Song for Africa

Artist Achamyeleh Debela Ethiopian, born 1949, active in United States since 1972

Date1990

MediumCibachrome print from digital image

Dimensionsheight and width: 39 x 29 in. (99.1 x 73.7 cm)
frame: 46 x 36 in. (116.8 x 91.4 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the William R. Roberson Jr. and Frances M. Roberson Endowed Fund for North Carolina Art

Object number2008.3

On View

Not on view

Label TextOriginally from Ethiopia, Debela has resided in Durham since 1990. The artist’s distance from his homeland, combined with ready access to cutting-edge technology in the United States, has created a lively experimental space within which he plays with diverse motifs and compositions, including those from Ethiopian liturgical arts as well as pan-African symbols—such as the kente cloths and the Akan akua’ba doll typically on view in the adjacent gallery.

Here the artist employs the framework of traditional Ethiopian paintings, composed in horizontal registers with richly decorated borders. His focus on well-known pan-African forms, such as the ankh ( ), speaks to the potency of this visual symbol as a marker of identity in the diaspora. Rich imagery fades in and out of focus, blurring the boundary between memory and actuality. Being “one of the migrant species,” Debela says, “has allowed [artists] the space to negotiate our experiences as Americans in terms of our [homeland] identities.”ProvenanceCreated United States, 1990; [Contemporary African Art Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2007.Published ReferencesElizabeth Harney, et al, Ethiopian Passages: Contemporary Art from the Diaspora (London/New York: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2003), illus. (color) 94, pl. 29, and 92.

“NKA Roundtable III: Contemporary African Art and the Museum,” in NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art 31 (Fall 2012), discussed 97–97, illus. (color) 105.
Exhibition HistoryBoston, MA, Boston Computer Museum, "SIGGRAPH Traveling Art Show," 1991.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, The Institute of Modern Art, "Talking outPost TISEA," [Third International Symposium on Electronic Art] December 5, 1992-January 23, 1993.

London, England, Whitechapel Art Gallery, "Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa," September 27-November 28, 1995; Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden, "Sju Berättelser," January 27-March 17, 1996; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (SoHo), New York, NY, mid-June-mid-September, 1996.

Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art, "Ethiopian Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora," May 2-October 5, 2003, illus. (color) 94, pl. 29.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Close to Home,” February 14–August 10, 2014.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Modern Pop: Modernism and Popular Arts in Kenya and Ethiopia" (Focus On Contemporary African Arts gallery), August 20, 2019-June 20, 2021.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined," March 24, 2025-December 1, 2025.
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