Another Country

Childhood memories of a Malawian bubblegum game, and an adult life spent thousands of miles away from this reality, give the symbols in artist Samson Kambalu’s flags a uniquely personal presence

- Binwe Adebayo

Famed cultural studies theorist Stuart Hall once asked, ‘What is the black in black popular culture?’ Writing several decades ago, Hall’s question would re-emerge time and again as black – and particularly African – creatives struggled to find a space of their own and a language to express their particular experience of being alive.

For artist, author and Oxford University professor Samson Kambalu, the beginning of exploring these questions comes with an acceptance of a uniquely African perspective, which does not always adhere to our linear ideas of time, space and form. In his most recent exhibition Nyasaland/ Analysand, presented by Goodman Gallery, Kambalu reaches back into his childhood experiences to present a version of abstract art that is most true to his perceptions and ideas of Africa, and infuses this with his background in education.