The Queen and The Black Eyed Squint

The Queen and the Black-Eyed Squint re-collects and re-activates three moments in the lives of two real, and one fictional, Ghanaian women at different moments in time. 

On 4th March 1957 Monica Amekoafia was crowned the first Miss Ghana. Her prize was a visit to London, which was filmed in a Pathé newsreel. 

In 1967, Asante’s mother was captured in a photo with two other women. The photo, taken in a West African Student Union space in London, sees the women posing in front of a map of the world. 

In 1977 Ama Ata Aidoo's debut novel Our Sister Killjoy was published. Also known as Reflections from a Black-Eyed Squint, Aidoo’s novel follows the story of Sissie, a young educated Ghanaian woman, who goes to Europe to ‘better’ herself and describes what she sees.

Presented as a life-sized photographic prints and a series of video works, the work brings the moments into the present through place, embodiment and scale. Exploring belonging and cultural memory and amnesia, Asante takes on the roles of her mother, Sissie and the beauty queen and visited various sites including sites in Newcastle, North Kensington in London with writer, film maker and Chair of the Institute of Race Relations Council of Management Colin Prescod. Upcoming sites include visit to Glasgow and Ghana. 

The Queen and the Black Eyed Squint has been shown at Starless Midnight at BALTIC, Gateshead (2017/18); Body Politics, Troppenmuseum Amdsterdam (2018); Get Up Stand Up Now, Somerset House, London (2019) and Creating Interference & Cream Screen event - Go Back and Get it: Seeking Sankofa, Regent Street Cinema, London (2019).