PAN AFRICAN FLAG FOR THE RELIC TRAVELLERS' ALLIANCE (ASCENSION)

PAN AFRICAN FLAG FOR THE RELIC TRAVELLERS' ALLIANCE (ASCENSION) forms part of Relic Traveller: Phase 1, a multi-disciplinary project manifesting in performance, audio, moving image and prose.

Taking place across various landscapes and locations, the project builds upon a postcolonial perspective informed by technology, agency and the body, and narratives of migration. 

This speculative project considers the current social and political climate of our time; especially the rise of nationalism within the global West and tensions surrounding moments such as the United Kingdom’s ‘leave’ Brexit vote in 2016 for example. Meanwhile, the African Union’s African passport programme (also established in 2016) points toward the potential opening of boarders across a unified African continent in the future.

This is the first in an ongoing series flags that highlight African diasporic identity. This design features 54 stars representing the 54 countries of Africa. The colours green, black and red reflect the Union's land, its people, and the struggles the continent has endured; the field of yellow gold is a symbolic proclamation for a new day and prosperity. 

The Pan African colours have been configured into symbols and forms that are suggestive of various elements, 'ascension' features  a human figure, seemingly in flight. The work does not frame Pan African Futurism as a utopian vision of the African continent, but considers aspects of responsibility in relation to the hidden tremors of history.