Africa 54 defines Africa

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Over the years social commentators have raised concerns on how the American and European media tend to address Africa as a country yet it is a continent with 54 countries.

A notable example is when creative rapper, Kanye West, referred Africa as country that has always been assisted by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  Through writings and different forms of the media, many a social commentator have addressed this issue explaining that Africa is a continent, not a country. The latest work is Ann Gollifer’s Africa 54, a series of paintings, which define Africa as a continent that has 54 sovereign states. The two-metre paintings describe Africa through the 54 respective African flags for each country. Each painting tells a different story and the flags have been conceptualised in a way that relates the stories.  The flags are placed next to each other according to their alphabetical order, starting with Algeria and Zimbabwe being the last one. Africa 54 vividly describes Africa as a continent with many countries, different backgrounds and how it came to be. The artwork strongly raises an issue of showing Africa as a continent, which has one of the biggest populations in the world.

Narrating to Arts and Culture how this issue has affected her, Gollifer leans back and takes a deep breath as she looks around her art studio, which is full of artworks and collections. “I decided to discuss this issue of Africa as a continent after experiencing people from outside Africa labelling it a country. I stretched a two- metre canvas as I started working on the first painting of all the 54 flags,”

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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