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Nigerian Artist Fred Martins Honours Past African Heroes in Black History Month

In furtherance of his project on Africa’s struggles for freedom, Fred Martins has created a butterfly/moth series with human forms to symbolize freedom and power.

In an interview with Design Indaba, he explains that the butterflies symbolizes life in many cultures and expresses hope, change and freedom, while the fist represents power, bravery and unity, expressing “the suffering inflicted and the strength exhibited by the African ancestors who were ardent and concerned about protecting the future of Africa, and the message they tried to communicate to the present and future Africa.”

The Black History Month has over the decades created a forum that recognizes the legacy set by great African men and women who fought for their freedom. Perhaps Nigeria can pick up a moral from this in consideration of paying little attention to history, which the artist decries as “a case of suppression and moral depravity to deny the Nigerian or African child a knowledge that is supposed to shape him,” owing to the recent withdrawal of the course from Nigerian school curriculum.

One way of making certain that the labours of our heroes past should not be in vain is understanding our past to make way for a brighter future. Artists like Fred Martins have taken this up as a responsibility to pass down history and customs through their works, thereby preserving it.

Fred Martins lives in Lviv, Ukraine and is credited for his works on African freedom, global warming and feminism. In 2016, he was featured in CNN, Okay Africa, The Guardian and others for his Afro-comb Series- Orange, Black and Freedom.

Visit his website fredmartinx.com and follow on Twitter (@fredmartinx), Instagram (@fredmartinx) and Facebook.com/1fredmartinx.

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