award-winning wardrobe stylist, Sheli Masondo. This performance re-imagines the infamous 1884 Berlin Conference, but this time with African agency, voice, and vision at the table.
The Africa Re-Union, launched in partnership with the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) and supported by Brand South Africa, the Africa Re-Union comes at a historic moment. At a time when the African Union has called for the world to redress centuries of distorted representations of Africa’s size in global maps, and as the continent prepares to host its first-ever G20 Summit in 2025, the initiative is a milestone in Africa’s growing agency on the international stage.
The Africa Re-Union is a timely reminder that Africa’s voice, creativity and unity are central to creating a Better Africa for a Better World.
