Interrogating the Silence: An Artist’s Unflinching Look at Africa’s Hidden Wars

In my work, there is always him — the robed figure, an ever-present witness to history. Sometimes he stands among nature’s quiet majesty, sometimes in streets that hum with everyday life. But in my latest piece, he sits across from a soldier in a dim, tiled room. A pistol lies on the table. Blood stains the wall. A clock ticks behind him, frozen at a moment that will never move forward.

The affairs show my art persona in a Sudanese prison being interrogated, rendered in the blender cycle

This image is not fiction. It’s a reflection of the brutality that continues to unfold in Congo, Sudan, and other African nations — conflicts that rarely hold the global spotlight for long. Civilians are interrogated, displaced, or killed, their suffering buried under waves of international disinterest.

I created this piece not to shock, but to force stillness. To place the viewer in a room they’d rather not enter. To make them ask: What is happening here? And, more importantly: Why haven’t I been paying attention?

The Persona as Witness. In my art, the figure represents resilience, heritage, and the weight of cultural memory. Here, he is stripped of control but not of dignity. His layered robe — inspired by traditional African patterns — contrasts with the cold steel and military camouflage of his interrogator.

It’s the collision of my 7 artistic rules:

• Duality & Contrast in soft fabric vs. hard metal.

• Culture as Foundation in the patterns that refuse to disappear.

• Noise = Reality in the chaos of the room, the blood on the wall.

• Darkness as Persona in the deep shadows that swallow parts of the frame.

• Signs of Transition in the uncertainty of what comes next.

• Hyper-Realism Meets Abstraction in the lifelike setting that still feels dreamlike.

• Cinematic Immersion in the feeling that you’ve stepped into a scene mid-story.

The Real Violence, the Real SilenceThe Democratic Republic of Congo continues to endure one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II, driven by resource exploitation and militia violence. In Sudan, the civil war has forced millions into famine and exile. Yet these crises remain footnotes in Western media cycles.

As an African artist, I cannot look away. My role is to create visual records that refuse to be buried. This work is a challenge to the global audience: if you see this, you cannot unknow it.

And in that moment, you become a witness too.