Visions of Resistance: African Women Artists

Sungi Mlengeya (Tanzania)

Mediums: Acrylic painting on canvas
Based in: Kampala, Uganda

Sungi Mlengeya’s minimalist yet emotionally rich portraits of Black women are set against vast white space. The void becomes metaphor for liberation from societal expectations. Self-taught and formerly in finance, she began painting full-time in 2020. Featured at Art Basel Miami (2021), her figurative painting practice resonates globally.

Asemahle Ntlonti (South Africa)

Mediums: Sculpture, performance, installation
Based in: Cape Town

A founding member of the iQhiya Collective, Ntlonti reflects on the residue of apartheid and Black grief. Works like Kukho Isililo Somntu (2016) used soil, clay and fabric as textured memorials. Her practice blends trauma and tenderness, asking how we remember and embody loss.

Michèle Magema (DRC / France)

Mediums: Video, photography, installation
Based in: Paris

Born in Kinshasa and raised in France, Magema confronts colonial archives. In Oyé Oyé (2004), she mirrored Mobutu’s parades in silent repetition, destabilising power and spectacle. Exhibited at the Pompidou, Havana and Dakar Biennales, her work is central to feminist black art discourse.

Ato Malinda (Kenya / Diaspora)

Mediums: Performance, video, ceramics
Also known as: Alex Mawimbi

Ato Malinda is a multidisciplinary Kenyan artist whose work explores the hybridity of African identity. Through installations, performance, and conceptual projects like On Fait Ensemble, Ato unpacks how cultural memory, identity, and institutional narratives intersect across geographies and time.

Her research on African objects was conducted at the Smithsonian Institution in 2015, but her artistic focus is not on objects themselves. Instead, her work interrogates how identity is constructed and mediated in the postcolonial African experience — a reflection of layered histories, diasporic tensions, and lived realities.

Zeinixx (Senegal)

Real name: Dieynaba Sidibé
Mediums: Graffiti, muralism, poetry
Based in: Dakar

Recognised as Senegal’s first female graffiti artist, Zeinixx transforms public walls into declarations of resistance. Her bold murals address gender equity, education and Black pride. Also a spoken-word poet and educator, she empowers young women through art and activism.

Final Reflections

These five artists are rewriting art history from within. Their work spans acrylic painting, sculpture, video, performance and muralism, yet what unites them is purpose: reclaiming narrative sovereignty. They transform silence into layered voices, reshaping contemporary African art with resilience and vision.