Go West and Grow Up with the Country

A combination of images and text, this piece presents multiple stories, inviting viewers to examine representations of Black identity and the various movements of resistance and migration.

Our lives are composed of many overlapping stories. Inspired by Keith Piper’s photomontage series titled ‘Go West Young Man’, this portrait draws from the lives of African descendants across several generations and countries. A combination of images and text, my work ‘Go West and Grow Up with the Country’ presents multiple stories, inviting viewers to examine representations of Black identity and the various movements of resistance and migration. It explores the black female body's historical, cultural, and political depiction.

© Melanie Issaka - Go west and grow up with the country.
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Go west and grow up with the country.

© Melanie Issaka - Image from the Go West and Grow Up with the Country photography project
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His story of us began in castles, waiting in chains to be put on boats to new worlds. Where newly stolen lands were in need of labour. We, like dragons, our wings clipped, like cattle, chained and packaged, were delivered to lands not our own.

© Melanie Issaka - Go west young man and grow up with the country.
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Go west young man and grow up with the country.

© Melanie Issaka - Stripped of our humanity, In chapels above, they prayed to a God that looked like us.
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Stripped of our humanity, In chapels above, they prayed to a God that looked like us.

© Melanie Issaka - United in our stride, With Joy in our tears, We, the caged Birds, sang.
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United in our stride, With Joy in our tears, We, the caged Birds, sang.

© Melanie Issaka - Image from the Go West and Grow Up with the Country photography project
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A commonwealth, they said. We are here because they were there. We came to join our mothers in the land that parented our homes.

© Melanie Issaka - Go west young man and grow up with your country.
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Go west young man and grow up with your country.

© Melanie Issaka - The fairest of them all, They marvelled at our performance. Spectacles they made of us, and of themselves.
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The fairest of them all, They marvelled at our performance. Spectacles they made of us, and of themselves.

© Melanie Issaka - Image from the Go West and Grow Up with the Country photography project
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With gold mines in our backyards and oil wells in our living rooms, we danced like we had diamonds at the meeting of our thighs.

© Melanie Issaka - A dream by those forgotten. We, the imagined future, Pictured ourselves in our own image.
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A dream by those forgotten. We, the imagined future, Pictured ourselves in our own image.

© Melanie Issaka - Our story is longer than has ever been told. Born, we the beautiful ones continue to grow.
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Our story is longer than has ever been told. Born, we the beautiful ones continue to grow.

© Melanie Issaka - Go west,
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Go west,

© Melanie Issaka - And grow up with the country.
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And grow up with the country.

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