Kapwani Kiwanga's 'Ujamaa' Explores Belief, Colonial Memory, and Socialist Utopia at Ferme du Buisson

Kapwani Kiwanga's solo exhibition 'Ujamaa' at Ferme du Buisson (April 24 – October 9, 2016) investigates collective belief systems and their role in power, liberation, and alienation. The artist draws on anthropology, history, magic, sociology, botany, and theology to examine pre- and postcolonial Tanzanian history. The show features two main threads: the magical powers attributed to plants and Julius Nyerere's Ujamaa concept, a form of African socialism outlined in the 1967 Arusha Declaration. In the first room, potted plants on wooden plinths (Nursery, 2016) reference lunar calendar gardens historically tended by so-called witches, with each plant embodying stories of resistance and legend. A monumental sisal drying structure (White Gold: Morogoro, 2016) highlights sisal's economic importance in Tanzania and East Africa since the 1960s. The exhibition also recalls Kinjeketile 'Bokero' Ngwale, a healer who sparked the 1905 Maji-Maji rebellion against German colonial forces by distributing a protective potion. Through texts, songs, slides, fabrics (kanga), and documentaries, Kiwanga traces the transmission of collective memory and the realization of an ideological utopia.