Allan deSouza: Through the Black Country

Allan deSouza’s Through the Black Country

, or,

The Sources of the Thames Around the Great Shires of Lower England and Down the Severn River to the Atlantic Ocean

 reenacts and upends iconic colonial narratives of discovery in Africa. The exhibition is based on the expedition diaries of the Zanzibari crypto-ethnologist Hafeed Sidi Mubarak Mumbai, the fictional great-grandson of the historic figure, Sidi Mubarak Bombay—a formerly enslaved African who, upon gaining his freedom in India, returned to Africa and lead numerous British expeditions across the continent. In this installation, comprised of photographs, diary extracts, and sculptural works, Hafeed sets off to fulfill his great grandfather’s unfulfilled wish—to discover the fabled and elusive source of the River Thames.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.