THE STORY OF MY FAMILY - YASSMIN FORTE (MOZAMBIQUE) 2022
My parents fell in love on a dance floor in Quelimane, Mozambique.
He was stationed at the height of the Portuguese occupation of Mozambique, part of the armed forces, and my mother was a local Mozambican woman.
He was destined to return to Portugal.
With independence in 1975, the Frelimo Party (The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) ordered the Portuguese to leave the country within 24 hours.
He stayed and fell in love.
My images attempt to dissect and navigate the effects of colonialism and migration from my family's history. It addresses three aspects, family, migration and the story of Africans, using family archives and my images. I attempt to investigate how Africans have become the result of mixtures, migrations and colonisation, histories mixed and patterns repeated, and in this way, unpack my own African identity.
The collage exaggerates and emphasises this history; at times, family images are placed on top of the scenes from modern and remembered Mozambique in juxtaposing past and present. I used collage to construct a past and the perception of my own identity.
https://www.instagram.com/yassminforte_phoyos
https://gulbenkian.pt/en/news/yassmin-forte-wins-contemporary-african-photography-prize/
