“She has seen life”: Jola Adeniji’s art series “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”

Written for The Aquinian

(*artwork by Incé Husain)

Nigerian hyper-realistic artist Jola Adeniji portrays Black women in his art series “Diary of a Mad Black Woman”.

Set to premiere at the Charlotte Street Art Centre on March 17th and 18th, his Instagram teases at some paintings that will be showcased. There is an African woman with dark red eyelids and lips, her hair an updo of lush knots; a dancing woman with arched brows and intricate red earrings; a statuesque woman with big hair and a finger against her red mouth, blue designs swirling down her neck against white light that carves her shoulder.

“The regular Black woman that you see is just not ordinary,” says Adeniji. “She has experiences. She has seen life.”

Adeniji describes the inspiration for his art series to come from his observations of Black women across cultures going “all out”, embedding themselves into uncertainty to better their lives and powering through with independence and passion. He considers such willpower to be emblematic of Black women.

“It’s the passion for me, the drive, and the motivation that really strikes me,” says Adeniji. “I thought about it, that will. Who is a mad Black woman? What is she all about? What was her passion?”

He shares the story of a Nigerian woman he met who lost everything after her husband died. With in-laws who despised her and claimed all her husband’s property after his death, she was left to fend for herself and her four children. She ventured to the UK to start a new life, enduring menial cleaning jobs and harrowing racism. Slowly, she taught herself to sew and began crafting small goods to sell at local festivals, a pursuit that then bloomed into a prosperous fashion industry. Throughout, she retained her humility and kindness.

“The fact that people hated on her, the fact that her extended family on her husband’s side took everything from her, the fact that her children were suffering, the fact that it was all about her... no one could understand what she was feeling,” Adeniji says. “So those threats from other people... fuelled her passion and really drove her mad. It drove her nuts.”

He elaborates that the choice of the word “mad” in his series refers to “a good angry”. It means to hunger, to aspire, to do what you need to do; to push, to kick, to problem-solve. Adeniji hopes that his art encourages Black women to internalize their feats and take a rest.

“No matter how crazy you are, no matter how mad you are, you also just want to rest. [The art is] an opportunity to say “look, you’ve been doing good” or “you can keep going”.”

Adeniji says he had felt like an artist since he was a child, always delighting in “anything artistic”.

His process is spontaneous; he “just jumps into it”.

“I find that I am never ready,” says Adeniji. “I’m just going through with the process and enjoying the flow and learning everything that I have to learn.” ♦

Written using interview transcripts recieved from Guinevere Santaguida.

A modified version of this article appeared in The Aquinian on February 5th, 2023:

https://theaquinian.net/diary-of-a-mad-black-woman-comes-to-charlotte-street-arts-centre/