Subscribe to our newsletter for our must-see exhibitions, artists, events and more here
Shop William Kentridge Prints here

Tomorrow, The United States of Africa

Hank Willis Thomas
Tomorrow, The United States of Africa, 2023
Mixed media including contemporary African National flags
Unframed: 214 x 423.5 cm

The series of quilts reimagines the flags of the states of Africa as source material for Willis Thomas’ ongoing quilt practice. Significant national symbols and colours are fragmented and rearranged into new constellations, using the folkloric quilt patterns of the American Underground Railroad as a guide. The titles are drawn from famous speeches or quotes from various Pan-Africanist leaders. “Forward then to Independence, To independence now. Tomorrow, the United States of Africa.” Kwame Nkrumah, then prime minister of Ghana, at the All-African People’s Conference in 1958. The landmark gathering drew nationalist leaders from across the continent; some would later become presidents. The quilt draws on the Flying Geese pattern, one of the many coded motifs believed to have been used in the underground railroad during the time of the American Civil War. It communicated to escaped slaves to take their direction, timing, and behavior from migrating geese. Since geese fly north in the spring, it was also the best time for slaves to escape.