Cleansing Ritual

Cleansing Ritual

Cleansing Rituals is a photography series that reimagines everyday African objects, the broom and the dustpan as powerful metaphors for purification, renewal, and resilience. In this work, the broom and dustpan are transformed into symbolic, superhero-like figures: • The male figure, adorned with traditional brooms, embodies cleansing, order, and moral authority. • The female figure, adorned with colorful dustpans, represents burden, responsibility, and the collective labor of restoration. Together, they personify the possibility of renewal in a world marked by corruption, exploitation, and environmental neglect. The series weaves together visual narratives that reflect on the human condition and the social landscape: • Children as Witnesses: Young figures gaze toward the broom and dustpan guardians like superheroes, symbols of both hope and vulnerability. Their playful innocence contrasts with the quiet weight of their surroundings. • The House of Corruption: Inside, figures exchange gestures of greed and self-interest. Outside, the cleansing guardians stand unnoticed, a metaphor for integrity left behind. • Collective Labor: In the background, children sweep and gather, representing the ordinary people whose work sustains society even as those in power turn away. The work contemplates the consequences of neglect and exploitation, not by naming a single place, but by speaking to a shared African experience. It questions leadership across all spheres - political, traditional, and communal for its complicity in abandoning collective well-being for personal gain. Yet Cleansing Rituals is not merely a critique. It is a poetic reminder that within African traditions lie the very tools and practices capable of guiding renewal. The broom and dustpan, though ordinary, carry profound symbolic weight: they are instruments of cleansing, protectors of the home, and guardians of order. Here, they are reimagined as silent heroes and overlooked, yet ever present as guides toward a more conscious and balanced future. Cleansing Rituals speaks of both loss and possibility. It reflects on how exploitation and neglect have deprived many of dignity and stability, yet it also envisions renewal through integrity, accountability, and care for the environment. At its heart, the project is a call for mindfulness, urging us to reconsider how we treat the land, the water, and one another. It is an African story told through African symbols, yet its resonance is universal.