Shadows of Resilience

Shadows of Resilience explores the impact of Cuba’s colonial past on the present daily lives of Cubans. This project aims to spark conversations on loss, legacy, contributions, and agency of one's life and its role in a government-controlled society.

"Shadows of Resilience" explores the complex history of Cuba’s colonial past and its impact on the Afro-Cuban communities in present-day Cuba. Through photographs and interviews with subjects, the project seeks to investigate and understand the influences emanating from the historical relationship between Cuba and the World. It aims to spark conversations on loss, legacy, contributions, and agency of one's life and its role in a government-controlled society.

How do the cultural and economic exports of a country not reflect the identities of those from whom those exports were exploited?

From the coffee and sugar plantations to rhythms and spirituality, my exploration of Regla is rooted in a personal reflection on my Nigerian ancestry, the forced migration and colonial violence that link West Africa to the Caribbean; as the suppressed ancestral languages, rituals, and identities reemerge through the resilience of Afro-Cuban people. This project examines a Cuba that is often overlooked in mainstream visual media: one that centers on the daily lives and resilience of Afro-Cubans, who have profoundly influenced the country’s economic exports and cultural vignettes, which are vital to Cuba’s identity. From its ports to plantations, it seeks to question and reconcile the fragmentation of diasporic identity caused by migration, and to reclaim what was never truly lost.