AKILI NI NYWELE - An installation/exhibition

Akili ni Nywele is a public photography installation/exhibition that reimagines African heritage not as a relic of the past, but as an active blueprint for shaping future identities. The project responds to the growing dominance of homogenised global aesthetics and the risk of indigenous visual languages (in this case, hair) becoming erased or simplified. Rather than treating heritage as something fixed in the past, the project positions heritage as an evolving resource that can be used to actively construct new futures.

The exhibition explores the idea that the future is an ongoing conversation that isn’t set in stone but is being actively shaped by the decisions we make right now. The way Mutua documents African hairstyles looks at the past hairstyles as a blueprint for the future in the understanding that what is futuristic is what has always been for us Africans and indigenous communities.

I present this exhibition in collaboration with Henry Robinson who is a Jamaican born, British artist whose work sheds light on the multiplicity of the Black experience. Together we present a different view of the same subjects, him through film photography in color, contrasting to my black and white close up portraits. We hope to show that different decisions we make to capture this project give different ways to view the same subject matter.

We’re going to be inclusive to visually impaired people by having nfc chips for every photo linking to audio descriptions of each image in detail so a visually impaired person can ‘see’ the image for themselves.

LOCATION : HELTZ HOUSE, NGARA. (Opposite Kwa Chief/Police)

DATES : 05 September, 2026 - 03 October, 2026

TIME : 12 - 7pm Tue - Thursday. 12 - 8pm Friday - Sunday (Closed Mondays)

Henry Robinson is a Jamaican born and bred, British visual artist currently based in East Africa.. His practice operates at the intersection of fashion and documentary photography, where he constructs a visual language that interrogates and reimagines the boundaries of both disciplines. His diverse experiences in film and photography across the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, and Africa have shaped a deeply exploratory artistic vision. Alongside collaborations with partners such as Puma, Spotify, Google, Porticus and Red Cross, Robinson’s work has been featured in the pages of Plantain and Prazzle magazines. He has participated in exhibitions in London, Kingston, and Kampala, including his debut solo exhibition at Afropocene Capsule Gallery. Through his lens, he aims to shed light on the multiplicity of the Black experience, foregrounding its beauty and nuance, and inviting viewers to reflect on the stories that shape it.