With the love that we have for all things African, what we admire more than that are people who embrace their African Heritage. Jojo Abot is one artist who has not only embraced her African Heritage but has also found multi disciplines to express her explorations.
Jojo Abot is a Ghanaian artist expressing herself through music, film/photography, literature and performance art. FYFYA WOTO, meaning New Birth – New Discovery serves as the theme and title for her ongoing project exploring the SELF as a provocative tool in the discovery, exchange and evolution of the subject of IDENTITY. Through her work, Abot Investigates new forms of spirituality and expression as part of a growing global conversation around shared space, identity and spirituality that exists beyond the conventional bias of color, race, class or sexual orientation.
After wrapping up an exciting year in NYC as a member of the New Museum’s incubator program, NEW INC, Abot has spent the last year touring Australia, New Zealand and Africa while creating her first multimedia immersive piece titled “POWER TO THE GOD WITHIN” as a resident at the acclaimed National Sawdust also in NYC.
Abot has toured with the incredible legend, Ms Lauryn Hill in the past year. Playing shows at Radio City Music Hall, Greek theater and others along with Common, Seun Kuti and Stephen Marley.
Having performed at iconic venues such as the Apollo Theater, Times Square on New Year’s eve to a 1 million plus audience, Museum of Modern Art, Kennedy Center and Kings Theater among others, Abot continues to connect with the global audience.
A true cultural fusion and genre bender in both sound and artistic expression, Jojo Abot is poised to take the world by storm with her uniquely coined AFRO-HYNO-SONIC sound and otherworldly perspective.
Artist Statement
As an African coming to South Africa from the first African nation to gain independence from British colonial rule,Ghana, I realize now I had naive ideas about what freedom, liberty and equality truly mean globally. Having lived in places like NYC most of my life, I was aware of the provocations of my racial identity and the way it triggered those who found discomfort in my happiness and glow up. I learned that Melanin can often be seen as threatening but coming here really placed my body and identity into a whole new yet very familiar conversation on racially influenced bias and segregation which created an expected undertone for interaction with those different from me. I was suddenly on edge in a whole new way. It was all so blatant.
To constantly experience my body as a political tool started out intimidating but in this experience I have discovered it a strength..
Apart-ness – Apartheid
This idea of separation meant to cripple one group while elevating the other is quite audacious. I mean… How do you come to AFRICA and put up a sign reading “Europeans Only” that keeps us off our own land? Forcibly separating millions of people based on color while forbidding cross racial interaction and bonding. Displacement, disruption and division carried out legally and in plain daylight. One would wonder, Is there no shame left in this world? Going as far as specifically serving lower grade food to an entire group of people, depriving them of access to basic comforts, forcing them to learn in a language they do not desire to speak, beating, killing, destroying bodies, families and lives for your own gain while justifying this grave evil with bogus religion and science. Such epic audacious manipulation and theft which continues to this day. How can there be no anger? No bitterness? It lurks beneath the shadows like ghosts sitting heavily on my shadow. The Gods and ancestors are displeased. Still in agony from generational pain.
Controlled by fear of losing what was not theirs to be begin with, a minority chose hatred and separation as a pathway to maintaining control and wealth. Operating off apathy to other humans, cruelty was normalized just as we see it being done today. Separation creates isolated experience which in turn dulls empathy for those outside of our immediate world.
Seeing the effects of this gross injustice and the deeply rooted ways in which it affects my peers causes my mind to spin and my blood to boil. Yes we are angry. Angry over the incomplete dreams of our forefathers. Angry over the audacity of our greedy oppressors. Angry over the state of our world…
It’s difficult to even begin to reconcile all this and so I put my frustration and unresolved conflicts into song. Shedding the old rage to birth a new SELF that reaches inward for strength and reconciliation. My spirit possesses a firm resolve that while we waste energy and time seeking God outside, seeking a face we do not recognize, a face of a God who looks nothing like us, one who seems to believes we are lesser than, we distract ourselves from the power of the great God within us. The fearless, powerful God that runs through our veins and spirit. That which cannot be corrupted or destroyed.
NGIWUNKULUNKULU , which means I AM GOD, serves as a reminder of our identity as Godly beings with supernatural potential. It is alsoforme, a release of anger and frustration towards myself and the “white man”. A journey to clarity and purpose. An honest expression of my desires for my people, and a reminder of the divine nature of the feminine.
It is time for the black man to re-envision himself as super-powerful. Indestructible, free androoted from the core of the inner being. We must extend our hands beyond our immediate borders to build community and solidarity. Standing firmly on the strength of ancestral bonds and powers of beings who walked this earth with dignity, unimaginable spiritual strength and immense intellect unique to who we are yet connected to cultures worldwide. We must rediscover the SELF with love, compassion and purpose as an entry point to being able to extend that to life around us. Gracefully letting go of the weight our past in order to levitate and fly free. No longer shackled in mind, body or spirit.
Just as separation was the tool of destruction, we as black people and humans across this grand globe must come together in dialogue with an open mind and heart toheal. There is much progress to be made.We must rise to love and build ourselves. Remaining unafraid of our excellence and God nature, we must push boundaries and occupy spaces otherwise closed off to us in order to amplify our voices. We must speak up against evil and stand up for what is right. We must create new spaces where we are reminded of who we are and who we want to be. We must invest in generational wealth and the breaking of generational curses. We must reconnect the dots between us and our brothers and sisters in the diaspora. These are our greatest allies. This is our time and we are coming… POWER TO THE GOD WITHIN.
Jojo Abot Music
Check out more of Jojo’s photographic body of work here.
Original info on jojoabot.com