Cultural Expressions of Resilience

This chapter explores Black women’s activism in relation to the arts. The Abasindi Women’s Cooperative was not only involved in the promotion of African and Caribbean art forms but its members were also creators of art. Abasindi women ‘laid claim to spirit’ and infused this notion into the music, songs, costume design, poetry, writing, photography and films they produced. We dismissed the notion that culture and the arts should be separated from politics as an artificial contrivance, and we not only used the arts to bring light to social justice campaigns, we simultaneously developed political strategies to highlight the marginalisation of African-Caribbean art forms. By placing Africa at the centre of these multiple means of cultural expression, we also identified ourselves as part of a broader anti-colonialist Pan-African struggle for recognition and representation. Through our community activism, we also ensured that local political struggles were infused by the celebration of African and Caribbean art.