Africa and Ukraine: art, sovereignty and solidarity

Three years ago Kyiv's elegant Khanenko Museum, home to the largest collection of global art in Ukraine, suffered extensive damage in the first wave of missile attacks on the city by Russia. The famous glass ceiling collapsed and windows shattered, but luckily the collections, which include Byzantine icons and Islamic artwork, were unharmed, having been safely evacuated to museums across Europe.

In a testament to the spirit and determination of the Ukrainian people, the museum was quick to reopen, becoming a local community hub for residents, artists and families in the aftermath of the attack, even as the city continues to suffer bombardment. Some of the glass fragments from the initial bombing were turned into brooches by a local goldsmith and gifted to local residents.

Now, its rooms are once again filled with colour and life. Africa Direct, a landmark exhibition bringing together 40 works from 18 African countries and spanning two centuries, has opened in the restored museum, in a gesture of artistic solidarity between two regions that both know the price of conflict and the value of resilience. Africa Direct invites visitors to take a deeper look at Africa's growing presence in global culture, and at the unexpected kinship between its post-colonial struggles and Ukraine's fight for sovereignty.

Curated by Yulia Fil and Daria Sukhostavets, and initiated by deputy museum director Hanna Rudyk, this exhibition is Ukraine's first ever on art from the African continent. It includes artwork from the private collection of Ukrainian couple Tetyana Deshko and Andriy Klepikov, who worked in African public health for over two decades.

In many museums throughout Europe the works on display are behind glass, leaving viewers to observe from a distance. The curators of Africa Direct have instead chosen to place the works on simple wooden freight boxes marked "Fragile" - a perhaps slightly tongue-in-cheek statement on the journey the art has undertaken in traversing continents and conflicts.

Among the 40 artworks on display is a terracotta vessel, made by women of Nigeria's Dakarkari people for funerary purposes. The carved face is in perpetual shock, eyes wide, eyebrows poised and mouth open as though caught in a silent scream. Its expression feels earned - the vessel has watched over centuries of death and loss, and now rests in a city once again shadowed by war and destruction.

Likewise, the traditional African weapons lent to the Khanenko Museum by the National Museum of the History of Ukraine are a stark reminder that conflict lies at the heart of many African countries' histories and struggles for independence. Objects that once embodied protection and power, they take their place in this exhibition recast as symbols of endurance.

Diplomatic ties strengthe

Before the full-blown invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, diplomatic relations between Ukraine and African nations had been limited. Ukraine had only 10 embassies across the continent. Though many African countries recognised Ukraine's independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, in the 30 years since Ukraine sent few senior ministers to African countries until then foreign minister Dymtro Kuleba made the first of a series of tours in October 2022; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went to South Africa in April 2025. "Its diplomatic history with the continent was zero," Ovigwe Eguegu, a Nigerian-based policy analyst, told Deutsche Welle.

Umaro Sissoco Embaló, until 26 November president of Guinea-Bissau, became the first African leader to visit Ukraine during the invasion, in October 2022 when he was chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Since then Ukraine has ramped up its diplomatic engagement with African countries. It has opened six new embassies in countries including Ghana, Rwanda, Botswana and Mozambique, with four more planned. The blockade of key Black Sea ports devastated Ukraine's agricultural sector and led to a shortage of 30m tons of grain reaching Africa. Ukraine has been rebuilding its export capacity and trade links with Africa, and sent 10m tons of grain to the continent in 2024.

"Ukraine realised that Africa is very, very important when it comes to building a strong position in the United Nations, in particular the General Assembly, because Africa presents the largest voting bloc of any continent," Ovigwe said. In this spirit of renewed connection and mutual support, Africa Direct resonates not just as a cultural art exchange, but as a reminder of shared resilience and the ever-strengthening bonds that unite Ukraine and the African continent.

A celebration of hope and healing

Not all of the objects on display reference death and destruction: there is hope, healing and celebration of life. Hanging near the funerary vessel is a colourful angel painted on the parchment of an early 20th-century Christian Ethiopian healing scroll, who protects all who view him with his intense gaze.

An elegantly carved wedding stool from Kenya embodies the joy and anticipation of this rite of passage - a celebration of life that, while different in tone from funerary customs, is no less steeped in tradition.

Nearby, the bold geometric patterns of South African artist Esther Mahlangu's paintings and the raw clay figures of Senegalese sculptor Seyni Awa Camara bring the viewer away from traditions of centuries past into the present moment. These vivid, bold pieces unmistakably speak of life, not of death.

In particular, Ghanaian performance artist Adelaide Damoah is renowned for using her body as the starting point for many of her paintings, leading to unique depictions of movement, form and energy that capture the shared human experience of being alive. Rwanda's Christian Nyampeta uses painting, sculpture and other media to explore concepts including resilience and recovery in a post-colonial context.

When viewed together, the works on display seem to mirror Kyiv itself: fractured, repaired and defiantly alive, reminding visitors that art is not merely a record of the past but a living dialogue between cultures, histories and lived experiences.

The sombre shadows cast by memorial vessels, weapons and funerary ceramics are counterbalanced by current, genre-breaking art that radiates unity, creativity and healing. The exhibition underscores that life persists even in the shadow of conflict, whether in 19th-century West Africa or in present-day Kyiv.

Walking through the exhibition, viewers follow a path through historical artefacts to contemporary artworks. They may differ in terms of time period or medium, but there is more that unites these artworks than separates them. Images of the human body in motion, the realistic detail etched into terracotta and clay, the geometric energy of Mahlangu's patterns, and the gestures of healing angels all point to a shared truth: across continents and centuries, it is through culture and creation that humans express resilience, hope and community.

Statement of solidarity

In this sense, Africa Direct is more than an exhibition. It is a statement of solidarity, a bridge between two regions marked by struggle but also bound by creativity, survival and dignity.

For Ukrainian audiences living under siege, and for all who come to the museum, the exhibition is a reminder that beauty, joy and reflection persist even amid hardship. It is also a testament to the universal power of art to foster understanding, connection and empathy, encouraging visitors to consider how cultures can inform, uplift and sustain one another.