Artist: Adetola Wewe
Title: ÀWỌN ẸLẸYẸ (BIRD-MOTHERS)
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Date: 2015
With the painting Tola Wewe pays homage to The Mothers, as he begins a new season of work.

Matilda McCrear lived long enough to become a human bridge between Africa, American slavery, and the modern era. Born in West Africa around 1857, she was captured as a toddler and transported across the Atlantic aboard the Clotilda in 1860—the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans illegally into the United States. Her Yoruba name was Àbáké, meaning “born to be loved by all.” The facial scars on her left cheek, preserved in photographs, marked her as Yoruba. The voyage ...